Americans have never come to grips with the fact that their labor is not worth what they think it is worth. Trade is international. The world is smaller. Workers need to compete across national boundaries. Unless one has special skills, real (after inflation) incomes will decline as the reality of high debt/GDP grips the nation. So there is a drain in the base case. That said ...
The only way to lower inflation is to increase supply and/or lower demand. Taxing corporations does not increase supply. It lowers supply. That's true of any company, not just those big bad oil companies.
Taxing individuals, on the other hand, lowers demand. This can be done through inflation, thereby taxing many of the people who don't even pay (IRS) income tax, or it can be done by taxing through the IRS, which can direct taxes at upper income groups.
For much of the previous (20th) century upper incomes were taxed at extreme rates. The US government could get away with it because the world was wrecked by WW2 while there was also higher barriers for international trade. The world was "larger" than it is today. We are going to need to return to that unless extreme cuts can be made in government spending. But a return to higher taxation, on people that already pay the bulk of our taxes, will just drive them away in today's relatively peaceful world of free flowing capital. Another world war could change that, but it won't lead to prosperity. That will lead to austerity. Still, lower real incomes for all.
I see no good ways to restore prosperity short of spending cuts with higher workforce participation. It is what it is. As much as democrats would like a return to the genie in a bottle, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. 30+ trillion was spent in excess, with even a lot more than that "promised." The books do not add up, and I think the world is done with subsidizing American living standards. In other words, the US dollar is pretty much at a peak.
Step 1: Backtrack every last energy policy that occurred since the Dems took over. That would be a start, but there is much, much more to do after that, and it isn't pretty.
