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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFlashback: Now That’s Rich (Krugman)
Now Thats Rich
By PAUL KRUGMAN
<...>
So whats the choice now? The Obama administration wants to preserve those parts of the original tax cuts that mainly benefit the middle class which is an expensive proposition in its own right but to let those provisions benefiting only people with very high incomes expire on schedule. Republicans, with support from some conservative Democrats, want to keep the whole thing.
<...>
And where would this $680 billion go? Nearly all of it would go to the richest 1 percent of Americans, people with incomes of more than $500,000 a year. But thats the least of it: the policy centers estimates say that the majority of the tax cuts would go to the richest one-tenth of 1 percent. Take a group of 1,000 randomly selected Americans, and pick the one with the highest income; hes going to get the majority of that groups tax break. And the average tax break for those lucky few the poorest members of the group have annual incomes of more than $2 million, and the average member makes more than $7 million a year would be $3 million over the course of the next decade.
How can this kind of giveaway be justified at a time when politicians claim to care about budget deficits? Well, history is repeating itself. The original campaign for the Bush tax cuts relied on deception and dishonesty...for example, were told that its all about helping small business; but only a tiny fraction of small-business owners would receive any tax break at all. And how many small-business owners do you know making several million a year?
Or were told that its about helping the economy recover. But its hard to think of a less cost-effective way to help the economy than giving money to people who already have plenty, and arent likely to spend a windfall.
No, this has nothing to do with sound economic policy. Instead, as I said, its about a dysfunctional and corrupt political culture, in which Congress wont take action to revive the economy, pleads poverty when it comes to protecting the jobs of schoolteachers and firefighters, but declares cost no object when it comes to sparing the already wealthy even the slightest financial inconvenience.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/opinion/23krugman.html
By PAUL KRUGMAN
<...>
So whats the choice now? The Obama administration wants to preserve those parts of the original tax cuts that mainly benefit the middle class which is an expensive proposition in its own right but to let those provisions benefiting only people with very high incomes expire on schedule. Republicans, with support from some conservative Democrats, want to keep the whole thing.
<...>
And where would this $680 billion go? Nearly all of it would go to the richest 1 percent of Americans, people with incomes of more than $500,000 a year. But thats the least of it: the policy centers estimates say that the majority of the tax cuts would go to the richest one-tenth of 1 percent. Take a group of 1,000 randomly selected Americans, and pick the one with the highest income; hes going to get the majority of that groups tax break. And the average tax break for those lucky few the poorest members of the group have annual incomes of more than $2 million, and the average member makes more than $7 million a year would be $3 million over the course of the next decade.
How can this kind of giveaway be justified at a time when politicians claim to care about budget deficits? Well, history is repeating itself. The original campaign for the Bush tax cuts relied on deception and dishonesty...for example, were told that its all about helping small business; but only a tiny fraction of small-business owners would receive any tax break at all. And how many small-business owners do you know making several million a year?
Or were told that its about helping the economy recover. But its hard to think of a less cost-effective way to help the economy than giving money to people who already have plenty, and arent likely to spend a windfall.
No, this has nothing to do with sound economic policy. Instead, as I said, its about a dysfunctional and corrupt political culture, in which Congress wont take action to revive the economy, pleads poverty when it comes to protecting the jobs of schoolteachers and firefighters, but declares cost no object when it comes to sparing the already wealthy even the slightest financial inconvenience.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/opinion/23krugman.html
Four Fiscal Phonies
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget not my favorite people, but they can do their arithmetic has put together evaluations of the four remaining GOP candidates tax and spending plans. Annoyingly, however, they compare these plans to a so-called realistic baseline that assumes, among other things, that all the Bush tax cuts are made permanent. So for all the talk of the urgency of deficit control, the need to cut basic social insurance programs, the CRFB is in effect willing to accept as a fait accompli the biggest, most gratuitous budget-busting action of the past couple of decades.
How to fix this? One way would be a current-law comparison, which would involve allowing all the Bush tax cuts to expire. But it also seems to me useful to compare the Republican plans with the Obama administrations plan, which would at least allow the high-end tax cuts to expire. How does debt under this plan compare with the four Republicans?
Well, heres debt as a percentage of GDP in 2021 (using the OMB numbers (pdf) for Obama and CRFB for the others):
Yep: as Republicans yell about Obamas deficits and cry that were turning into Greece, Greece I tell you, all of them, all of them, propose making the deficit bigger.
And for what? For reverse Robin-Hoodism, taking from the poor and the middle class to lavish huge tax cuts on the rich.
- more -
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/four-fiscal-phonies/
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget not my favorite people, but they can do their arithmetic has put together evaluations of the four remaining GOP candidates tax and spending plans. Annoyingly, however, they compare these plans to a so-called realistic baseline that assumes, among other things, that all the Bush tax cuts are made permanent. So for all the talk of the urgency of deficit control, the need to cut basic social insurance programs, the CRFB is in effect willing to accept as a fait accompli the biggest, most gratuitous budget-busting action of the past couple of decades.
How to fix this? One way would be a current-law comparison, which would involve allowing all the Bush tax cuts to expire. But it also seems to me useful to compare the Republican plans with the Obama administrations plan, which would at least allow the high-end tax cuts to expire. How does debt under this plan compare with the four Republicans?
Well, heres debt as a percentage of GDP in 2021 (using the OMB numbers (pdf) for Obama and CRFB for the others):
Yep: as Republicans yell about Obamas deficits and cry that were turning into Greece, Greece I tell you, all of them, all of them, propose making the deficit bigger.
And for what? For reverse Robin-Hoodism, taking from the poor and the middle class to lavish huge tax cuts on the rich.
- more -
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/four-fiscal-phonies/
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Flashback: Now That’s Rich (Krugman) (Original Post)
ProSense
May 2012
OP
ProSense
(116,464 posts)1. Kick! n/t