Robert Reich: The Truth About Obama’s Tax Proposal (and the Lies the Regressives are Telling...)

[ProSense]

The Truth About Obama’s Tax Proposal (and the Lies the Regressives are Telling About It)

To hear the media report it, President Obama is proposing a tax increase on wealthy Americans. That’s misleading at best. He’s proposing that everyone receive a continuation of the Bush tax cuts on the first $250,000 of their incomes. Any dollars they earn in excess of $250,000 will be taxed at the old Clinton-era rates.

Get it? Everyone is treated exactly the same. Everyone gets a one-year extension of the Bush tax cut on the first $250,000 of income. No “class warfare.”

Yet regressive Republicans want Americans to believe differently. The editorial writers of the Wall Street Journal say the President wants to extend the Bush tax cuts only “for some taxpayers.” They urge House Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts for “everyone” and thereby put Senate Democrats on the spot by “forcing them to choose between extending rates for everyone and accepting Mr. Obama’s tax increase.”

Pure demagoguery.

Regressives also want Americans to think the President’s proposal would hurt “tens of thousands of job-creating businesses,” as the Journal puts it.

More baloney.

A small business owner earning $251,000 would pay the Bush rate on the first $250,000 and the old Clinton rate on just $1,000.

- more -

http://robertreich.org/post/26903999855

They lie. They know damn well how the income tax works. The tax rates on income apply to everyone on every level.



http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/getting-it-right-obama-tax-plan


Frankly, I'd like to see all the tax cuts expire in favor of real tax reform. Return to a tax structure similar to the 1960s.



http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/taxes-at-the-top/

Consider the following adjustments by Robert Reich.

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The most direct way to get more money into their pockets is to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (a wage subsidy) all the way up through people earning $50,000, and reduce their income taxes to zero. Taxes on incomes between $50,000 and $90,000 should be cut to 10 percent; between $90,000 and $150,000 to 20 percent; between $150,000 and $250,000 to 30 percent.

And exempt the first $20,000 of income from payroll taxes.

Make up the revenues by increasing taxes on incomes between $250,000 to $500,000 to 40 percent; between $500,000 and $5 million, to 50 percent; between $5 million and $15 million, to 60 percent; and anything over $15 million, to 70 percent.

And raise the ceiling on the portion of income subject to payroll taxes to $500,000.

<...>

http://robertreich.org/post/3277360050

Increasing taxes on people making $250,000 and lumping $500,000 and $5 million into the same category would be a tough sell.

The brackets could be adjusted:

$250,000 to $500,000 (no change)
$500,000 to $1 million (increse to 40 percent)
$1 million to $5 million (increase to 50 percent)
$5 million plus (increase to 60 to 65 percent)

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t