Dear Mr. President, Please Don't Extend The Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans

[Amerigo Vespucci]

James Kwak

Co-author of The Baseline Scenario and of 13 Bankers
Posted: November 14, 2010 07:58 PM

Dear Mr. President, Please Don't Extend The Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans

There have been (admittedly unclear) indications from your administration that you may accede to the Republicans’ demand to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone. I urge you not to do this.

The question is: Is it better to extend the tax cuts for everyone or for no one? The answer is to extend them for no one.

The Bush tax cuts have always overwhelmingly benefited the rich, not the middle class, and that is no less true today than when they were enacted. They were bad policy then and they are bad policy today. Extending the tax cuts would dramatically enrich the wealthy relative to everyone else. 65.5 percent of the total benefit would go to the top quintile by income, 26.8 percent to the top 1 percent, and 14.7 percent to the top 0.1 percent.*

Leaving aside discredited, Reagan-era theories about trickle-down economics, there are two main arguments for extending the tax cuts:

1. You shouldn’t “increase”** taxes during in tough economic times.

2. The tax cuts will help the middle class.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-kwak/obama-bush-tax-cuts-compromise-_b_783356.html

[Tutankhamun]

1. Dear Mr. Obama:

Take a stand, dammit!

[awoke_in_2003]

2. they will be extended...

and we will collapse- it is what wall street <thinks they> wants