Er what? The top marginal tax bracket is only 37%, and no one will pay that percentage on all their income. Perhaps you misunderstand how marginal tax rates/brackets work?
I was very tax-inefficent a few years ago, and my effective tax rate was still under 25%. Usually it's under 20%, even though my income does sometimes put me in into the tax brackets that are in the 30s.
If you're paying 40% of your income in taxes, you're either a) doing something exceptionally wrong, or b) one of a very small, sub-1% group of people who need to do super tax-inefficient things on a regular basis for some reason.
> All of those things can be done more efficiently. Drug prices, crappy mega defense contractors, welfare work traps, etc.
How? That's the meat of the question and problem here. It's easy to say "government is inefficient". It's a lot harder to identify what those inefficiencies actually are, and come up with a plan to reduce or eliminate them. Simply saying that certain things in government are inefficient is not useful.
Perhaps you forget that state taxes exist. Add in sales tax after that. Then, perhaps, recall that property taxes exist.
Can you be a bit more specific? I mean, I can use that "argument" everywhere.
* Pointing to a government building "there is clearly a ton of waste"
* Pointing to a car "there is clearly a ton of waste"
* Pointing to a rock "there is clearly a ton of waste"
2. All of those things can be done more efficiently. Drug prices, crappy mega defense contractors, welfare work traps, etc.
3. People eat themselves to death. RFK is going after this problem.
4. I'm in favor of simplifying the tax code and charging a flat tax to corporations, ending tax havens. We should end the tyranny of the shareholder and start rebuilding the American worker.