We talked earlier about a new report from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which scrutinized the tax plan in the House Republican budget, crafted by Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and endorsed by Mitt Romney. This afternoon, the specific analysis (pdf) was released, which allows us to dig a little deeper.
Here, for example, is a chart I put together showing the net change in federal tax burdens by income group. The darker red shows the change for single workers; the lighter red shows the change for married couples filing jointly.
In case this isn't obvious, the middle class would pay a little more every year, while the very wealthy would benefit enormously. In other words, if you liked the ineffective, budget-busting Bush/Cheney tax cuts, you'll love the Paul Ryan plan endorsed by Romney.
The main difference: under the Ryan/Romney model, millions of middle-class workers will actually end up paying more in taxes.
As for fiscal responsibility that Republicans occasionally pretend to care about, the Tax Policy Center's Roberton Williams added, "The Ryan plan as laid out is a revenue loser and would make it harder to bring the deficit under control."
It's quite a plan, isn't it? A windfall for the rich, higher taxes on the middle class, and an increase in the deficit. As Josh Marshall joked, "What's not to love?"
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So what your saying is? Under the Ryan plan the harder you work, the greater percentage of your own money you get to keep? I'm all for that plan. Lazy people use more government anyways, I think you should pay for what you use.
Right. Lower pay = lazy. What rock do you live under?
Actually, no. That's not what the chart is showing. Comprehension isn't your strong suit is it?
@chemdmd - I have a feeling those working in the middle class are working FAR harder than those who are in the top 1%. It doesn't take a lot of hard work to make a call to your broker to buy or sell stocks. What I find most shocking in your statement is that you equate being rich with harder work (which in many cases is true, but there are plenty in the "lucky sperm" club), and then go on to assume anyone who is not in the top 1% are lazy.
chem is exactly right! You know Mitt Romney worked way harder than my Mom (special ed teacher) or Dad (pharmacist)! And Mitt's kids are just slaving away compared to everyone else!
PS -- it is great Mitt is going to give the rich even more money, give the military-industrial complex a huge increase, and balance the budget! What could go wrong?
This is not about lazy...its about math. If you think cutting taxes on the rich will create jobs you probably also believe in the Easter Bunny. If you think taxing the poor is what "expanding the tax base" means, then you are probably an eight grade dropout. If you think poor = lazy...then you are a malleable voter and thus probably vote Republican because you have a fear-based personality.
Chemdmd, you're making a false assumption: that more work equals more income. Year after year, middle-class workers are expected to work more and more and produce more and more while their income stays flat, either effectively or (worse) in actuality while cost of living goes up. At the same time, people lucky enough to be born with money (like one Willard M. Romney) or who have by some means secured a high-end corporate job (like inheriting it like the Koch Bros.) have made more and more while sitting on their asses, doing nothing constructive and playing the system (like claiming a dressage horse as a BUSINESS EXPENSE on their taxes). And here's the really sad thing: you know you're full of it, and yet you still post this crap.
As is usual with Bene's comments, he tells half the story. While Ryan has proposed to reduce rates, he has also proposed to change the tax code to remove certain deductions.. The cited article bases it's estimates on current law.
@chemdmd, you mean like those lazy:
OIL/COAL companies reaping billions in public WELFARE dollars aka subsidies?
BIG PharMa - another sucker on the government teet?
Romney with his $77k deduction for his wife's horse?
Or how about those corporations off-shoring jobs, reaping high profits and still getting a "tax deduction"?
Oooo, what about those corn-husker kick-backs to BIG AG?
Yep, lazy good for nothing and sucking on the government teet - cut them off, NOW!
Actually what Ryan proposes is already in effect. The AMT is 28% with most deductions disallowed. Maybe you folks are getting agitated over very little.
Chemdmd... are you merely DRINKING the discredited `tricke-down Kool-Aid', or are you trying to mix- and distribute fresh batches of the disorienting swill?
`Trickel-Down' has never been an apt analogy for the supposed mechanism of this false economic `theory' (unless it refers to the flow of liquid from the `Golden Shower' the ultra-wealthy are raining upon the other 99%). A better analogy is: If you over-feed a horse enough, more seeds make it through their digestive system to give the birds a few more kernels to peck out of the dung-heaps.
The ultra-wealthy DO NOT `work' for their money...they let their money work for THEM - and we've already had a decade of experience to prove that the ultra-wealthy don't use their tax-savings to open more businesses which hire more American workers...instead, it gives them massive slush-funds which they `invest' in `political action committees' to write legislation and hire politicians to do their bidding to benefit THEIR top 1% socio-economic class.
As our former president Bush so eloquently remarked "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." Well, he was wrong about that too. About half of the voting public in this country CAN get fooled again if the pols are any indication. For all their conservative rhetoric, the fact of the matter is (they love that saying) Republicans are clueless when it comes to running the national economy. They are so blindsighted by their ideology and trickle-down nonsense, the 99 percenters don't realize what's hit them until its too late. With all of Romney's flip-flops, let alone all of the Republicans flip-flops over the last decade where even Ronald Reagan could not be elected in this political climate, the Republicans party platform is a run-away rollercoaster. So be careful who you vote for this November, be very careful. Otherwise fasten your seatbelts because we'll all be taken for a ride over the bridge to nowhere.
...and thanks for the love for the singles, too, Mr. Ryan.
I wish Mr. Benen would not save his charts in JPEG format - so much quality loss! Any way to post this stuff as a TIFF or PNG? Sorry for the off-topic comment but I find the fine print a little hard to see.
The Republican budget proposals are intended to be a Trojan Horse. These budgets would create another debt crisis which would then allow Republicans to slash even more domestic programs including Social Security. The Republicans intend to destroy every program that benefits the people who tend to vote Dem.
Another troll using this blog as a toilet...Liberal Guilt ain't pretty.
Besides, it was the repubs that passed the earned income credit.
oklahoma62 banned, failed audition, several #1 violations plus a User Agreement violation here.
@grumpyliberalbastard: Actually, the really sad thing is I don't think (s)he knows (s)he's full of it.
There used to be such a thing as "profit sharing" when the owners of a successful company spread their wealth to those who actually did the work. Now there is only tax burden sharing among the poor & middle class (those who do the work). And the rich get richer (while others do the work).
"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."
Since the middle class have more abilities and the rich have more needs, the Ryan plan is a perfectly understandable form of wealth redistribution - pure Marxist philosophy except for the reversal of polarity.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/k/karl_marx.html#PBwEijFTfzCjem2W.99
Hi, Steve: could you change the scale on this so that the amounts paid by the middle class actually show up as readable? I realize then that the cuts for the rich would look like the Marianas Trench, but that's about right.
Who benefited most from the Bush-era bubble and consequent bursting? Where did the money come from that Bush borrowed to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy? We know it came from the national debt. Let's look at all the people whose wealth increased during the same period, and put a surcharge on them to help bring down the national debt. Oh, wait, it was the same people whose wealth Ryan and the Repubs want to tax less.