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kpete

(71,996 posts)
Fri Nov 2, 2012, 09:22 AM Nov 2012

Congressional Research Service Report On Tax Cuts For Wealthy Suppressed By GOP

Congressional Research Service Report On Tax Cuts For Wealthy Suppressed By GOP

"The pressure applied to the research service comes amid a broader Republican effort to raise questions about research and statistics that were once trusted as nonpartisan and apolitical," the Times reported. Democrats in Congress, however, have resurfaced the report and published it in full. It can be read below.

Republicans told the Times they had issues with the tone, wording and scope of the report, but they clearly objected most strongly to its findings, which undermine the governing fiscal philosophy of the party, that tax cuts for the wealthy will spur growth and benefit everybody.

GOP officials told The Times that the decision by the CRS came after a cooperative discussion, but Democrats have suggested that the move is part of a broader effort by Republicans to squelch legitimate research that runs counter to their economic principles.

The CRS report, by researcher Thomas Hungerford, concluded:

The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie.

However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is sliced—lower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities.


MORE:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/01/congressional-research-service_n_2059156.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

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Congressional Research Service Report On Tax Cuts For Wealthy Suppressed By GOP (Original Post) kpete Nov 2012 OP
You know I've never needed a report to tell me rock Nov 2012 #1

rock

(13,218 posts)
1. You know I've never needed a report to tell me
Fri Nov 2, 2012, 10:01 AM
Nov 2012

that trickle down does not work. Giving money to the rich does not change anything - they remain rich. Giving money to the poor feeds them, houses them, clothes them, etc.

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