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On the 10th Anniversary of the Bush Tax Cuts, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities assembled 5 Charts that show the wealthy gained far more from the Bush Tax Cut than working families. The tax cuts did not spur economic growth, and the cuts were the largest contributor to the deficit. Their charts show that letting the Bush Tax Cuts expire would halt the a rise in U.S. debt over the next decade.
Together with the economic downturn, the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq explain virtually the entire deficit over a decade. . . The events and policies that have pushed deficits to these high levels were largely outside the Obama Administration’s control. If not for the tax cuts enacted during the presidency of George W. Bush that Congress did not pay for, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that were initiated during that period, and the effects of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression (including the cost of steps necessary to combat it), we would not be facing these huge deficits.
Take a look at the charts. |
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Last Updated on Saturday, 13 August 2011 09:14 |
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David Morris, Vice President, Institute for Local Self Reliance
 "America is the richest country on earth, measured in per capita income, but the way we spend our money makes us one of the poorer," writes David Morris. He points out that the United States is the only advanced economy that lacks guaranteed paid vacation, sick leave, and maternity leave, that fails to assure its citizens health care and provide preschool programs for its children, and that pays a small fraction of wages for such a short time to its unemployed workers. How does European countries' shared prosperity affect their competitiveness, productivity, and trade balances? Find out by reading Morris' article.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 13 August 2011 09:24 |
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Minnesota's most affluent residents pay a smaller share of their incomes in state and local taxes than the average MN family according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue's 2011 MN Tax Incidence Study. Minnesota's taxes have become more regressive because the state has shifted towards using local property taxes for public services instead of state income taxes.
The average household paid 11.5% of their incomes in state and local taxes. Comparable figures were 10.3% for households in the top 10%, people with incomes of $129,567 and up, and only 9.7% for the wealthiest 1% of households with incomes more than $429,000. |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 04 August 2011 05:33 |
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Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, chairs of the deficit commission, cap government revenue at 21% of G.D.P. Paul Ryan's Republican Budget restricts government revenue to 19% of GDP. Are such caps necessary for a prosperous economy? Prosperity for all citizens requires both a strong public sector and a strong private sector. Actually as a percent of G.D.P., the United States has one of the lowest tax rates in the world including all levels of taxes - local, state, and federal. The United States rate is 27.3% whereas Germany has 36.2% and Denmark has 50%. Yet Germany is second highest in exports, and Denmark has a growing export industry and an unemployment rate much lower than the U.S. Both countries have strong social safety nets.
Tax rates to provide services to citizens, in other words, do not necessarily harm the private sector. They can enhance the private sector, for example, by lowering the cost of health care, by providing the educational investment necessary for highly skilled workers, through research later used in products sold by private corporations, and by building the private infrastructure used to transport goods. According to Our Fiscal Security, the tax rate on the top income bracket was as high as 80% during the 1960s, when the average growth rate of the economy was almost 4.5%, compared to a growth rate of around 1.7% for the past decade of historically low taxes on the wealthiest. See how U.S. taxes compare internationally. |
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Last Updated on Saturday, 13 August 2011 09:28 |
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