I am in no way defending the IRS, the US govt or the financial system we live under. You are correct that these brackets are not automatically adjusted to track inflation (even though we don’t have a good measure of inflation). But the IRS does routinely adjust the brackets upwards to account for rising incomes. For instance from 2022 to 2023 the IRS arbitrarily increased the brackets by 7%, in addition to raising the standard deduction.

I don’t believe the IRS will be so foolish to keep raising taxes (via not increasing brackets) on a population that is already being squeezed from every other direction. This will encourage taxpayers especially higher earning tax payers to look at other tax jurisdictions. The more tax flight there is from the country the quicker we default.

Good for thought: isn’t it interesting we are at decade low tax rates since the inception of income taxes at the same time our country has amassed a great burden of debt.