Republicans are famous for saying they don’t want to see ANYONE’s taxes go up. Nada. They’ve also said they want to see taxes go up on the 50% of Americans who don’t pay income tax i.e. the poors.
On April 16th – the Wall Street Journal wrote HERE:
Mr. Romney has pledged a 20% cut to income tax rates for taxpayers in all income brackets but has offered few details for how he would pay for the proposal.
On April 20th – the House Majority Leader – Eric Cantor (R-VA) said THIS:
“We also know that over 45 percent of the people in this country don’t pay income taxes at all, and we have to question whether that’s fair. And should we broaden the base in a way that we can lower the rates for everybody that pays taxes.”
And Eric Cantor is not alone … there are countless Republicans who have said the same exact thing.
On June 19th – the Senate Minority Leader – Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said THIS:
“I understand full well that our friends on the other side live to every day to raise taxes. Almost 70 percent of the federal revenue is provided by the top 10 percent of taxpayers now. Between 45 and 50 percent of Americans pay no income tax at all.”
~Mitch McConnell told CBS host Charlie Rose
So – you pay for gas, payroll, sales, real estate, travel etc taxes but they say if you don’t pay income taxes because you only make $12,000 a year … well – you’re just a slacker. I mean – how else are they going to pay to extend the $80 billion tax cut for wealthy families?
The tax plans between the two parties are very, very different. They are clear as day different. We shared this chart originally HERE. The chart gives a visual to what the NY Times is reporting on. Under Obama – rates for the super wealthy increase, the middle class basically stays the same and the poor get a little smidgen of help. Under Romney – tax cuts for everyone AGAIN … totally unpaid for that will either go to the deficit or we’ll have to cut Medicare, Education, Social Security … whatever. Everyone gets a tax cut unless you’re one of the bottom 20% of Americans. That’s more than 60 million people. Romney’s plan is more extreme than even the House Republican plan.
Compare that chart above to this Mitt Romney quote from June 17th, 2012 HERE:
“One of the absolute requirements of any tax reform that I have in mind is that people who are at the high end, whether you call them the 1 percent or 2 percent or half a percent, that people at the high end will still pay the same share of the tax burden they’re paying now. I’m not looking for a tax cut for the very wealthiest. I’m looking to bring tax rates down for everyone.”
~Mitt Romney
The NY Times has the story HERE:
Under the Democratic plan, tax rates on earnings over $250,000 would snap back to 36 percent and 39.6 percent, the rates paid during the Clinton presidency, from 33 percent and 35 percent. It would also allow the estate tax rate to jump to 55 percent on the value of inheritances over $1 million per individual, $2 million per couple. The current rate is 35 percent on estates over $5 million, $10 million a couple.
In all, the Republican plan would extend tax cuts for 2.7 million affluent families while allowing tax breaks to expire for 13 million on the bottom of the income spectrum, tax analysts say. An impact analysis released Monday by Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation said a permanent extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts would cut taxes on households with more than $1 million of annual income by $74,505 next year. The Democratic proposal would cut taxes for those same households by $7,055.
So – the Republicans want to give bigger tax cuts for the rich and allow tax breaks for the poor to end. All of that when they know about the following things:
- The average worker is paying 50% more in taxes than a person making $200 million a year (source).
- Wealthy people around the world are breaking the law and hiding at least $21 trillion in offshore banks (source).
- The 6 Walton Heirs are worth more than the bottom 48% of Americans combined (source).
And Greg Sargent points out HERE:
What’s particularly interesting is that Republicans are defending their plan to allow the lower end tax breaks to expire by arguing that they were supposed to be temporary. Of course, the tax cuts for the rich were alsosupposed to be temporary. We saw this dynamic play out during the payroll tax cut extension. Republicans argued that we shouldn’t extend the payroll tax cut because it was temporary and needed to be paid for, even as they continued to insist that the high end cuts should be extended.
