Dems: House GOP’s Stimulus Plan Would Actually Raise Taxes For Many Americans

[babsbunny]

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/stimulus-package/dems-house-gops-stimulus-plan-would-actually-raise-taxes-for-many-americans/


GOP leaders — led by John Boehner and Eric Cantor — have spent days bashing the economic stimulus package being touted by President Obama and Democrats because it doesn’t sufficiently cut taxes.

But is it possible that the alternative plan House Republicans unveiled as a more responsible approach earlier this week would have actually raised taxes for untold numbers of Americans?

That’s the surprising claim that House Democratic staffers who have taken a look at the GOP plan are now making. They insist to me that the Republicans did some almost comic number shuffling in drawing up their proposal, the upshot of which would be that the actual tax bill would go up for many.

And they’re now preparing to make an issue of this in the districts of Republican House members by painting Republicans as the would-be tax hikers.

[Coexist]

1. nice

[glowing]

2. Its true when they discussed tax breaks it was for those that only paid 15%.

They wanted to decrease that number to 10%. I think Warren Buffet is rich enough.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Republicans will raise your taxes hear all about it!

LOL!!!

[Turbineguy]

4. Yes, but it's OK because

their portion of the national debt will rise to offset that tax hike.

Just trying out my new GOP brand calculator.

[Jim Lane]

5. Just from the linked article, I don't see how this attack on the GOP plan is justified

The argument turns on the Alternative Minimum Tax. A taxpayer pays the regular tax due or the amount due under the AMT, whichever is higher. The purpose of the AMT is to put some limits on taxpayers' ability to avoid taxes by multiple deductions, credits, etc.

If you reduce the tax that people owe under the regular rules, then, for some of those people, the amount they now owe will be below the AMT amount. Therefore, they'll be newly subject to the AMT. Many of them might find their supposed tax cuts to be almost completely eliminated by the triggering of the AMT.

So it's valid to say that the Republicans' supposed tax cuts would often be illusory, but I don't see how the provisions could ever produce a tax increase. If your AMT amount owed is higher than your current tax obligation, then you're already paying the AMT. If your AMT is lower than what you pay now, then you'd get at least some benefit from switching to paying the AMT amount.