A Same-Old GOP Budget: Rich Pay Less, Everyone Else Pays More

[Emit]

At President Obama's White House summit on health care last month, when it was the House Republicans' turn to make an opening presentation, GOP leader John Boehner turned to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the top Republican on the House budget committee, to put forward the Republicans' case...

~snip~

Ryan's presentation -- which contained its own gimmicks -- was a signal that the Republicans see him as their go-to guy on fiscal matters. So it's quite fair to view the radical budget plan he unveiled a few weeks ago as a mainstream GOP initiative. Under his proposal -- which Ryan calls "A Roadmap for America's Future" and promotes on a rather spiffy Web page with gee-whiz graphics -- Social Security would be rejiggered to include private accounts, and Medicare and Medicaid would be replaced with vouchers-based private systems. This would indeed be bold change, and some conservatives just adore Ryan for being so audacious and so in love with the power of markets. But there is a same-old Republican aspect to his plan: The rich would pay less taxes . . . and everyone else would pay more.

This week Citizens for Tax Justice, a Washington-based advocacy group that focuses on tax policy, released a report analyzing how Ryan's master plan would affect taxes for Americans -- and compared it to Obama's budget proposals. These number-crunchers found that the top 1 percent -- people who make $460,700 or more a year -- would get a tax break of 15 percent and on average pay $211,300 less than under the Obama plan. Everyone in the top 10 percent ($127,769 and above) would receive a break. Those in the bottom 80 percent ($88,658 and below) would pay more taxes -- on average $1700 more. People making less than $20,063 would have to dole out $1605 in extra taxes.

These are pretty stark numbers. One reason low- and middle-income families would get socked by Ryan's plan is that he proposes replacing the corporate income tax with an 8.5 percent "business consumption tax" -- essentially a sales tax. Citizens for Tax Justice explains:

Low- and middle-income families spend most or all of their income on consumption, since they have little or no money left to save after paying for basic necessities. High-income families are able to save much more of their income. This means that if Congress enacts a tax that applies only to consumption (like a VAT or national sales tax), it would eat up a much larger percentage of total income for poor and middle-class families than for wealthy families. . . .

The 8.5 percent VAT is (almost) the entire reason why the bottom 90 percent of taxpayers would pay more under Congressman Ryan's plan than under President Obama's plan.

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http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/10/a-same-old-gop-budget-rich-pay-less-everyone-else-pays-more/

[Stuart G]

1. Selfish, self centered trash. that is all they know.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "More tax cuts for republicon fat cats!" - Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh (R)

[unblock]

3. the usual republican drill -- circulate an intended payoff to rich people to solicit bribes

rich people should know they aren't getting any major tax cut for a long time, even if republicans regain control.

[n2doc]

4. I was just thinking to myself-the problem with this country is that the rich don't have enough $$$

:sarcasm: