Hurrah for the Bush tax cuts.

[hfojvt]

I got this email update from the CBPP. http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3572&emailView=1

So I sent them this angry letter.

You seem to be saying 'hurrah for the Bush tax cuts', since you apprently accept and embrace tax cuts that provide the vast majority of benefits to the top, and also embrace bad arguments for those tax cuts. Like your table showing hardly any benefits for those making over a million (which reminds me of the Bush arguments that since $300 is a larger PERCENTAGE of my taxes that it's actually MORE than the $200,000 that he would get himself. In the same way, you seem to argue that the $220 I get from the payroll tax cut is somehow bigger than the $2,000 that a millionaire will get (and probably another $2,000 for their spouse if they are like the Obama's where both were making over $150,000 a year.)

Then you have a table of 11 salaries, and 7 of them are over $50,000, and four of them are over $65,000 (one by a whopping 89% (since you like percentages so much). This, in spite of the fact that 50% of HOUSEHOLDS make less than $50,000 and many of those households have TWO incomes, the SUM of which is less than $50,000.

One might expect a Democratic President to propose policies to benefit those people below the median income, and not policies that provide over 70% of their benefits to the richest 40% and just trickle down to the rest of us.

Failing that, one might hope that organizations like the CBPP would hold their feet to the fire, and attack trickle down proposals. Now, having been stabbed in the back by Obama, all I can do is turn around and say 'et tu, CBPP?'

But apparently too this is another victory for the rightwing, which always said that CBPP was a partisan organization and NOT one that provides honest analysis. Sad, that those people seem to have been proven correct.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Uh, this is about the payroll tax cut, not Bush's.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3572&emailView=1

Letting Payroll Tax Cut Expire Would Shrink Worker Paychecks and Damage Weak Economy


Failure by Congress to extend the temporary payroll tax cut enacted last December would reduce all paychecks starting on January 1, withdrawing needed support from the still-weak economy. The measure, part of the tax cut-unemployment insurance deal between President Obama and Republican leaders, reduces the employee share of the Social Security payroll tax,<1> boosting workers' take-home pay by an estimated $120 billion in 2011. The tax cut is worth $934 to the average worker. (The table below gives some examples of how the tax cut's expiration would affect workers in different occupations.)

[hfojvt]

2. yeah, I know that but it's like deja vu all over again.

Just like the Bush tax cuts, the payroll tax cut mostly benefits the wealthy. 46% goes to the richest 20% while a mere 27% goes to the bottom 60%.

Just like the Bush tax cuts, the CBPP is making the argument that "the greatest percentage in tax cuts goes to those at the bottom".

Just like the Bush tax cuts, Obama is claiming, the average worker will get a $1,000 tax cut when the distribution looks like this

Bottom 20% - average tax cut $145
next 20% - average tax cut $320
MIDDLE 20% - average tax cut $579 (less than 60% of that $1,000)

60% of the country is getting less than 60% of what Obama (and the CBPP) claims the "average" worker will get.

but just like with Bush's tax cuts

top 1% - average tax cut $2,328
next 4% - average tax cut $2,137

"This is my approach: tax relief for everybody, in every bracket, averaging $1,600 per family, while still reducing our national debt and funding important priorities." George W. Bush - Feb 5, 2001

"the bottom end of the economic ladder receives the biggest percentage cuts" George W. Bush - Feb 5, 2001

"My tax relief plan is a fair one, lowering the rate for all taxpayers. The typical family of four with two children will get $1,600 in tax relief. And the greatest benefits, the largest percentage reductions, will go to those who need them most. My plan is pro-growth. It gives our economy a jump-start by leaving more money in the hands of those who have earned it." George W. Bush - Feb 17, 2001

Obama has also made this argument

"I look forward to signing the economic recovery bill soon. The principle of the bill is pretty simple, that we believe the more money people have in their pockets, the more likely it is somebody is going to be able to find work in America. In other words, the more money somebody has, it means somebody is more likely to demand a good or a service, which means somebody will produce a good or a service, which means somebody is likely to find work." George W. Bush - May 22, 2003


A tax break that favors the top and the same dishonest arguments to support it. That is not change I can believe in, that's more of the same.

[ThomWV]

3. In December 2010 they became the Obama Tax Cuts

The moment he signed the extension into law they became his tax cuts.