Hmmmm. Bush's tax breaks for the richest Americans EQUAL TO our debt to China
- From: "Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names" <PopUlist349@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:21:38 -0700 (PDT)
Tax Day gifts for the rich
By Holly Sklar
Common Dreams
April 15, 2008
WHEN IT COMES to cutting taxes for the wealthy, George W. Bush can
truly say, "Mission accomplished."
The richest 1 percent of Americans received about $491 billion in tax
breaks between 2001 and 2008. That’s nearly the same amount as U.S.
debt held by China — $493 billion — in the form of Treasury
securities.
Do you want our government to mortgage more of our nation’s future to
finance tax breaks for the rich?
More for the Rich
Tax cuts have already helped the richest 1 percent — whose annual
incomes average about $1.5 million — increase their share of the
nation’s income to a higher level than any year since 1928 on the eve
of the Great Depression.
Wall Street’s five biggest firms paid "a record $39 billion in bonuses
for 2007, a year when three of the companies suffered the worst
quarterly losses in their history" and are eliminating thousands of
jobs as losses mount from the subprime mortgage market collapse,
reports Bloomberg.
Giant Swindle
The International Monetary Fund says the United States is in the worst
financial crisis since the Great Depression. Yet, we are borrowing
money with interest to finance tax cuts for Wall Street executives.
For Americans below the top 1 percent, the tax cuts have been a giant
swindle. The bottom 99 percent of taxpayers were left with a bill of
$3.74 in debt for every $1 in federal tax cuts from 2001 to 2006,
reports Citizens for Tax Justice. Only the top 1 percent came out
ahead.
Meanwhile, the federal budgets for environmental protection and
housing for the elderly have been slashed more than 20 percent since
2001, adjusted for inflation, the Community Development Block Grant
budget is down 32 percent, and the lack of health insurance is an
epidemic.
Less and More
Most households aren’t even earning as much as they did in 1999,
adjusting for inflation. But the 400 taxpayers with the highest
incomes doubled their incomes between 2002 and 2005.
According to the latest IRS data, which excludes tax-exempt interest
income from state and local government bonds, the richest 400
taxpayers reported an average $214 million each on their federal
income tax returns in 2005 — up from $104 million in 2002.
As the Wall Street Journal observed, "It’s also important to remember
that these figures don’t represent wealth or even lifetime earnings —
merely income for a single year."
Lower Rates for Rich
Thanks to tax cuts, it’s now common for the nation’s richest bosses to
pay taxes at a lower rate than workers. The 400 richest taxpayers paid
only 18 percent of their income in federal individual income taxes in
2005 — down from 30 percent in 1995.
"The drop in effective tax rates for the top 400 filers," the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities reports, "worked out to a tax
reduction of $25 million per filer in 2005." It would take 673 average
workers earning $37,149 a year to reach $25 million today.
While tax cuts help the superrich compete over who has the biggest
submarine-carrying superyacht, Katrina survivors are being hit with
foreclosures, and neglected levees and bridges around the country are
a disaster waiting to happen.
$1.2 Trillion?
Most of the provisions of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are scheduled to
expire at the end of 2010. George Bush wants to make them permanent.
The richest 1 percent of households would receive nearly $1.2 trillion
in tax cuts from 2009 through 2018, reports the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities.
How much is $1.2 trillion? More than all the debt accumulated in the
nearly 200 years from George Washington through Ronald Reagan’s first
two years in office. That’s before adding interest payments on the
borrowed $1.2 trillion.
Big $45 Average Cut
Tax cuts for the wealthy fuel rising inequality along with rising debt
and neglect. Taxpayers with annual incomes above $1 million in fiscal
year 2012, for example, would increase their after-tax income by 7.5
percent thanks to an average tax cut of $162,000. The poorest 20
percent of taxpayers would get an average tax cut of $45 — and
decaying public services.
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
promise to end the tax breaks for the wealthy. Republican candidate
John McCain wants to extend them. What do you want?
Copyright 2008 Holly Sklar
Holly Sklar is co-author of "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That
Work for All of Us" and "A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers,
Business and Our Future." She can be reached at hsklar@xxxxxxxx
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/15/8293/
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