Moment of Clarity

I was in the shower, one of the planet's best thinking spots, mulling over the latest chapter in the saga of the bailed-out financial institutions when I had what my wife, The Lovely and Talented Cathy (TM) so eloquently calls a "brain cascade". That's what happens when one thought leads to another, then another, eventually leading to an epiphany of varying scale from "cool" to "OMFG!"

The thoughts that added to the cascade were that the last bonus I got, my stay bonus when I got laid off last year, had 42% sucked off the top by the Feds and that when I did my income tax this year the unemployment insurance I got was taxable income on my form 1040. Add hot water, soap and a major case of hamster brain...

The two ideas that sprang to mind were these. First, make any bonus awarded to anyone with a base salary less than $50,000 per year taxable as if it were a regular paycheck. No more getting just over half, just tax it as if it was a regular weekly/bi-weekly/monthly paycheck. This would put more money into the economy by keeping the bonus in the hands of the employee, not the Feds. The best part is that if some greedy corporate bastard tries to dodge the law by paying a CEO $50k a year with a $50 million bonus, it gets taxed like they make $50 million A MONTH!

Idea #2 was either the PR move of the year for any Republican or the ultimate "gotcha" for any Democrat. Introduce a bill making public Unemployment Insurance exempt from federal tax, retroactive to tax year 2008. This will provide a small reduction in the tax bills of those who need it most and will stimulate the economy of a record number of Americans by cutting taxes. Republicans can use it as a centerpiece of the "cut taxes is the only answer" BS they spout, and Democrats can just say, "You want tax cuts so damned bad, here you go!"

I wonder if this could gain any traction?