Tax cuts in black and white
By: Carrie Budoff Brown and John Maggs
Politico.com
November 30, 2010
In the complex debate over the Bush-era tax cuts, both parties are guilty of shading the truth.
Republicans charge that Democrats oppose any tax cuts for the wealthy and would decimate the small-business sector — neither of which is entirely true.
To hear Democrats tell it, Republicans are pushing a budget-busting plan to extend the high-end tax cuts, but Democrats fail to acknowledge that their middle-class-only proposal would still cost trillions of dollars.
With Congress returning to Washington and hoping to negotiate a resolution before the end of the year, here is POLITICO’s fact check on the debate.
“At a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.”
(More here.)
Politico.com
November 30, 2010
In the complex debate over the Bush-era tax cuts, both parties are guilty of shading the truth.
Republicans charge that Democrats oppose any tax cuts for the wealthy and would decimate the small-business sector — neither of which is entirely true.
To hear Democrats tell it, Republicans are pushing a budget-busting plan to extend the high-end tax cuts, but Democrats fail to acknowledge that their middle-class-only proposal would still cost trillions of dollars.
With Congress returning to Washington and hoping to negotiate a resolution before the end of the year, here is POLITICO’s fact check on the debate.
“At a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.”
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Why are we debating tax cuts? One of two things will happen on January 01, 2011 - either the current rates will expire and all margins will increase to 2002 percentages or the current rates will remain in effect.
If Congress does nothing, then the tax rate percentages will increase on January 01, 2011 to the rates that were in effect back in 2001. If Congress rescinds the expiration of the current tax percentages, then the current tax percentages will simply stay in place.
Let me be absolutely crystal clear here - there is no American tax payer whose income taxes will be cut come January 01, 2011. Either the existing tax percentages stay in effect or the tax percentages go up to what the percentages were in 2001.
In this debate we are not talking about tax cuts. We are talking about keeping existing tax percentages or raising them.
This is what I hate about the media and where the Democrats have turned the phrase 'tax cut' in to something it is not. The Democrats have so hijacked the phrase 'tax cut' that people now think a tax cut is a government subsidy. So when the Democrats talk about the 'benefits' of a 'tax cut going to the wealthy' they make it sound like the government is cutting a check and giving welfare to the wealth. Of course, the media have been complicit in this ruse by not teaching Americans about what is truly meant by a tax cut. There are no 'benefits' in cutting taxes. Cutting taxes is merely a reduction in the amount of money a tax payer owes the government.
A tax cut is analagous to a retail store 'discount'. The price of a new shirt is $50, but the store has decided to offer you a discount of 10%. So, if you buy the shirt you don't pay the entire $50 for it, but you pay the dicounted cost of $45 ($50 less the 10% discount --> $50 - 10% of $50 --> $50 - $5 --> $45). So, the discount is $5. Now, you as the buyer only paid $45 instead of $50 - what you owed the retailer was cut, as it were. This is exactly how tax cuts work. But, instead, the Democrats make it seem as if the retailer gave you a $5 benefit in effect paying you $5to buy the shirt for $50 and saying you received a $5 benefit. This is how the debate over 'tax cuts' has been so bastardized - on purpose by the Democrats I might add - that the complicit media can't even get it right when there is no tax cut being part of the current debate regarding the 2011 tax rates...
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