Eight months ago, that is.

From Bloomberg, “Rangel Plans Push to Cut Top Corporate Tax Rate to 28 Percent: “(Bloomberg) — New York Representative Charles Rangel said he’s revising his tax overhaul proposal to reduce U.S. corporate tax rates to 28 percent, down from the current rate of 35 percent.”

That’s November 15, 2008. And now, July 15, 2009.

Bloomberg, “House Plans to Tax Millionaires to Fund U.S. Health-Care Plan“: “The surtax on wealthier Americans would be imposed based on adjusted gross income, meaning it would also apply to capital gains and dividends, which are currently taxed at a 15 percent rate. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said lawmakers targeted high earners because it ’causes the least amount of pain on the least amount of people.’”

As we know, 60 percent of all small businesses file as individuals, so along with tax increase in capital gains and dividends, businesses would also see a major tax increase.

Impressive serpentine policymaking, though.

An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal builds on the Tax Foundation report we cited yesterday about the effect of a income tax “surtax” to pay for health care. In “The Small Business Surtax,” the Journal notes the fact that the majority small businesses — including manufacturers — file their taxes as individuals, so Rep. Charlie Rangel’s proposed tax increase would hit jobs creators the hardest.

Another implication of the Rangel plan is that America’s successful small businesses would pay higher tax rates than the Fortune 500, and for that matter than most companies around the world. The corporate federal-state tax rate applied to General Electric and Google is about 39% in the U.S., and the business tax rate is about 25% in the OECD countries. So the U.S. would have close to the most punitive taxes on small business income anywhere on the globe…[snip]

A new study by the Kaufman Foundation finds that small business entrepreneurs have led America out of its last seven post-World War II recessions. They also generate about two of every three new jobs during a recovery. The more the Obama Democrats reveal of their policies, the more it’s clear that they prize income redistribution above all else, including job creation and economic growth.

The House Democrats are expected to release their health care legislative package today. Will jobs creation have any place in their plan?

From The Tax Foundation:

Funding for increases in the federal government’s spending on health care continues to be debated in Washington. The newest funding proposal floated by the House Ways and Means Committee is a surtax levied on married tax returns with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) over $250,000 and single returns earning above $200,000. While there is speculation as to what the actual surtax rate will be, the 4 percent figure seems to be the focal point.

A 4-percent federal surtax along with recent increases targeted at high-income taxpayers at the state level has led to concern over how high the top tax rates would be in each state, especially large states with very high top marginal tax rates like California and New York. Some researchers merely sum the rates at the federal, state and local level to give a statutory total tax rate. A more accurate method is to calculate the effective marginal tax rate. The effective marginal tax rate takes into consideration deductions and exclusions in order to present a truer measure of an individual’s rate. Technically, it is the change in tax liability for a $1 increase in income.

The entry has a full, state-by-state chart, but we’ll lead with the top five:

Top Effective Marginal Rates under a 4-Percent Health Care Surtax by State

Now there’s a list of economically vital states, eh?

And news coverage…

• The Hill, Senate Dems cool to House tax on rich
• Washington Post, “HEALTH-CARE BILL
• Austin American-Statesman, Tax surcharges on wealthy considered for health financing
• New York Times, The Caucus Blog, “House Democrats Plan to Tax the Wealthy to Pay for Health Care Reform

From Bloomberg, “Rangel Will Overhaul Tax Code ‘Immediately’ After Health Care“:

“Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said he will pursue tax reform only after overhauling the health-care system and said “there’s no question” both can be completed by the end of 2010.

“It seems as though the president wants to deal with health care and putting our arms around that is going to be a very, very big job,” Rangel said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing today. “But I would assume immediately following having universal health care we would move into tax reform.”

Rangel continues pushing his admirable goal of reducing the federal corporate tax rate to 28 percent, making it more competitive globally. Good luck, really.

But it’s hard to see how Congress will be inclined to reduce taxes when the federal government is running trillion dollar annual deficits.