Rob Reiner is stoking the fires of tax increases on the rich (because you know, taxing the rich has no side effects that will detrimentally affect the state) by his new initiative to fund universal preschool. According to the Sacramento Bee, Meathead's proposal would impose a "1.7 percent tax hike on individuals with taxable income topping $400,000 and couples exceeding $800,000. That means people earning $500,000 a year would pay an additional $8,500 in income taxes while couples with combined income of $1 million would pay $17,000. It would require approval by a simple majority."
Like last year's proposal that the rich would be responsible for mental health, this proposal that the rich are responsible for preschool is very obscene. The disparate treatment of high income earners in this state reminds me of the jaw-dropping statistic that the top four hundred income earners in the nation pay approximately 1.8 percent of the tax revenue. And its the rich that are accused of living on the backs of the poor!
Of course the Sacramento Bee categorized the future preschool envisioned by Reiner as "free," i.e., no cost. This is of course a lie, just as anything funded by taxes is not free, but merely unpriced.