GOP Hates Taxes — For the Rich
A new report on the Republican-backed tax and budget plan authored by Paul Ryan, which Mitt Romney supports, says that the plan would raise taxes on middle class taxpayers while saving those who make over a million dollars a year a huge amount of money — and decrease overall revenue significantly too.
The report, prepared by Senate Democrats and reviewed by nonpartisan tax experts, marks the first attempt to quantify the trade-offs inherent in the GOP tax package, which would replace the current tax structure with two brackets — 25 percent and 10 percent — and cut the top rate from 35 percent.
Those changes would benefit virtually every taxpayer, but they also would reduce federal tax collections by about $4.5 trillion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. To avoid increasing the national debt by that amount, GOP leaders such as House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (Wis.) have pledged to get rid of all the special-interest loopholes and tax shelters that litter the code…
So although households earning $100,000 to $200,000 a year would save about $7,000 from the lower tax rates in the GOP plan, those savings would be swamped by eliminating major deductions, according to the report by the Democratically controlled congressional Joint Economic Committee.
The net result: Married couples in that income range would pay an additional $2,700 annually to the Internal Revenue Service, on top of the tax increases that are scheduled to hit every American household when the George W. Bush-era cuts expire at the end of the year.
Households earning more than $1 million a year, meanwhile, could see a net tax cut of about $300,000 annually.
So, another shift in tax burden from the wealthy to everyone else, and a big jump in debt. This is a plan that is good only for the richest Americans; everyone else gets screwed.
Modusoperandi:
June 22nd, 2012 at 2:04 pm
And it also gets rid of the Capital Gains tax entirely, if memory serves.
Modusoperandi:
June 22nd, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Wup:
I believe it. Don’t you?
The Lorax:
June 22nd, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Actually, this is a Jenga strategy; slowly nip away at the base and build up the tower, believing all the while that the foundation is firm, until the whole thing comes crashing down.
This will benefit the very rich and hurt the very poor… for a while. At some point, the very poor will be too drained to support the very rich (even en masse), and the system is going to crash again; those rich mother fuckers will be right down here with the rest of us, wallowing in the filth that they created. They will cry out for help from those lives they destroyed, and we will look down and whisper, “No.”
… *cough* Sorry, I think I started to channel Rorschach there…
tbp1:
June 22nd, 2012 at 2:16 pm
@#3: I find myself listening to lots of different versions of “Pirate Jenny” these days.
tbp1:
June 22nd, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Oh, and also Judy Collins’ great Marat Sade medley.
unbound:
June 22nd, 2012 at 3:12 pm
@3 – Unfortunately, life doesn’t typically have storybook endings. The rich will move on to the next country when this one fails…just like the locusts that they are.
d cwilson:
June 22nd, 2012 at 3:35 pm
@unbound:
Many, like the co-founder of Facebook, already are moving to other countries and renouncing their US citizenships.
Seriously, the republicans are planning to raise the taxes on the middle class. Why aren’t democrats screaming this from the rooftops?
theschwa:
June 22nd, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Seriously, the republicans are planning to raise the taxes on the middle class. Why aren’t democrats screaming this from the rooftops?
In order to get all the way to the top of the roof requires a spine.
Jordan Genso:
June 22nd, 2012 at 4:28 pm
I believe they are, but their voice doesn’t carry in the media very well. When was the last time you saw media coverage of the Tea Party Republicans’ budget that a non-political junkie would’ve also come across? And if you do find that coverage, how does it treat the Democrats’ response?
Regardless whether it is the newspaper or TV news show (non-cable), they almost always do the whole “the Democrats say X, the Republicans say Y”, as if each of their statements on the matter are equally valid. So the Democrats can yell as loudly as they want about how the conservative policies raise taxes on the middle class, but the media treats that the same as (and gives equal coverage/weight to) the Republicans saying nuh-uh.
Area Man:
June 22nd, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Well, they’re hiding it behind a tax cut you see. They won’t say what deductions they’ll actually eliminate. If you accuse them of raising taxes on the middle class, they’ll deny it because they haven’t specified what loopholes they’ll close. If you accuse them of massively increasing the debt, they’ll deny that too because of their unspecified tax reforms that will close loopholes. It’s a great bit of politicking, as long as you ignore minor things like honesty and decency.
Seriously though, the Ryan Plan is one giant middle finger in the face of America. After their plutocratic policies have failed and failed again to make anyone’s life better other than the rich and powerful, their only response is “Fuck you, we’re going to keep doing it, and this time we’re going heavy on this shit”.
John Hinkle:
June 22nd, 2012 at 5:44 pm
@Area Man
Bravo. Nicely said.
kermit.:
June 22nd, 2012 at 6:13 pm
Will their gated communities protect them from the global collapse? What happens when the infrastructures breaks down so much their bank’s computers shut down and never turn back on? Will those wrought iron gates hold back the new Robespierre?
And yet it gives me little satisfaction to consider this.
unbound:
June 22nd, 2012 at 6:27 pm
@kermit – Sadly, they will simply move somewhere else. Alternatively, take a look at how the rich live in 3rd world countries like Manilla and Mexico. They live quite well at the top of skyscrapers with their children taught by tutors. Not sure where it stands anymore, but Mexico as recently as the 90s actually was number 4 in the number of millionaires…not that you would be able to see that looking at their infrastructure.
laurentweppe:
June 22nd, 2012 at 8:55 pm
And on the other side of the pond, after the new French president announced that he indeed intended to raise taxes paid by the wealthiest, the british prime minister in an impressive display of “European Solidarity” said that he was willing to let them come to Britain to enjoy low taxes because those poor “Job creators” should not be taxed at 75% above their first million of revenue.
*
Keep in mind that France as one of he lowest social mobility in the EU, second only to the UK, which means that most millionaires here are children and grand children of millionaires. Most of the french rich never had to work to earn their money, and it’s often blatant (see the behavior of Serge Dassault or Arnaud Lagardère)
*
And then people tell me that I’m being impolite when I call the Right the party of blue-blooded wankers.
hermann:
June 22nd, 2012 at 11:01 pm
The republicans also complain that less than 50% of the people pay (federal income) taxes.
The next thing they may suggest is that everyone pays a flat tax. Romney wants to balance the budget and limit federal spending to 20% GDP. With a 2013 forecast of 16.5 Trillion $ GDP he wants 3.3 T$ in taxes to be paid by all of us. Estimating 312.01 million people living in the US, including may be 10000 corporations (Sorry, corporations are people, too, my friend), this is a little more than 10500$ in taxes per person (and per corporation). With my family of 4 we would pay more than 50% of our income in taxes.
If I don’t like it, may they suggest I leave the country?