{"article":{"id":5935,"heading":"fwd: Tax Cut Facts","author":"fwd","created":"2001-04-18 11:05:02","modified":"2013-11-10 23:37:14","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:37:14","article":"

FACTS ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S PROPOSED TAX CUT



WHO BENEFITS

Based on OMB (Office of Management and Budget) estimates, the President’s 1.6 trillion tax cut will actually cost

2.5 trillion.

About 39% of the tax cut will benefit the wealthiest 1% of Americans (who pay about 24% of federal taxes). The

richest 1% of Americans will receive more tax benefits under the President’s plan than the bottom 80% of families

combined.

The President’s plan will give no benefit at all to 27% of all taxpayers—34.4 million families.

We often hear that a typical family of four will realize a benefit from a $1600 tax cut. What fails to get mentioned is that the

figure is actually $1,600 over 10 years or $160 per year.

ON EDUCATION

The budget provides more tax cuts for the most affluent 1% of Americans than it provides for all education, health, defense and

other initiatives combined.

Using figures taken directly from the President’s budget, the amount devoted to the tax cut will be 40 times the amount

provided for education initiatives. By 2011, there will be more than $50 in tax cuts for every dollar in education spending

increases.

The President’s budget proposes to use $58 billion in 2011 for repeal of the tax on estates worth more than these amounts.

This is 12 times the increase proposed for the nation’s education system that year.

Indeed, the budget would use $29 billion in 2011—six times the increase in education funding for the nation’s

schoolchildren—just to eliminate estate taxes on the 4,500 largest estates in the nation.

FIGHTING OVER CRUMBS

Every dollar of increases in expenditures for education is offset by a dollar reduction in expenditures for job

training, services for children or the elderly and disabled individuals or other programs in this part of the budget.

WHAT HAPPENS IN 2011

During the second 10 year period, (2012 – 2021) the cost of the tax cut would be $5 trillion (not counting increased

debt payments). Is it prudent to commit virtually the entire available surplus now, given that the surplus figures are

only projections and are highly uncertain? This tax cut may consume virtually all of the available surpluses for a

generation.

The 2012 – 2021 period is a time when: the baby boom generation begins to retire in large numbers; Social Security

and Medicare costs begin to swell…budget surpluses are projected to stop rising and start shrinking even if no tax

cuts or program increases are enacted.

The Administration’s budget also shows that in 2011, with all provisions of the tax cut fully in effect, tax cuts would outweigh

program initiatives (education, health care, jobs training, housing, police) by 10 to 1.

IMPACT OF DEFENSE SPENDING

These figures do not account for the costs of the President’s proposed national missile defense system. This program

would require additional cuts from non-defense discretionary spending. Already, defense spending accounts for half

of all discretionary spending.

WHAT’S MISSING

Some 43 million Americans lack health insurance. Medicare lacks a drug prescription benefit. Social Security is

projected to be insolvent by 2029. Child poverty is higher in American than in most of Western Europe and Canada,

as is infant mortality, illiteracy and incarceration.

THE CHOICE

Is cutting taxes for the wealthiest 1% of Americans more important than health care, education and job training,

initiatives to pull poor children, women and the elderly out of poverty; is it more important than Social Security and

Medicare, more important than ending child hunger, poverty, neglect and abuse? Is it more important than law

enforcement, environmental protection, toxic waste clean up, transportation and air traffic safety?

This is our choice to make—an extremely important moral, ethical and spiritual choice—a simple choice that

determines what future our children will inherit—a bankrupt, impoverished nation with no money for the

development and safety of our people.

As the most powerful country in the world, it is incumbent upon us to use this power responsibly, to set a moral and

spiritual example by demonstrating our reverence for Life, by investing in the true wealth of our country—our

people.

It is our responsibility to be good stewards of the Earth, to leave our communities and the world better than we found

it, a worthy inheritance for the next generation.

Excerpts from “Follow the Money: The Administration’s Budget Priorities”

By Robert Greenstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Also see: www.fairtaxesforall.org

Also: “Impact of the Bush Administration’s Budget on Core National Priorities”

Prepared by Democratic Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Senator

Edward Kennedy, Ranking Member (3\/01)<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"FACTS ABOUT THE PRESIDENT\u2019S PROPOSED TAX CUT","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/04\/fwd__tax_c.txt","filesize":"4.8 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/04\/5935.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}