Kentucky’s junior U.S. Senator Rand Paul says he’d prefer to keep tax rates the same, but he’d vote for a partial increase to avert the fiscal cliff. The republican hopes his party can compromise on cutting defense spending and democrats can compromise on entitlement reform to lower spending enough to prevent a tax increase overall. But, if he’s pushed to the edge of the fiscal cliff he says he’d vote for a partial tax increase although it isn’t ideal.
“I don’t support it as a tactical way to go about this, because I think all of the tax rates should be protected,” said Paul. “We’ve had these for ten years, it’s going to be a massive tax increase with money taken from the private economy and it will be harmful. “
Paul sincerely believes taxes shouldn’t increase during a time of slow economic growth. He uses England as an example of what can go wrong if taxes go up on top wage earners.
“In England last year they raised taxes on millionaires and guess what? They went from 16,000 millionaires to 6,000,” Paul said. “People either moved or changed their ways that they took their income, for their income to drop.”
However, a new study from Lloyds TSB International cited in an RTE article, and many other publications, claims that 22% of millionaires in the United Kingdom are plotting a move but two-thirds of the millionaires cite the climate as main reason for moving.
Finally Paul adds that he doesn’t know what type of package will come up at the last minute, but he wants to preserve rates for as many people as possible.