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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTax Cuts for the Top 1 Percent Cost More Than SNAP
he recently passed 2017 tax legislation, commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, provided a massive windfall to wealthy individuals and large corporations. According to estimates from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the richest 1 percent of households, those with incomes higher than $607,090, stand to receive a total tax cut of more than $84 billion in 2019 alone. To put this number in perspective, in 2019, the total cost of nutrition assistance benefits paid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)which will support 39 million individualsis expected to be only $58 billion. SNAP is the nations largest food assistance program, helping 1 in 8 familiesand 1 in 4 American childrenafford to put food on the table. This means that the tax cuts to the top 1 percent alone could finance the entire SNAP program for nearly 1 1/2 years. Whats more, congressional Republican leaders have made it clear that they plan on partially paying for the 2017 tax law by cutting assistance programs that benefit families in need, as well as flagship programssuch as Medicare and Social Securityon which the middle class relies. The House majority is already moving to cut SNAP in its 2018 Farm Bill, which if passed, would cut nutrition assistance for more than 2 million people.
While the revenue generated from taxes on wealthy individuals does not directly pay for SNAP benefits, comparing the tax cuts for the top 1 percent with the relatively modest cost of providing nutrition to families in need highlights the misguided priorities of the current administration and congressional majority. As seen in Table 1, the SNAP program in nearly every state could be fully funded, and in many cases expanded, had this windfall gone to nutrition benefits instead of to the 1 percent in each state.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2018/05/01/450214/tax-cuts-top-1-percent-cost-snap/
jalan48
(13,864 posts)democratisphere
(17,235 posts)What would they do if they couldn't gorge themselves with all the wealth and all the food.
dawg
(10,624 posts)Meanwhile, New York 1%'ers get less money than those in my home state of Georgia. (And California, considering its size, doesn't do much better.)
duforsure
(11,885 posts)because of their tax scam and con job all need to be voted out of office. They screwed us, and Nov. we have the chance to do to them what they've been doing to us.