President Donald Trump managed to effectively raise taxes on the majority of Americans through his tax policies, while handing the richest five percent a tax cut. Now, many Americans want to see the rich pay their fair share — and that could mean increasing their taxes.

The former chief economist of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Professor Zachary Liscow, argues there’s a “slow, boring” yet “easy” way to do so.

“The United States is seeing an increasing concentration of wealth at the very top and a worsening national debt,” Liscow writes in an op-ed at The New York Times. “For many Americans, taxing the rich more is an obvious move.”

He details some of the “novel proposals to curb the many intricate ways the rich make and hide their money,” including a wealth tax, a tax on unrealized gains, and a tax on “loans that billionaires take against their stock.”

But, Liscow warns, while novel, these methods would not raise the substantial amount of money the U.S. needs.

“The boring truth is that Congress can accomplish a lot simply by raising the rates of the taxes already on the books,” Liscow explains.

He examines U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) proposal to tax “fortunes above $50 million,” and says there are “serious constitutional and policy arguments for this idea, but the Supreme Court’s current members would probably strike it down.”

There is a billionaire’s tax proposal by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) that would tax unrealized capital gains, “the appreciation in the paper value of assets such as stocks.” That would likely find a Supreme Court challenge.

There are other tax vehicles, like fixing the “buy, borrow, die” loophole, which would tax loans taken against stock portfolios, but that would likely not raise sufficient funds: “It’s just not where the money is.”

He finds that “the most powerful lever is also the simplest one,” and concludes that “Congress has a simpler, tried-and-true tax policy to choose from: raising the rates.”

Liscow is advocating to restore the “top marginal ordinary income tax rate to its pre-2017 level of 39.6 percent” — where it was before Trump’s first term in office.

“In addition, raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent toward the 35 percent it had been set at historically would add hundreds of billions in revenue for the government,” he says.

“Raising the rates,” Liscow concludes, “the simple, boring answer — is where the real money lies.”

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President Donald Trump used his executive time Friday morning in an hours-long Truth Social session, attacking late night television hosts and a Republican senator while pushing two of his primary agenda issues and celebrating the rising stock market.

His posts paint a president securing the Republican future and vanquishing his enemies. But his targets suggest a president focused on threats, real and perceived.

“Stop playing games and pass the Save America Act!” Trump wrote, seemingly out of nowhere Friday morning, ignoring the tumult and GOP anger his $1.8 billion “weaponization” fund and $1 billion White House ballroom security request had, disrupting vital funding legislation this week. The Save America Act is — at least at the moment — effectively dead in the Senate, and not on the list of the majority leader’s top priorities.

Trump has been repeatedly promoting the Save America Act, declaring if it passes Republicans won’t lose a race for the next 50 years.

“I gave up a lot of money in allowing the just announced Anti-Weaponization Fund to go forward,” he wrote. It has not gone forward and is causing massive upset in the Republican-controlled Senate. “I could have settled my case, including the illegal release of my Tax Returns and the equally illegal break in of Mar-a-Lago, for an absolute fortune. Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, justice!”

Trump’s claim he could have settled what was a $10 billion lawsuit is contradicted by reports showing the IRS was preparing to fight him, until Trump’s DOJ intervened.

Critics of the proposed $1.8 billion fund say it rewards criminals and could incentivize his supporters to take violent action on his behalf in the future.

READ MORE: Trump Envoy Invites Kids in Greenland to Come to America for Chocolate Chip Cookies

Trump also attacked Stephen Colbert after his final show Thursday night — and appeared to threaten other hosts with a similar fate.

“Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS was the ‘Beginning of the End’ for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts,” he wrote. “Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace!”

But Trump saved his enmity for an outspoken critic from his own party, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis calling him “weak and ineffective” while taunting him for retiring.

The North Carolina Republican lawmaker, Trump charged, “didn’t have the courage to fight it out in the Senate, remain in place, and run again for office, a thing he desperately wanted to do.”

“When I told him that I would not, under any circumstances, endorse him for another run, too much work and drama (he couldn’t have won, anyway!), he immediately quit the race and publicly announced that he was going to ‘retire.’ I said, ‘Wow, great news, that was easy!’ The media said how brave he was to take me on, but he wasn’t brave, he was just the opposite – he was a quitter!”

Despite reports that Trump’s actions may hamper his agenda and GOP congressional majorities, the president wrote that Tillis can now “have all the fun he wants for a few months, with some of his RINO friends, screwing the Republican Party. In the end it will only get bigger, and better, and stronger, than ever before!!!”

READ MORE: Trump: $400 Million White House Ballroom Is ‘My Gift to the United States of America’

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This has been a challenging week for Senate Republicans, and they are reaching a “breaking point” with President Donald Trump over fears for their own “political survival,” reports Punchbowl News.

One prominent Senate Republican had just lost his primary race to a Trump-backed opponent when the president snubbed another prominent Senate Republican to endorse his ultra-MAGA rival in Texas — leading to fears the Democratic candidate could win that longtime red seat.

Then on Thursday, Senate Republicans met with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for nearly two hours. Reporters said it did not go well. Republicans are furious over not just the president’s $1.8 billion compensation fund for alleged victims of DOJ weaponization during the Biden administration — but also for the timing the White House chose to announce it, disrupting their efforts to pass a critical reconciliation bill so thoroughly Majority Leader John Thune sent them home.

“Eventually,” Punchbowl reports, “Senate Republicans were going to prioritize their own political survival over President Donald Trump’s wants and needs. They have. But it just might be too late.”

READ MORE: Targeted by Trump Senator Scorches President’s Pet Project

Now, some say, the prospect of the GOP losing control of the Senate seems more likely than it did just a few months ago.

“Many Republicans fear Trump is determined to bring them down with him — along with their shared legislative agenda,” Punchbowl observed. “Senate Republican leaders are now coming to grips with the reality that advancing Trump’s priorities may be in conflict with their efforts to retain the majority.”

Punchbowl cites an “erosion of good will” between Senate Republicans and Trump that has been “building steadily for months over campaign strategy disputes, uneven White House messaging and Trump’s attempts to get rid of the filibuster.”

The White House “isn’t making life easier” for Capitol Hill Republicans.

Some see the president’s actions as severely limiting the Republicans’ ability to pass their agenda — and his.

Political journalist Isaac Saul this week noted that Trump has successfully managed to oust several congressional Republicans — with one more possibility on the way — but by doing so he has severely imperiled his critical majority in the U.S. Senate.

“One understated reality of what Trump has done: He basically just nuked his Senate majority for the next six months,” wrote Saul.

The enmity between the Senate GOP and the White House has become so great that one reporter on Thursday point-blank asked Trump if he is “losing control” over Senate Republicans.

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I really don’t know.”

READ MORE: Ex-Republican Pundit Has a Strategy to Defeat Trump and the GOP

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