The Democrats have not explained this well, but under Obama's plan to extend the Bush tax cuts for the middle class while allowing them to expire for the upper 2%, the wealthy would still get the Bush tax cut on the first $250,000. of their income. The rest of their income above $250,000. would be taxed at a 4.6% higher rate than it is today. The tax rate would go from 35% to 39.6% for high wage earners but only for earnings greater than $250,000. The wealthy would still enjoy a Bush 4.6% tax cut on $250,000. which amounts to $11,500. This amount would still be far higher than what the average middle class individual or family would gain by virtue of having the Bush tax cuts extended.
So what all the fuss is about as far as the Republicans are concerned is huge tax cuts for the wealthy over and above what the whole middle class would get. They would still get more than a 'middle class' household earning $249,999.99 even if the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are not extended! Last year the 25 largest hedge fund managers earned an average of a billion dollars apiece and paid taxes at a rate of just 17%. So the Republicans want them to have not just an $11,500. tax cut but a whopping additional $45,988,500 tax cut!! To continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy would add an additional $700 billion to the national debt over ten years. Republicans and Tea Baggers pretend to be so worried about the national debt, but, when it comes to deficits and debts caused by tax breaks for the wealthy, why their concerns all evaporate and vanish. They only have a problem with narional debt when it comes to providing social security, Medicare, food stamps and other programs which benefit the middle class and the poor.
Democrats should absolutely bring the extension for the Bush tax cuts for the middle class (which also includes a $11,500. tax cut for the wealthy, remember) to a vote before the November elections and let the Republicans vote it down which they will because what they're after is not tax cuts for the middle class which amount to chicken feed and chump change but tax cuts for the wealthy where you're talking about real money. The upward shift in income and wealth from the middle class to the wealthy which has occured over the last 10 years was brought about primarily by the Bush tax cuts. Also the underfunding of the Federal government which directly contributes to the deficit and national debt has been brought about by the Bush tax cuts, two wars, the money for which was borrowed, and the prescription drug benefit for seniors which again was borrowed money. As the US borrows more money from the Chinese, they gain more control over the American economy and political process. While the Chinese economy booms, the US economy languishes.
Although we've been told the Great Recession was over as of June 2009, unemployment is still hovering around 10%, foreclosures are still continuing at a high rate and 15% of Americans live in poverty. Firemen, policemen and school teachers are being laid off. American infrastructure is badly in need of repair. And what do the Republicans have to offer? In their "Pledge to America" they offer more of the Bush policies that created the Great Recession in the first place! More tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation that created the Wall Street meltdown, salmonella in eggs, the Gulf oil spill and the San Bruno gas explosion and more transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich!
That's a prescription for disaster, and the result will be a Third World America with a super wealthy class and a class of peons, a political system dominated by monied interests and the elimination of all social programs which benefit the poor and middle class.
