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Facts about the Bush tax cuts
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The Bush tax cuts for the rich amount to 40 billion/year, which is just 2% of revenues
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Bullet points:
- Bush's tax cuts "on the rich" cost $40 billion/year
- Total tax revenue is $2 trillion ($2000 billion), meaning the Bush tax cuts cut just 2% off revenue.
- Obama's OWN tax cuts cost (from the "stimulus" and others) cost $200 billion/year if extended
- Obama's OWN budgets say deficits will average $970 billion per year over the next 10 years.
- Obama's OWN budgets say our revenue will average $3500 billion ($3.5 TRILLION) per year over the next 10 years.
6 That makes the Bush tax cuts "on the rich" = (40/3500) = loss of just 1.1% of revenue. So even with the Bush tax cuts we still have 98.9% of revenue.
So why do Democrats focus on the Bush "tax cuts on the rich" as if they were causing the ENTIRE DEFICIT? For purely political reasons, because the tax "cuts on the rich" are meaningless in terms of the deficit. They know most people support taxes on the rich, and so want to paint the Republicans as "for the rich" and "hypocrites on the deficit".
Do Democrats know that Bush's tax cuts on the rich only cost $40 billion/year? Yes, Obama's own economist said so:
Do they care that Obama's own tax cuts, if extended will cost $200 billion/year? No.
Do they care that Obama's own deficits say we will have deficits of almost $1 TRILLION ($1000 billion) EVERY YEAR over the next 10 years? No.
The Bush tax cuts "on the rich" are a meaningless red herring, repealing them won't help us at all.
So if they are so small, why do Republicans oppose repealing them? Probably because you should never raise taxes during a major recession (like Herbert Hoover did in 1931). It's also because they want to oppose ALL tax cuts on ideological grounds.
But because they are so small, and because I don't want to give Democrats an advantage, Republicans should say they would agree to looking into repealing those tax cuts "on the rich" AFTER the election. They should say they'll wait for the Deficit Commission to come back with their report (which conveniently comes out after the election), and they would be open to seeing tax cuts "on the rich" being repealed.
This would eliminate really the ONLY POSITIVE Democrats are running on.
What Obama wants to keep of Bush tax cuts: $2154 billion
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/112xx/doc11231/frontmatter.shtml#1014614
TOTAL Bush tax cuts: $2567 billion
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10871/Chapter1.shtml#1110722 Table 1-5
So tax cuts "on the rich" that Obama wants to expire: $2567-2154 = $413 billion over 10 years.
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