One of the driving criticisms of Paul Ryan's House Republican Budget is a familiar refrain: his numbers don't add up. But the criticism almost gives Ryan too much credit -- it assumes there are enough numbers in the far-right plan to evaluate whether it adds up, when there really aren't.
Take the biggest question mark hanging over Ryan's blueprint: his plan for massive tax breaks, lowering the top rate from 39.6% to 25%, to be paid for with "tax reform." How would the latter pay for the former? The Wisconsin congressman doesn't say, but there's an even more pressing question: how much would these enormous tax cuts cost?
The non-partisan Tax Policy Center ran the numbers that provided a figure Ryan didn't want to include in his own budget: "The Tax Policy Center estimates that cutting individual rates to 10 percent and 25 percent, repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax and the tax increases included in the Affordable Care Act, and cutting the corporate rate from 35 percent to 25 percent would add $5.7 trillion to the deficit over the next decade."
Let's be clear about the fiscal implications. Ryan wants to cut taxes by $5.7 trillion over the next 10 years, which means he'd need to find another $5.7 trillion -- somewhere, somehow -- just to break even. In other words, all of this would have to work out before Republicans could even try to bring down the deficit by so much as a penny.
What's more, it's important to consider the winners and losers under such a plan. The Tax Policy Center showed the impact by public quintile, and wouldn't you know it, the rich benefit far more than the poor -- and this doesn't even consider the impact felt by Ryan's intentions to slash public benefits that benefit working families most.
I put together the above chart to show the percentage change in after-tax income, but what I wanted to do was show the effects in dollar amounts. Why didn't I? Because the chart would have been largely unreadable (and un-publishable): the lowest 20% of Americans would get a tax cut of about $40, while the top 0.1% -- folks who are already multi-millionaires -- would get a tax cut of over $1.2 million per year.
Greg Sargent added, "If Republicans agreed to turn over a small fraction of that sum towards deficit reduction, that would enable scenarios that would turn off the sequester. But since Republicans have adamantly declared that no new revenue must be raised, no matter what, this is a nonstarter. Everything that's raised from closing loopholes has to go only to cutting tax rates, including a huge tax rate cut for the super rich, and not to paying down the deficit or ending destructive sequestration. I don't know if there's any way to illustrate more clearly than this what's really going on here."
Shortly after the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney lamented President Obama's willingness to extend "big gifts" to American families. In light of the Paul Ryan plan, perhaps now would be a good time for a different kind of conversation about politicians giving "gifts."
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This Ayn Rand freak ran on this during the election and he lost and lost big. Can't Wisconsin kick this guy to the curb already?
No because he represents Wisconsin's 1st Congressional wack-a-loon wildlife refuge...
visible evidence that the repoops are willing to steal from the public and are on the road to kill for profits. if thieving frauds like pimped out ryan are not removed from office, then the u.s. will face the same situation as the founders did in 1775.
I saw a report that he did lose his hometown of Janesville, the people who knew him best.
Wisconsin was a state government not only out of control but also one that decided that the best way to save tax dollars was to double security expenditures (ie - rent-a-cops). Wisconsin's government is so conservatively corrupt it makes New Jersey look like a well oiled machine of democracy.
No, really, they're terrible and Ryan is a representative of that problem.
It reminds me very much of Russia in the early 90's. Former apparatchiks got their business for free during "glasnost" and the meltdown following the breakup of the Soviet Union. They then proceeded to hire armies of private thugs to protect them and their interests. Most outlying towns were and possibly are still governed by these strongmen (oligarchs).
Whether or not it is possible to root out government corruption in the US at this point is a great unknown. The powerful elites have their boots pretty close to our necks at this point, what with our "Patriot Act" police state.
Should be interesting!
Who were "the makers and the takers" again exactly?
Taking what? Their own money? How does that work?
Really shooter by paying taxes the wealthy are paying for all those government services they enjoy that if it were in the private sector even they couldn't afford to cover the costs. Another words shooter why are you against the wealthy having to pay for the services they receive at a rather cheap price to begin with, I mean really shooter that you support that type of free loading just shows everyone why you will never be one of the 1% heck shooter by supporting them you won't even make it into the top 50%.
Shooter
Here's the thing...you and I have had this debate several times before. The problem is that the wealthy don't spend money...it's a reality they just don't. They collect it, store it, hide it, exert all their effort to try and get more of it even if they don't need it and when they do decide to put it to any kind of use it is usually to exert influence on the lives of others not to make them better or even necessarily more miserable but to control them...to set themselves up as aristocrats and nobility that exists in a society apart from the rest of us.
Now I don't know how you are on history but it seems we had a revolution in this country once to get away from that kind of government
the bible warned us of deceivers like the pimped outs like pauli boi. you will learn what evil is - hopefully not the hardest way.
Shooter. Be a REAL REPUBLICAN and read about Teddy Roosevelt and progressive taxation. To whom much is given, much is expected was the ethos of our elites. This miserly reluctance among the top earners to pay a larger share of the taxes is astonishing. One should be very proud of their contribution to the republic and those who begrudge paying their due should rightly be ashamed and reviled.
They have all forgotten, or never accepted that they are prosperous because of America... not in spite of it.
"It should be no surprise that when rich men take control of the government, they pass laws that are favorable to themselves. The surprise is that those who are not rich vote for such people, even though they should know from bitter experience that the rich will continue to rip off the rest of us. Perhaps the reason is that rich men are very clever at covering up what they do.": Andrew Greeley
What? So your solution is to confiscate more money from the rich? You just got an additional $60 billion a year. And you want more just because they are inconvenient?
Greed isn't wanting to keep more of what one earns, greed is coveting those earnings for yourself.
We have progressive taxation and the rich pay most of the Federal tax. What's your problem?
The rich pay about 40% of the taxes but they control 90% of the wealth. The portion of the population that controls the other 10% of the wealth is expected to pay the other 60%. Do you see the problem? Do you understand what it means when someone uses the phrase "You cannot get blood from a stone"? There really isn't enough money available in the bottom 80% of the population to pay for the things that need to be paid for and there is more than enough to pay for those things many times over if you taxed the ultra wealthy, who would not be so wealthy without the government benefits that needs paid for, just a little more.
Think of it this way. If I own a business where I sell goods over the internet and ship them from my place of business, I already am getting more use out of the infrastructure (roads, electricity, internet, phone, etc.) than a poor person does. If my business flourishes, this disparity increases exponentially. Asking me to pay towards the upkeep of that infrastructure in a manner that is proportional to my use of said infrastructure is only fair.
Sorry, Shooter, that is simply incorrect. We have a regressive taxation system.
Those words do not mean what you appear to think they mean.
Hey GG, don't quit your day job...unless you're an economist or tax specialist. I don't like what Shooter says or his attitude in saying it, but you seem to be the one who doesn't know the difference between progressive and regressive taxes.
Anonymous...
Our tax system is not based on wealth, it is based on income. For the most part, the rich get the way they are because they are smart with their money. For the most part the poor are the way they are because they are not smart with their money. If you took all of the money in this country and divided it equally among all of the citizens, within 10 -15 years, most of the rich would be rich again and most of the poor would be poor again. Not all, but most.
just saying...
And you... are just plain not smart with anything!
Stormguy: The poor not investing, saving, buying real estate and/or hiding their money in tax shelters has absolutely nothing to do with "smart" or "not smart." If you have to spend all your money every month on food, shelter, healthcare, and clothing--or even worse, frequently have to choose between food, shelter, healthcare, and clothing, as many of the poor in this country do--there is simply no money left to be "smart" with.
Also, I wouldn't say Genghis Gandhi is as far off as you think, Keith. Yes, on paper, our tax code is progressive--very progressive, even. But because of the various loopholes, deductions, the lower capital gains rate, etc., in effect our tax system is probably regressive, or very close. Add in state and local taxes, which have the greatest tendency to be regressive, and you have an end result that sticks it to the poor and middle class the most.
...That said, I'm not an economist. I'd be really happy to hear about that from someone with more expertise.
I recommend watching the movie "In Time". Where people's lives depend on paying for things with an allotment of time. The poorer have an average of one day, the rich have thousands, even millions of years.
The poor die off quicker and some people steal time from others, also there are gifts of time.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/
I think we have all figured out that Widdow Pauwie Wyan can't add 2+2 and get 4 on consecutive attempts. But that's why he's a Republican.
repoopliCON?
I have been hearing that the new Pope cares deeply about the poor. He told the people of his homeland not to come to Italy, stay home and give the money to the poor. The new Pope must not be a republican.
Don't you all know by now that shooter is in the top 1% - because most millionaires/billionaires spend the majority of their time trolling left-leaning blogs.
I'll give shooter another nonsensical point he can make (just cut and paste): "But in typical liberal fashion, what Benen deliberately does not mention is that the Tax Policy Center failed to include the increase in tax revenues that would result from the increase in jobs due to cutting tax rates on corporations and wealthy individuals, the job creators." Troll away.
You'll see: This time it WILL trickle down. Just try it! I promise!
Enrich the rich: Vote Republican!
For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Mark 4:25
at one time the work of the employed persons fed their families. their productivity return was high and the balance enriched the operating environment. then the opportunists came along and aligned themselves with just money and their ambitions and egos had them preying upon the employed people to feed the pimps of the opportunists who now seek more power and wealth at the expense of the employees who are losing productivity to the now wealthier pimping thieves. Jesus illuminated this problem about the kings and lawyers and the people were warned.
Until you rid the social society of these types the general persons who are employed will be treated without righteous respect they deserve as human beings which respect is not earned, it is inherited. but the pimped out opportunists and their pimping thieves have targeted the inheritance of the people and do not believe that any inheritance is worthy except the power of their wealth.
i tell you this, such respect for the employee is an entitlement for it is inheritable by the virtue of it's goodness and life itself for the living is an entitlement. the opportunists and their wealthy pimps see the common existence as something to be rejected and escaped from and do not respect it and target it and also target the people like the snipers of bashar al-assad of syria.
the common good people established working unions as a balance of power for the employees who were tageted by the owners.
Steve, you buried the lede: " Paul Ryan Budget Would Add 5.7 TRILLION to Deficit.
Newt Gingrich was right: Paul Ryan's budgets are right wing social engineering.
That's technically not a correct headline though, because the budget doesn't actually have enough specifics to determine it, and because he claims to intend to pay for them by killing loopholes. The appropriate criticisms here are that A) it has 5.7 trillion in tax cuts that mostly benefit rich people, which is insulting on its face and is the subject of this article, and B) his plan to pay for them apparently doesn't actually exist, which has been the subject of many more articles.
If Ryan has no plan to pay for them (the cuts), then how would my lede be msleading? No Plan= soaring deficit. Or do you actually believe that Paul Ryan and his bogus budget would call for the closure of every 1% ers loop hole? Would that even be enough to offset 5.7 TRILLION $$$?
Sorry, would you please buy my Edsel? Parts are plentiful.
Ryan's numbers do add up, at least on his Etch-A-Sketch.
It just kills me to watch Paul Ryan trot out this same plan over and over, like it's "new and improved" or something. News flash. We voted on that proposal four months ago and it lost. Is he just counting on people being too stupid to notice? To refresh his memory:
So, Congressman Ryan, go home and redo your homework. This one would get an F.
he wants to get paid for doing nothing except to attempt to steal from the public. he is also a con. see him for what he is.... a thief and a con. also a pimped out for his wealthy pimps . do not be surprised if his wife is not present at all their "meetings".
Ryan and his ilk keep getting elected because voters buy what Republicans say which is nowhere near what they do or intend to do. Abstract thinking requires some effort. If Ryan told the plain truth, he would never be elected to any office including dog catcher.
As usual Benen makes you look for the fine print. The $5.7 trillion doesn't count any closure of deductions. In short it's a useless number.....
It's just another reason the left can't be trusted. This is as bad as calling increases "cuts". Tsk.
Whoops! The Irony meter just pinged again!
No that is just the sound of marbles hitting the steel stairs before hitting the floor. Whenever a rightie losses his marbles thats the sound you hear. Ding Ding Ding
So apparently there's at least $5.7 trillion in tax loopholes that can be closed. Since the repubs only intention has ever been to give tax cuts to the rich and the corporations, that can only mean the poor and middle classes will have to foot that extra $5.7 trillion on their own, as usual. And since that only is meant to be revenue neutral in Ryan's plan, he still has to come up in trillions more in additional cuts and taxes to actually balance the budget in that decade. Once again, we all know who will foot the bill. Ryan has presented a program that would lead to revolution in this country. I for one will never, ever, ever stand for such vicious, anti-American, pro elite policies being enacted, and I know I am not alone. Ryan should remember who owns the pitchforks and torches. One hint....it's not his donors!
It's not in the fine print Pooter. You could try reading, and I don't know, puting 2 and 2 together:
" Everything that's raised from closing loopholes has to go only to cutting tax rates, including a huge tax rate cut for the super rich, and not to paying down the deficit or ending destructive sequestration."
Shooter seemed to not realize in his "fine" reading of this article, that the $5.7 trillion was an additional hit to the debt.
I do take exception to something in the article, however. Ryan's numbers do add up - just not in the way that regular Americans expect or need. They do add up the way the government-killers and corporatists want.
This chart reads as well like Paul Ly'ans Rate of Sociopathy. This guy's obvious cruelty and disdain for his fellow Amercian* is off the Clairol Color Chart!
No, it isn't... Look at Rick Scott of Florida... Only his hairdresser knows for sure...
I have heard (During the Diane Downs trial) that psychopaths often have an odd characteristic in common. The whites of their eyes, at the bottom, are visible around the pupil. Hers were that way.
Guess who elses are.
Yeah, those big blue ones!
I have no explanation for the big ears.
Oh there is so much BS in the GOP bubble. When you take the federal taxes paid by American business divided by their total revenues the tax rate is around 12%. With companies like GE and Apple putting hundreds of billions in offshore accounts the government and we the people get screwed. companies that are paying 25%-35% should be mad at GE that pays ZERO - not people who are on unemployment because jobs are shipped overseas. Let's take away food and pre-school programs from poor kids because they are moochers. REALLY??
I just had a guy tell me the other day that he felt sorry for the small business owners who got dinged in the fiscal cliff agreement. He believed that their taxes were going up on the business's REVENUES of $250,000 or more.
I had to explain that, first of all, the number was adjusted up to $450,000 before the deal was done. And secondly, the rate is applied to income after all applicable expenses (employee salaries, COGS, rent, heat/lights, etc.) were subtracted--in other words, the business owner's own income. That was new news to him.
I wonder how many other Republicans are operating with a similar misunderstanding. And I wonder if that misunderstanding is being deliberately reinforced to gain support under false pretenses.
lol JL! probably all of them. what the repubes are attempting to do is to define the "sides"... ie left/right, taxpayer/business, abortion/not.. the CON JOB here is that everything the pimped outs do otherwise exposes the painful reality of OWNER vs EMPLOYEE. the repubes are banking that Americans will neither see nor divide on that CLEAR & PRESENT SPLIT which is what is really out of balance.
from the repuber pov, that $250k is the "i wanna get out of the middle class for whatever reason and play the i'd rather be rich" lottery prize to be held in special esteem. Employees are not expected to adopt their own position as employees and the repubes will not break out the 250/450 simple math accounting 101.
until the DEMS enforce the vision that taxes are a matter of buying power, benefit and recirculation, you will always run into stoopies that buy into the repuber bs.
[of course i realize you already know that but post the detail for others who may not. forgive me?]
Joseph common, I'd like to dare you to complete one comment without using the words pimp or pimped out. Just sayin....
I am surprised that the stench inside the bubble has not gotten to the "followers" of TPubs yet.
But then doggies that chase feigned thrown balls are very nice and obedient. They also seem to roll around and relish in stinky stuff.
The worst thing about Ryan and his cadre is that they think we are stupid. They think they can pull this over on us with their Frank Luntz word magic and by trashing Obama. It's insulting.
You are exactly on-point!
As a woman, I am insulted.
As a retired hard-working teacher, I am insulted.
As a retired union member, I am insulted.
As a member of the middle-class, I am insulted.
As an American, I am insulted.
it is both common and expected that these pimped outs lie, cheat and steal for money to feed their pimps and then also cheat on their wives. that is their culture and they worship this intoxocating sensationalism. they equate modesty and humbleness as poverty and powerless.
capitalism works for business. socialism works for people.
John Boehner said that Paul Ryan was a policy "wonk" he is not, he is a policy fraud, who frequently says things like , "it's complicated" or confusing, " it would take too long to explain". I'd like to see him go one on one with Ezra Klein, but that will never happen, Ezra would eat him for lunch.
Oh, please, PLEASE gods of cable television, make this happen!! :)
This is the thing people need to consider more carefully, put this graph next to the other graph that went viral on YouTube,
http://ecolocalizer.com/2013/03/03/video-shows-us-wealth-gap-is-now-so-huge-that-it-soars-off-charts/
How am I really going to get to that sweet spot they keep advertizing? Lottery dreams are very rarely realized. But the jobs and wages can be kick started. Who is doing that? NOT the hands off deregulate TPubs, they see that as harming business interests (their priority). These folks:
http://ecolocalizer.com/2011/04/02/top-five-percent-in-u-s-own-nearly-23-of-everything/
and these, not necessarily Americans.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/worlds-richest-billionaires-forbes_n_2793636.html
capitalism works for business. socialism works for people.
Hurray, you did it!
thank you for revealing the pimped out thieving con fraud that pauli boi really is. in a good society, he would be charged with defrauding the public and tried as well. a person who steals to eat is not a thief. but a politician who steals from the public he is charged to represent and who also feeds the wealth monster is the worst of the worst. pauli boi operates like a PINOCHET HENCHY and i am shocked that the church has not brought EXCOMMUNICATION PROCEDURE against the POS.
A 5.7 trillion dollar addition to the deficit...to be paid for by everyone who goes to work everyday.
What blows my mind is that working people vote for these anal openings!!
I don't know if this chart exists, but I'd like to see a graph contrasting the actual total tax rate (including FICA, etc.) for each quintile and for corporations since 1960. I think that would be pretty enlightening.
Don't forget to include the impact of sales taxes, state taxes and ciy taxes...
what would be most interesting is the comparison between the loss of productivty and where it really went. the middle class has been losing since 1976. gee... just when boomers were graduating college and being managed like a commodity. owners vs employees.
the best chart would be the predictor of the "wealth feed requirement". hording vs recirculation.
Rachel has done a terrible job extolling the Budget of the Progressive Caucus. Unbelievably, Paul Krugman apparenly did not know the Progressive Caucus had been proposing budgets over the last few years as he just indicated that someone finally put one out that made sense. Can we get the Progressive Caucus Budget scored?
Just to provide a little more context for why you couldn't give us a bar graph: at a scale of one inch equals $40, the bar for the lowest 20% of Americans would be one inch long, while the bar graph for the top .1% would be 2500 feet, or almost half a mile, long.
That's a whole lot of scrolling down . . .
of course it dont add up but that is not he intention.his intention is to signal the wealthy that if they back him he will always fight for them.he knows people can fact check him and like all the gop being wrong is not the issue its who can get the support from the wealthy
With Ryan's budget, what will trickle down on the working class and the poor will not be money, but a clear yellow liquid we are all familiar with. Here's where the GOP's policies have taken us in the past 30 years, and it is worsening. Prepare for a shock when you see this video:
http://ecolocalizer.com/2013/03/03/video-shows-us-wealth-gap-is-now-so-huge-that-it-soars-off-charts/
How much worse can it possibly get?
As you can see, the pooch has already been screwed. We're already rearranging chairs on the Titanic.
This shooter lady is really just a stupid bitch. She doesn't understand that a politician gets paid with OUR money and they hardly work for it. She thinks she is a dispossessed millionaire. Sorry babe, those Minolo Blaneks aren't for you. Face it.
"the chart would have been largely unreadable (and un-publishable): the lowest 20% of Americans would get a tax cut of about $40, while the top 0.1% -- folks who are already multi-millionaires -- would get a tax cut of over $1.2 million per year."
Try a graph with a logarithmic scale.
I was thinking about your graph on the increase of wealth for the top 2%. It looks like the start of an exponential curve. If it is we are in for a lot of pain in the future.
I have also been thinking (bad idea) about stocks. We are forced into investing in stocks in our 401k or money market which is not federally insured. I have lost a small house in the stock market and will never be able to regain the loss. I seams to me that if there is any gain in stocks the money is give to the CEOs in stock options and not to the share holders. Then you have day traders buying and selling to skim off the top as much as possible.
Money rules Washington not the voters.
It's the logical next step in the fantasy. First, there was Disneyland, and that was really popular. Then trickle down economics, somewhat less well embraced but if you repeat it often enough......
Follow that with fantasy football, another great concept enjoyed by millions of hard core sports fans and the less hard core enthusiasts.
Latest effort by the GOP, Fantasy Budgets. But again, if you repeat it often enough.....
And, as a CPA, let me say that there is no question that our overall tax system in the US is regressive. The biggest offenders are not found in the income tax code, so much as the other taxes we pay. The cap on the amount of income subject to payroll taxes is around $100,000 per year. So, as a percentage of income, lower-wage & salary workers pay a higher % of their income than do their executive-level counterparts. These payroll taxes pay for things like Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance. This constitutes a full 10% out of the gross income of most of working Americans.
Further, the sales tax is regressive. Low-wage families spend a much higher percentage of their income, therefore paying a higher percentage of taxes relative to income. Note that tax applies to prepared foods served by restaurants as well. Only grocery items are generally exempt. Gasoline taxes, and the rest take a very large relative chunk out of the pockets of most middle and lower income Americans.
I hope that helps you non-bean counter types understand a bit better.
I have a BA in Economics, a MS in Accounting and an MBA in Finance, and am a CPA in New York state.
KC