Giving to the Rich....and the Poor!

From the NY Times:

The Senate voted 54 to 44 on Thursday to pass almost $70 billion in tax cuts, mostly for the nation's wealthiest taxpayers. The action ensures that virtually all of President Bush's tax cuts will be locked in place until after the next presidential election.

Charles Schumer had this to say:

"The Bush administration and the Republican leadership are far more interested in helping their wealthiest friends than hardworking, middle-class Americans. The GOP made its choice, and they chose millionaire investors and oil companies over middle class families."

And how does creating policy to "punish" the rich, benefit the poor? The "wealthy" already shoulder the majority of the tax burden of this nation. The tax cuts benefit everyone. If the wealthy see a larger tax return, that's because they pay more taxes than the bottom bracket income earners. The poor might not get a huge tax return, but that's because those on the bottom end don't even pay income tax. As President Kennedy said: "A rising tide lifts all boats." Everyone benefits or suffers together. Not just one class. In the 80's, tax revenue rose by 99.4%, outpacing inflation. This is what is happening now.

Stephen Moore, member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal explains it very well in this Marketplace interview, from April 26th:

The Bush tax cuts have been routinely assailed as multimillion dollar giveaways to the Rolls Royce owners of America at the expense of the middle class.

But new IRS statistics on the taxes Americans pay show that George Bush's tax policies actually soak the rich.

It turns out that the income tax burden has substantially shifted onto the wealthy. The percentage of federal income taxes paid by those who make more than $200,000 a year has actually risen from 41% to 47% in recent years.

In other words, the richest 3 out of 100 Americans are now paying close to the same amount in income taxes as the other 97% of workers combined.

It's also a common myth that the rich are hording all the wealth, while the middle class stays stuck in economic quicksand.

The IRS data show that the share of all income earned by the wealthiest 10% of Americans has actually fallen since 2001. The rich are earning less of the total income but paying more of the total taxes.

During this economic expansion, the middle class is growing and becoming more prosperous. About 4 out of 10 Americans now make more than $50,000 a year -- that's up from 3 out of 10 in 1990.

There's more good news. Tax revenues over the past two years are up more than half a trillion dollars — the largest two-year increase in tax collections in history.

Bush cut the capital gains and dividend taxes, but guess what? Now those tax receipts are through the roof in the last two years.

It's called the Laffer Curve: a lower tax rate has increased economic growth and investment and thus the government gets more tax revenues.

The Bush tax cuts have pumped steroids into the US economy and created 5 million new jobs, a surge in new business investment and record worker productivity.

Those are the reasons to make the tax cuts permanent. But for those who really want to sock it to the rich, the Bush tax cuts have done that too.

President Bush's tax cuts work: Everyone benefits. The kind of economic policies- of raising taxes- that Democrats favor, punishes all classes. We should be creating more wealth for everyone to enjoy by allowing more people to keep more of their own earnings; not stifling growth.