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Democrat vs. Republican tax cut graphics

August 19, 2010

This should get discussion going.

Ezra Klein, who writes about "Economic and Domestic Policy, and Lots of It" for the Washington Post, last week posted a graphic showing how many dollars various income groups would save under Dubya's soon-to-expire tax cuts and under Obama's tax plan.

Bush-obama taxes chart_WaPo

The circles, which indicate that the middle class would fare better under Obama's plan whereas wealthier folks would do quite well if the current tax rates remain in effect, prompted, says Klein, a lot of reaction.

So he followed up that post/graphic with another tax distribution chart, based on research (and even more graphic data representations) from the Tax Policy Center.

"What you can see there is that even in percentile terms," writes Klein, "the Bush tax
cuts do much more for the incomes of the rich
than the poor, and the Obama
proposal would do a lot more for the poor than for the rich. Make of this what
you will."

As I said, let the discussion begin.

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Not to spoil what you’ll find in that tax advice, but it does cover such things as tax deductions for charitable donations, investment moves that could reduce tax due, and ways to max out your tax-favored retirement savings. 

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Comments
  • It’s OK to feed them to piranhas, they’re rich.

    Both Kay Bell and Howard Gleckman (TaxVox) have posts today about how much “the rich” will be hit by the…

  • Jim Howard

    For the last 15 years I’ve worked as a software engineer in various small startups.
    Every single one has been started or backed by a wealthy person who had funds to gamble on a risky startup. Most lost their money.
    I’ve never been in a software company that benefited from any government largess.
    Taking money that rich people could invest in startups and giving it to the government to be used mostly for retirement pay hurts me.

  • Jeffrey A Day

    You don’t “really” want the discussion to begin. I have posted twice and you refuse to even allow my comments. Although my comments were correct and I don’t think you could dispute them. But they didn’t promote the democrat/socialist agenda.
    Jeff Day EA
    Evansville, IN

  • Jeff, I’ve gone through my comments section and I don’t have any unposted comments from you. This is the first one that’s shown up. I’m sorry you think I’m not posting comments. The only ones I ever disallow are unsupported rants and offensive comments. Maybe there was a glitch in the system. If you want to try again, I’ll be on the lookout for your comments. Kay

  • Government Corruption

    Very STRANGE that these defenders of Bush tax cuts for the WEALTHY are ignorant of the FACT, rich people don’t create the jobs-they OUTSOURCE them overseas, so screw the Wealthy NOW!
    Stimulate the middle-class or what is left of it from GOP incompetence, after the investment to middle & poor the economy will be stimulated & credit will be restored as they would be paid off immediately, Small Business will have seed or additional capital to hire & research & invest in their company, rather than HOARD it for interest accumulation from bank accounts for wealthy & Big Corporations. Middle Class & Poor WILL SPEND, we would spend on items that would keep economy going rather than buying just ELITIST priced products that don’t stimulate much other than the RepubliCON Elitist items @ outrageous pricing.
    Remove ALL American tax payer subsidies to Corporations that are OUTSOURCING American jobs, take property & wealth from those tax evaders & put those Billionaires & Millionaires & Big Corporations CEO’s in PRISON for TAX EVASION and NEVER give Amnesty to those rich people AGAIN. How sad we tax payers are imprisoned for tax evasion or lesser crimes, but AMNESTY to wealthy, WHY? Don’t they have the money to pay it, if not WHY not? Any American company that has corporation headquarters overseas should NOT be recognized as an American company, that is CROOKED & it is TAX EVASION! Halliburton for example HQ in Dubai!
    I challenge any RepubliCON to this debate, YOU WILL LOSE. WHY? Because America has YET to see any rich people put American workers to work that is why we have such a HUGE Deficit and economical collapse, RICH people don’t trickle down the wealthy(Reagan SCAM). The CEO’s & Top Executives & Investors get rich, but the hourly workers pay has only stagnated or been OUTSOURCED, why then is our job loss reaching 18 million & only less than 3 million created under GOP & Bush for the past 8 years and GOP Big Corporations are still OUTSOURCING. Really patriotic, don’t you think? And to hear GOP & Dems say those jobs will never come back, I say B.S, REMOVE the subsidies and TAX those outsourcing corporations, TAX them 80% & prior to allowing a company to file for Bankruptcy, force the TOP salaries to relinquish their pay to a minimum salary of $250,000 while the company recoups. Tax breaks for American Corporations that hire American workers and provide top benefits.
    Our economy will come back, ASAP. WHY? RepubliCON run companies would rather LEACH off of the tax payer funding than rely on the pathetic pennies of investment, would we see the real picture of PROFIT vs LOSS.

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