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The U.S. Public Debt went from roughly $1 Trillion in FY 1981 to about $15 Trillion today in FY 2009. The top marginal tax rate was cut from 70% to 50% in 1981 and then to 28% in 1986. It was raised to 31% in 1990...and then to 39.6% in 1992. It was gratuitously cut yet once again in 2001 back to the present 35%. Dan Rostenkowski (D) was the democrat chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee during the Reagan cuts of 1981 & 1986 (70% down to 28%)...and also during the Bush (the father) increase in 1990 (to 31%)...as well as the Clinton increase in 1992 (to 39.6%). William Marshall Thomas (R) was the House Ways & Means Committee chairman in 2001, when the Bush/Cheney White House cut the 8-year Clinton rate back to 35%. Charles Rangel (D) is presently the House Ways & Means Committee Chairman...and he was present during every tax cut for the wealthy and tax increase for the Middle Class since the Reagan years. I believe that the top rate must be returned to at least 70% (above $350,000 in taxable income), i.e., where it was in FY 1981 (it was 91% prior to 1964). I believe that the bottom marginal rate must be a flat rate of 10% (below $350,000 in taxable income)...it was 11% in FY 1981...was raised to 15% in 1986---and a 10% rate was added to the 15% rate in 2001. The ratio of top to bottom marginal rates was 7:1 in 1913 when The Revenue Act of 1913 was signed into law as a result of the ratification of the XVIth Amendment in 1913 (the Constitutional Amendment having been introduced by a republican president and a republican-controlled congress in 1909 to replace import tariffs and strike a deal with the $Billionaires of the early 20th Century). I believe that two rates above and below $350,000 (i.e., 70% & 10% or a ratio of 7:1) would accomplish several important positive fiscal/financial outcomes: 1. Middle Class small businesses would multiply---leading to accelerated economic & jobs growth and reduced unemployment INSIDE the United States for Middle Class Americans. After all, 70% of the U.S. economic base is small businesses (i.e., taxable incomes below $350,000) INSIDE the United States---and NOT OUTSIDE the U.S. where corporations & banks hang out and hire their employees (and where corporations & banks AVOID paying U.S. income taxes)...e.g., China, Jamaica, the Philippines, India, Mexico, Central America et al. 2. Multiplication of Middle Class small businesses would result in an expanded income tax base at the 10% level (something that Reagan/Bush-the-son "trickle-down" promised but never delivered...neither in the 1980's nor in the 2000's). 3. The combination of 1 & 2, above---plus the 70% top marginal rate above $350,000---would wipe out the annual federal budget deficit...which is getting totally out of hand! 4. The combination of 1, 2 & 3, above, COULD result in Middle Class small business health care cooperatives---thus cancelling out the massive health care DIVERSION that is presently sweeping through Congress, the White House (and so called town hall meetings) like wildfire! In other words, the greatest issue facing America today is NOT health care...but rather the UNDERTAXED privileged class (35%) and the OVERTAXED Middle Class (up to 35%). QUESTION: What do you think, Mary? Am I right, wrong...or somewhere in between?