Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
H/t to Ezra Klein Romney’s and Obama’s tax plans, in one (new and improved) chart:
Naomi Robbins, who specializes in good graphs, says there’s a problem with [our eralier] chart. “What bothers me is that over half (5 of 9 data points) of the horizontal axis provides data on twenty percent of the population. This gives the visual impression that Obama is raising taxes on people other than the top few percent and that Romney’s tax cuts also affect more people than is the case.”
She’s right. And Robbins did more than carp about our graph. She made a better one:
What you’re seeing there is the same data as on the first chart, but with “equally spaced intervals on the horizontal axis represent[ing] equal percentages of taxpayers.” The result is that the two candidate’s tax plans come through much more clearly. Romney’s plan is a large tax cut for the top 60 percent, a huge tax cut for the top few percent, and a significant tax increase for the bottom few percent, as he permits a few temporary tax breaks that benefit low-income folks to expire. Obama’s plan keeps the current tax rates for almost everyone but the top few percent, who face a very large tax increase.
It’s also worth noting that these numbers only tell half the story: Romney has promised to offset the cost of most of his tax plan through spending cuts and tax reforms, and so any analysis of who pays is incomplete without those policies. But that information is impossible to graph, as Romney hasn’t released it yet.
It's a "secret plan" that can wait unti the next Congress, "I don't have to explain anything to you people."
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