Tax Cuts for the Wealthy 101

Kevin Drum lays it out, 1, 2, 3. Arguments against the estate tax about suffering children of small farmers are completely, completely, completely bogus. They have plenty of traction in the media, however, and progressives have seemed unable to make the slightest success in ridiculing those arguments into extinction.

The Bush income tax cuts for the wealthy -- specifically, his reduction of the top marginal rate from 39.6% to 35% -- cost all other taxpayers almost $70 billion every year. That means, the despised deficit is made $70 billion dollars worse every friggin year in order to let people "making" several hundred thousand dollars a year pay a few hundred or a few thousand dollars less in taxes. Remember, that's taxable income after all adjustments, exemptions and deductions.

People making between $200,000 and $500,000 in taxable income i.e., people making a lot more than that in gross income, which is what we usually mean when we talk about how much people "make," would, ">according to USA Today, see an average increase of $988 if we let the Bush tax cuts on high income Americans expire. 988 DOLLARS. On people "making" abpout $400,000 a year. The descent into socialism is rapid indeed. With such a slippery slope, we will achieve real socialism in, oh, about 10,000 years. We can't be too vigilant.

We should all keep pounding the facts in letters to our local newspapers and TV stations. Maybe eventually we will see reality gain some traction.