Screw the Rich to Protect Super-Rich Campaign Contributors?
This item raised my eyebrows when I saw it. Joshua Tucker at The Monkey Cage points out that the Republicans are proposing we do exactly that.
The idea (NYT, emphasis mine):
…tax the entire salary earned by those making more than a certain level — $400,000 or so — at the top rate of 35 percent rather than allowing them to pay lower rates before they reach the target, as is the standard formula.
This to avoid the inevitably apocalyptic increase of the top marginal tax rate by 4.6%, from 35% to 39.6%.
As Tucker points out, this proposal increases the taxes for everybody making >$400K by the same amount – whether their income is $500K or $50 million.
Holding up my thumb and squinting, I’m thinking the extra taxes for those folks would be $50-100K. This would be a massive percentage increase for $400K earners, but a drop in the bucket even for $4-million earners, much less the $40-million crowd.
Avoiding that 4.6% top marginal tax rate increase saves a $20-million earner almost a $1 million a year.
As Tucker also points out, this is a stupendous gift to those who have the means to really give back to elected officials — the donors who can make or break a campaign by signing a single check.
But I’m sure the Republicans haven’t considered that. They’re just trying to do What’s Best for America.
Cross-posted at Asymptosis.
Ten Numbers The Rich Would Like Fudged – The numbers reveal the deadening effects of inequality in our country, and confirm that tax avoidance, rather than a lack of middle-class initiative, is the cause.
1. Only THREE PERCENT of the very rich are entrepreneurs.
2. Only FOUR OUT OF 150 countries have more wealth inequality than us.
3. An amount equal to ONE-HALF the GDP is held untaxed overseas by rich Americans.
4. Corporations stopped paying HALF OF THEIR TAXES after the recession.
5. Just TEN Americans made a total of FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS in one year, enough to pay the salaries of over a million nurses or teachers or emergency responders.
6. Tax deductions for the rich could pay off 100 PERCENT of the deficit.
7. The average single black or Hispanic woman has about $100 IN NET WORTH.
8. Elderly and disabled food stamp recipients get $4.30 A DAY FOR FOOD.
9. Young adults have lost TWO-THIRDS OF THEIR NET WORTH since 1984.
10. The American public paid about FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS to bail out the banks.
“But I’m sure the Republicans haven’t considered that. They’re just trying to do What’s Best for America.”
That is the funniest thing I have heard all day.
What is funny about this proposal is that the original tax cut of Bush was screwing all those up to and including about $500K per year. This according to a chart the NYT had put up when the cuts became real. They actually were paying a higher percentage of their income than those above them, and yet they vote for the repubs believing they are in that super high exclusive club.
Idiots!
Becker
and yet “everyone” is calling for rescinding the tax cuts on the “rich” “but not mine.”
i know that everyone wants a tax cut, but if they were a bad thing for the “not rich” then, they are a bad thing for the not rich now.
I personally have never heard anyone, whatever the pay scale, say “I want a tax cut”. Literally. I have never heard that. Everyone I know, most of whom simply pay what they’re told to pay, don’t think about their tax rates. Ever.