Conservatives rave about Bush tax cuts, so I researched them. Guess what I found?

Question

One quarter of 1 percent who earn more than $1 million a year got 62% of the tax savings from the change in the law. People with incomes of over $10 million a year got 28% of that group's savings at about $1.9 million each. Citizens For Tax Justice Committee released this and found that the rich are indeed getting richer , thanks to the new laws.

Thegustaffa-The Committee was created by Bush himself in 2003. That is what made it so ironic.

Guess what I found? was considered a question in all of my English classes.

Chredon-Thank you! I am in that 50-200K group that you mentioned even tho' I have been told by some answerers to get off my lasy a** and work & I'm sitting here laughing because I probably make more than most of them answering. The tax distribution just isn't fair. I didn't gain anything.

namsaev-Trust me I don't need what little money it is that you say you don't make. Read paragraph above. I'm just in the middle it appears & getting no breaks. The rich can hire lawyers & pay no taxes & the poor can get food stamps. What about the Middle Class? And I haven't seen s*** trickling down my way.

Answer 1

Ian, you are wrong, the questioner is right.

People who make more than 1 million/yr in America only pay 19% of all taxes. The majority of taxes (50% or so) are paid by people making between 50K and 200K per year.

See the second table in the link below for the distribution of tax burden by income level.

The Bush tax cuts put a higher percentage of the tax burden to the 50-200K group, moving it away from the 500K+ group. Once again, the squeeze was put on the middle class.

EDIT: I have seen people saying, with the usual Conservative lack of mathematical proof, that tax revenues have gone up as a result of the tax cuts. This is patently untrue. See the second link below. You can see in the inflation-adjusted column that it was 2006 before revenues finally got back to matching what they were in 2000. Since revenues tend to go up 2-3% per year when there are no tax changes, the net result is that our revenues are currently 12-15% below where they WOULD have been had there been no tax cuts.

Answer 2

This really is just simple math. If you pay more into the system which is based on a percentage of your income then you will benefit more from a tax break. You will benefit proportionate to what you originally were paying. So those who paid in less did not see a huge difference because the amount they were putting in was considerably less than those making more than $1 million a year.

There are many many more people who fall into the middle class and lower than fall into the 1% who make millions so it does not surprise me that the middle class pays more of the taxes. It is still simple math. If there are 10 million who put in $1 (middle and lower class) that equals $10 million if there are 1000 (1% who make over a million a year) who put in $100 that equals $100,000 - so the smaller group is paying more per person but less as a whole since there are less people who make up that group.

Hey- I would love to have more money in my pocket and be wealthy - so would everyone but the simple fact is that you have to work for it. I don't agree with penalizing someone because they worked hard to get where they are or made good decisions. Good for them, I envy them but I don't want to punish them.

Answer 3

1. tax revenues have gone up due to the tax cuts. a slightly smaller percentage on a much larger number mathematically leads to a larger total.

2. This criticism operates under the assumption that the money was the government's to begin with. Everyone got the same percentage of a cut, though the rich just paid a larger percentage of the tax pie to begin with.

3. The tax cuts don't have a thing to do with the rising gap between the rich and the poor; if I paid $100 and get back $1, I don't get proportionally poorer compared to someone who pays $1000 and gets back $10. The rising gap between the rich and the poor has more to do with the government devaluing the currency by just printing bills indefinitely for unproductive/counterproductive entitlement programs, and for our wars.

Answer 4

I'll say this, I work in accounting and do payroll. When the tax cuts went into effect several years back, the first paycheck I got in January I saw an additional $15 on my paycheck. I make $40,000 a year. That's $780 more each year. It may not seem like much, but it's two rent payment.

My feeling is, if I was a millionaire paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes each year and there was a tax cut I would expect to get a larger percentage back. Besides, I know a lot of people who don't pay any taxes and they still get a refund, and many who do pay taxes get it all back plus some extra.

Answer 5

Nothing new it has been agenda of the Republican Party since the 1920's to cut, reduce or abolish the taxes on the rich.

Andrew Mellon Secretary of the Treasury from 1921-1933 made it point to reduce taxes on the rich which was done in the 1920's guess what happen 1929? It is theory of "trickle down economy" the more money the rich have they will invest and create new jobs. During the Reagan years known as "voodoo economics as coined by by vice president Bush!"

In Reagan years got $50.00 tax cut and Bush# 2 got $32.00 tax cut enough to by couple gallons of gas gallon on milk.

Answer 6

If it was rational for a person to have an income of over $1M a year, I would understand the complaints of the conservatives. The obscene compensation of those at the top is accomplished through greed, cronyism, nepotism and opportunism. In addition, the IRS tax code is designed to help the wealthy to avoid paying taxes.

Will Americans ever think that excessive greed is a negative trait for a person or organization to have?

Answer 7

In all of these diatribes I haven't heard anybody say how much of the wealthy's money is put into tax free areas, thus no taxes. There are so many loopholes in our tax laws that some of the very rich pay NO taxes.

Answer 8

Guess what, that's just how it is. If we want tax breaks, the rich get the most of them. The fact is, whatever you tax the rich rolls down hill, so if they get a break, so do we.

I need the tax break and the government does not need more money to waste on golden toilet seats.

Answer 9

Do the tax justice people also mention that throughout our history tax cuts have meant less unemployment, less people below the poverty line, higher GDP, more government revenue and more spent on government social programs or did that one get by them?

Answer 10

Wow, the rich got to keep the money they earned and deserved?! OMFG are you serious? Is your boss rich? Have you received a raise or obtained better employment or get a new house? Have you bought a new car? Were you able to have children and get a nice return? No?

Vote Democrat if you haven't taken advantage of the tax cuts because it would be apparent that you don't like to work for what you have. Just let the middle Americans support your lazy @ss.