Obama campaign, the capital gains tax rate for families making more than $250,000 would be somewhere between 20% and 28%. Startups and small businesses, as defined by the federal government, as well as seniors with annual incomes of less than $55,000, would be exempted from capital gains taxes. Spriggs adds that Obama recognizes the need to provide corporations with a workable tax system that also allows them to be profitable. At the same time, he argues, it is “mind boggling†to continue to give huge tax breaks to corporations such as the oil companies that are experiencing record profits by anybody’s standards in the history of corporate America. He says, “I think it’s an issue of ideology over effective governing; thinking about fairness throughout the system–what would actually stir economic activity–and what’s just simply giving people money. By making it more progressive, you lift people up from the bottom, help restore fairness both by having those at the top pay an amount which,
in the scheme of how our economy works, is fairer, and continue to lower the burden on those at the bottom.â€