Greenspan: Congress should let the Bush Tax Cuts expire

[qh4dotcom]

http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/alan-Greenspan-Congress-Bush-Tax-Cuts-Lapse/2010/07/16/id/364848?s=al&promo_code=A499-1

[lynnf]

what else could we expect from a Bilderberger and/or CFR stooge?

lynn

[ChaosControl]

Raising taxes on the middle and lower class is brilliant during a recession!

[qh4dotcom]

Raising taxes on the middle and lower class is brilliant during a recession!

I bet I know what the Democrats will say

"We're not increasing your taxes...this is the elimination of a tax decrease. Your taxes rates are supposed to be what they were during Bill Clinton's presidency. The Bush tax cuts were meant to be temporary, not permanent."

[Zippyjuan]

The bulk of the benefits of the Bush tax cut went to the wealthy- not the middle class and poor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61178-2004Aug12.html

Tax Burden Shifts to the Middle
Presidential Campaigns Draw Differing Conclusions From Report

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 13, 2004; Page A04

Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families, the Congressional Budget Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil the presidential election campaign.

The CBO study, due to be released today, found that the wealthiest 20 percent, whose incomes averaged $182,700 in 2001, saw their share of federal taxes drop from 64.4 percent of total tax payments in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year. The top 1 percent, earning $1.1 million, saw their share fall to 20.1 percent of the total, from 22.2 percent.

Over that same period, taxpayers with incomes from around $51,500 to around $75,600 saw their share of federal tax payments increase. Households earning around $75,600 saw their tax burden jump the most, from 18.7 percent of all taxes to 19.5 percent.



25% of people received no tax cut.
http://www.factcheck.org/here_we_go_again_bush_exaggerates_tax.html

The President also bobbled the numbers when describing the average size of the cut. Here's the official White House transcript of what he said, which was wrong, along with the footnotes inserted later by the White House staff to correct the record:

Bush: The tax relief we passed, 11 million* taxpayers this year will save $1,086* off their taxes. . . .

(* 111 million taxpayers will save, on average, $1,586 off their taxes.)

The $1,586 figure is indeed an accurate statement of the average cut received by those who are getting a cut, according to the Treasury Department. However, it is far from typical.

For one thing, the figure does not take into account the 25% of all individuals and families who are receiving zero tax cut this year. It is an average only of those who are getting some cut. When those who get nothing are added in the average cut drops to $1,217, according to the Tax Policy Center.

But most importantly, the average is inflated by the fact that most of the money is going to a relatively few taxpayers at the top of the income scale, as seen from the following table distilled from a more extensive analysis by the Tax Policy Center:

Combined Effect of Bush Tax Cuts 2003

Income
(in thousands) Percent of Households Average Tax Change



Less than 10 23.7 -$8
10-20 16.6 -$307
20-30 13.3 -$638
30-40 9.7 -$825
40-50 7.6 -$1,012
50-75 13.0 -$1,403
75-100 6.8 -$2,543
100-200 6.6 -$3,710
200-500 1.6 -$7,173
500-1,000 0.3 -$22,485
More than 1,000 0.1 -$112,925
Source: Tax Policy Center table T03-0123

Taxpayers making more than $1 million a year get an average cut of nearly $113,000 this year. Such huge cuts at the top tend to pull up the numerical average that the President is fond of citing.

A more meaningful number is the median -- or mid-point. The Tax Policy Center calculates the median cut received for income earned in 2003 is $470.
That means half of all individuals and families get less than that, and half get more.


$470 comes out to $9 a week. Since the cuts were not offset by cuts in spending, they added to the deficit and the national debt.

[AuH20]

The bulk of the benefits of the Bush tax cut went to the wealthy- not the middle class and poor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61178-2004Aug12.html

182 thousand dollars annually isn't what I would consider wealthy. In the metropolitan New York area, that's upper middle class. True wealth is largely predicated upon ownership, whether it's a business or properties. These class warfare lies have been well-maintained by the overseers.

[Romulus]

'wealthy' meaning upper middle class? Who do you think supports the middle and lower class? Gives them jobs and so on.

If these expire, it's going to be a disaster on an already fucked economy.

[John Taylor]

Raising taxes on the middle and lower class is brilliant during a recession!

Raising taxes ON ANY CLASS is foolish during a recession.

It is the upper class which provides the savings necessary for long-term capital investment, in the absence of fed intervention through monetary policy...

[John Taylor]

The bulk of the benefits of the Bush tax cut went to the wealthy- not the middle class and poor.

25% of people received no tax cut.


$470 comes out to $9 a week. Since the cuts were not offset by cuts in spending, they added to the deficit and the national debt.

The "wealthy" already pay a tremendous disproportionate share of the federal tax, while only reaping the same benefit any other citizen reaps. The income tax should be completely scrapped, but if it remains, it should be one flat level, for everyone, regardless of their income level. Anything else is a violation of the equal protection clause in my humble opinion.

[klamath]

The bulk of the benefits of the Bush tax cut went to the wealthy- not the middle class and poor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61178-2004Aug12.html


25% of people received no tax cut.
http://www.factcheck.org/here_we_go_again_bush_exaggerates_tax.html


$470 comes out to $9 a week. Since the cuts were not offset by cuts in spending, they added to the deficit and the national debt.
I think you need to ditch your old democratic talking points.

[ChaosControl]

Raising taxes ON ANY CLASS is foolish during a recession.

It is the upper class which provides the savings necessary for long-term capital investment, in the absence of fed intervention through monetary policy...

Perhaps, but I care more about the middle class than I do the upper class. If they're going to let the cuts expire, they need to at least only let the cuts on the upper class expire and not the lower brackets.