Tax Cuts

[riona]

Someone is trying to sell us magic beans -


http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0522/p15s01-cogn.html
By David R. Francis

snip
'That latest tax cut gives an estimated 80 percent of the tax savings to the top 10 percent of taxpayers. Yet the rich are already paying a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than at any time in the past 75 years. True, they give Uncle Sam a lot of money. But that's because their earnings have grown much faster than those of the typical American.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average weekly earnings in the US last month - when calculated in 1982 dollars - was $277. That's the same as in November 2001 when today's economic recovery began. In current dollars, the average weekly earnings were $565 last month.

The reason Congress doesn't spread tax savings around more evenly is that "people understand that poor people don't create jobs, and rich people do," says Republican economist Bruce Bartlett.

Moreover, people who earn less than $30,000 a year are unlikely to pay much, if any, income taxes, notes Mr. Bartlett, a former Treasury economist. His implication is that lower-income people could not care less what Congress does on taxes.

They do, however, pay substantial Social Security payroll taxes.

Jared Bernstein, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute, uses two words to describe the conservative argument that tax cuts making the rich richer will grow the economy faster and therefore pay for itself in government revenues: "snake oil."


More at link...


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[acmavm]

1. Mr. Bernstein, I think a lot of us already know this. The BIG

question is what can we do about it?

[riona]

2. Good question

The rest of the article could make you want to tear out your hair - like this section-


"He suspects one reason Americans tolerate tax cuts favoring the wealthy is that many anticipate becoming rich themselves and thereby benefiting.

Americans tell themselves that tomorrow, "I, too, will be a fat cat," Bernstein says. But that probability is "tiny."

NO KIDDING!

[acmavm]

4. I saw that . I struck me as being too silly to even give it a

second thought let alone have to type out a response.

[unblock]

3. give money to POOR people is what creates jobs

rich people have to WORK to suck that money out of the hands of poor people. money in the hands of poor people WILL be spent, and that's the income that pays other peoples' salaries.

THAT's where jobs come from.