on a unit basis. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/09/ST2008060900950.html For those that would argue that tax cuts will help the economy, which one would you believe will help the national economy more? Allowing the bottom 70% to have more money for daily necessities, pay off credit card debts, and basically keep the country running financially, or letting the top 10% build up their trust funds?
So, voting selfishly, everyone who has a household income under $111k has a very clear choice. And not speaking selfishly (as my wife and I are over that mark), I favor Obama's plan b/c it speaks to responsible financial sanity. What I would like to see, of Obama's proposed 11% hike for the top 0.1%, how much of that is simply removing the irresponsible Bush tax cuts for the richest of the rich? That is to say, I'd like to see the differences for McCain and Obama versus the 2000 tax code, the last time we were coming close to fiscal sanity. I bet that would be a more dramatic bar graph. ROXRAN, I think your AP article, dated from March '08, is simply out of date, and that's why it doesn't at all square with this Brookings analysis.
If only I could really believe that chart. Sadly, nothing any politician says during a campaign is the truth.
Since the Bush tax cuts, almost everyone in the 0-$40,000 range get more returned to them in tax credits (mostly earned income tax credit and child tax credit) than they pay in taxes. So tax cuts for them aren't really cuts at all, they are increased income redistribution for the working poor and lower middle class. It's just a lot easier for a politician to push for a "tax cut" than increased welfare. Is that okay? Well it's hurting the business climate, and making the country poorer as a whole, but it's also raising the standard of living for the poor and lower middle class, and kinda evens out what we have. The biggest issue for me is that the group that pays for all of this is the middle class and upper middle class. The skilled laborers, white collar wage earners, and small business owners are always hit hardest by income redistribution. Sure, their taxes won't be be increased as much as the wealthy, and they might even get a tiny break, but they have the most to gain by a growth-oriented business climate, and lose the most by taxes on corporations and investments. The wealthy can absorb the blow, and to be fair, so can the middle class, but it hurts their standard of living the most.
