Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
And the sun rises in the East. Lori Montgomery reports in the Washington Post today, Study: Romney tax plan would result in cuts for rich, higher burden for others:
Mitt Romney's plan to overhaul the tax code would produce cuts for the richest 5 percent of Americans — and bigger bills for everybody else, according to an independent analysis set for release Wednesday. (.pdf).
The study was conducted by researchers at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, who seem to bend over backward to be fair to the Republican presidential candidate. To cover the cost of his plan — which would reduce tax rates by 20 percent, repeal the estate tax and eliminate taxes on investment income for middle-class taxpayers — the researchers assume that Romney would go after breaks for the richest taxpayers first.
They even look at what would happen if Republicans’ dreams for tax reform came true and the proposal generated significant revenue through economic growth.
None of it helped Romney. His rate-cutting plan for individuals would reduce tax collections by about $360 billion in 2015, the study says. To avoid increasing deficits — as Romney has pledged — the plan would have to generate an equivalent amount of revenue by slashing tax breaks for mortgage interest, employer-provided health care, education, medical expenses, state and local taxes, and child care — all breaks that benefit the middle class.
“It is not mathematically possible to design a revenue-neutral plan that preserves current incentives for savings and investment and that does not result in a net tax cut for high-income taxpayers and a net tax increase for lower- and/or middle-income taxpayers,” the study concludes.
Even if tax breaks “are eliminated in a way designed to make the resulting tax system as progressive as possible, there would still be a shift in the tax burden of roughly $86 billion [a year] from those making over $200,000 to those making less” than that.
What would that mean for the average tax bill? Millionaires would get an $87,000 tax cut, the study says. But for 95 percent of the population, taxes would go up by about 1.2 percent, an average of $500 a year.
Steve Benen provides a handy chart at Romney's middle-class tax hike.
And here's the kicker: I had to leave off the top 0.1% of earners, because it made the chart unreadable. If you're in the bottom 80%, your tax increase under Romney would range from $128 to $1,880, but if you're in the top 0.1%, your tax break would be worth nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
President Obama was in Mansfield, Ohio, today, and he took full advantage of the new tax analysis:
"[T]he centerpiece of my opponent's entire economic plan is a new, $5 trillion tax cut. A lot of this tax cut would go to the wealthiest 1% of all households. Folks making more than $3 million a year -- the top one-tenth of one percent -- would get a tax cut worth almost a quarter of a million dollars. A quarter of a million dollars.
"But it gets worse. Under my opponent's plan, guess who gets the bill for these $250,000 tax cuts? You do. And you don't have to take my word for it.
"Just today, an independent, non-partisan organization ran all the numbers. And they found that if Governor Romney wants to keep his word and pay for his plan, he'd have to cut tax breaks that middle-class families depend on to pay for your home, or your health care, or send your kids to college. That means the average middle-class family with children would be hit with a tax increase of more than $2,000.
"But here's the thing – he's not asking you to contribute more to pay down the deficit, or to invest in our kids' education. He's asking you to pay more so that people like him can get a tax cut."
This afternoon the Tea-Publican controlled Congress voted against President Obama's middle class tax cuts already approved by the Senate, demanding their own tax cut plan for the top two percent. It's official: House Republicans just voted to block your tax cut to protect the rich:
Yep, they did it. The House Republicans just voted to raise taxes on the middle class of America so they can give tax cuts to the rich.
By a vote of 170-257, Republicans rejected the Democrats' plan to extend tax cuts to the middle class because, of course, the Democrats' bill didn't also extend tax cuts to the top two percent on their income above $250,000.
Then, in a vote of 256-171, they voted on the Republicans' bill, H.R. 8, which they actually have the gall to call the "Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act of 2012." That one extends tax cuts to the rich on all of their income, because the current low tax rates for the wealthiest Americans has done so much to protect jobs and prevent recessions.
Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs?
The roll call vote for the Democratic amendment is here. The vote for the Republican bill is here.
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