More tax cuts for millionaires coming up
Apart from the very rich, it is impossible for anyone in possession of both the facts and their own sanity to support the Bush regime. Here is yet another case in point:
On January 1, two new tax shifts (so-called tax "cuts") will go into effect. The way they work is a complicated story, but basically they allow high-income taxpayers to deduct more from their taxable income. Fully 97% of the benefits of the tax shifts will go to households with incomes over $200,000; in fact, 53.5% of the benefits will go to households with annual incomes over $1 million (which is to say that two-tenths of one-percent of the population gets over half the benefit of the tax shifts). Households with incomes under $100,000 -- that is, 85% of the country -- will get one-tenth of one percent of the benefits, which is to say that most people will receive exactly nothing.
These tax shifts will cost $27 billion over the next five years. If Congress were to roll back these tax shifts, they could fully fund all of the low-income programs -- including Medicaid -- that they cut in the budget reconciliation legislation last week.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has the details for anyone who's interested in the truth. Read it and weep.