Here's Obama at one rally:
"My opponent, he believes in top-down economics, thinks that if you spend another $5 trillion on a tax cut skewed towards the wealthy that prosperity will rain down on everyone else."
It's a powerful argument, marred only by the fact that the $5 trillion tax cut is a fiction.
Let's see how this happened.
Some blame belongs to Romney. He has made many vague, inconsistent and contradictory promises. He would cut all individual income tax rates by 20 percent and then offset lost revenues by eliminating tax breaks -- but doesn't say which ones. He would reduce government spending from today's 23 percent of gross domestic product to 20 percent, a $450 billion annual cut -- but doesn't say how. He would balance the budget and raise defense spending. And so on.
On taxes, uncertainties abound. If you cut everyone's tax rates by 20 percent, the rich -- with the highest rates and the biggest tax bills -- get the biggest breaks. The present top rate of 35 percent drops to 28 percent; the lowest rate falls only from 10 percent to 8 percent. (Each reduction is one-fifth, or 20 percent.) If that were all, Romney's plan would indeed represent a windfall for the wealthy. Those with annual incomes exceeding $1 million would save an average $175,000, estimates the Tax Policy Center (TPC), a research group. (By the TPC's estimates, the 0.8 percent of taxpayers with incomes over $500,000 currently pay 28 percent of federal taxes.)
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/05/the_5_trillion_tax_cut_myth_115672.html
The BLUF: Neither pol has provided a plausible answer, but the 5 Trillion dollar tax break for the rich is imaginary. While Obama campaign has provided not even a whiff of how they'd arrested the currently screaming government debts or pay for any of the grand democratic programs, Romney/Ryan has a serious side - they've actually put a proposal on the table.
"My opponent, he believes in top-down economics, thinks that if you spend another $5 trillion on a tax cut skewed towards the wealthy that prosperity will rain down on everyone else."
It's a powerful argument, marred only by the fact that the $5 trillion tax cut is a fiction.
Let's see how this happened.
Some blame belongs to Romney. He has made many vague, inconsistent and contradictory promises. He would cut all individual income tax rates by 20 percent and then offset lost revenues by eliminating tax breaks -- but doesn't say which ones. He would reduce government spending from today's 23 percent of gross domestic product to 20 percent, a $450 billion annual cut -- but doesn't say how. He would balance the budget and raise defense spending. And so on.
On taxes, uncertainties abound. If you cut everyone's tax rates by 20 percent, the rich -- with the highest rates and the biggest tax bills -- get the biggest breaks. The present top rate of 35 percent drops to 28 percent; the lowest rate falls only from 10 percent to 8 percent. (Each reduction is one-fifth, or 20 percent.) If that were all, Romney's plan would indeed represent a windfall for the wealthy. Those with annual incomes exceeding $1 million would save an average $175,000, estimates the Tax Policy Center (TPC), a research group. (By the TPC's estimates, the 0.8 percent of taxpayers with incomes over $500,000 currently pay 28 percent of federal taxes.)
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/05/the_5_trillion_tax_cut_myth_115672.html
The BLUF: Neither pol has provided a plausible answer, but the 5 Trillion dollar tax break for the rich is imaginary. While Obama campaign has provided not even a whiff of how they'd arrested the currently screaming government debts or pay for any of the grand democratic programs, Romney/Ryan has a serious side - they've actually put a proposal on the table.
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