The United States should abolish the Capital Gains Tax.

I proudly negate the resolution Resolved: The United States should abolish the capital gains tax. Framework: Economic benefits. J.D. Foster from the Heritage Foundation states the one overarching goal of tax reform is achieving a stronger economy. Since this is a tax reform resolution, prefer economic impacts. Our sole contention is political conflict Subpoint A: Unpopularity Frank Newport from Gallup News in April 2017 finds more than six in 10 average Americans believe upper-income households pay too little, and as a result Vanessa Williamson from the Brookings Institute in September 2017 state tax cuts for businesses and the upper class are extremely unpopular. In January 2012, Scott Clement of the Washington Post finds 52% of Americans believe the capital gains tax is not high enough, and are against tax cuts for the rich. As a part of their campaign promises, Daniel J. Mitchell from International Liberty in March 2017 writes Democrats advocate for higher capital gains tax rates, and view lower capital gains taxes as a loophole for the wealthy. Subpoint B: Midterms Brent Budowsky from The Hill in November 2017 states the precedent-setting unpopularity of the recent GOP tax bill is likely to cause a landslide victory for Democrats in midterms, and Clare Foran from the Atlantic in November 2017 predicts the Democrats will win both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the upcoming election. David Rogers from Politico in December 2017 finds Democrats are already talking about repealing and replacing big pieces of the Republican overhaul. Impacts: Danny Vinik from Politico writes in November 2017 contrary to what Republicans state, the GOP tax plan is likely to make taxes even more complicated, and forcing Democrats to reinstitute the capital gains tax the affirmative is trying to abolish and change the Republican tax bill leads to an even worse over-complication of the tax system. Chris Edwards from Time News in April 2016 outlines two negative impacts of a complicated tax system: Increased avoidance and evasion: We see that the US has the most complex corporate tax code in the world. As a result, people exploit loopholes which spawns fraudulent return filing of taxes. Undermines financial planning: The complex tax code affects financial decision making of American families, for example with retirement savings and payments on education. MJ Lee from CNN in January 2017 finds repealing bills like Obamacare in Congress is difficult and time-consuming, which leads to serious gridlock and waste of congressional time. By overcomplicating the tax code with an additional bill the Democrats will repeal, the Affirmative exacerbates congressional gridlock. Jonathan Weisman from the New York Times in July 2013 outlines 2 negative impacts of gridlock: Drop-Dead Dates: On January 1st of 2013, Congress couldn"t meet their deadlines and let a payroll tax cut expire, increasing taxes for virtually all workers until Congress could finally get around to fixing the bill. With more gridlock, we see more missed deadlines and more mistakes like this being perpetuated. Case Clog: With more gridlock comes less policies, and less policies means fewer issues being dealt with in a timely manner. The slower our Congress moves, the less long and short-term issues that they can deal with, which means less beneficial policies like healthcare, social security, education, emergency services, etc. Although the affirmative advocates for abolishment of the capital gains tax, we only see the tax being re-implemented after the Democrats win the midterms. The impact of this bureaucracy is a more complicated tax code and increased congressional gridlock. The capital gains tax is a political issue: let"s talk politics.