1/08/2007

Validation, Again: Middle Income Tax Rates Went Up

From the time Bush showcased his tax cuts plan, detractors have been hammering that the plan only saved money for the rich and uber rich. More than one study has validated this claim, yet Bush supporters still refused to see the light. Now, the CBO is showcasing their study, which shows...are you sitting down? Tax rates for you middle-incomers are going UP. IOW, you are paying for the rich to keep their money.
Families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts, according to a new Congressional study.

The study, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, also shows that tax rates for middle-income earners edged up in 2004, the most recent year for which data was available, while rates for people at the very top continued to decline. I'm wondering how many more studies do we need before we believe that the Bush tax cuts were never meant for the regular Jane and Joe?

Here are a few tidbits from the article:

Families in the middle fifth of annual earnings, who had average incomes of $56,200 in 2004, saw their average effective tax rate edge down to 2.9 percent in 2004 from 5 percent in 2000. That translated to an average tax cut of $1,180 per household, but the tax rate actually increased slightly from 2003.

Tax cuts were much deeper, and affected far more money, for families in the highest income categories. Households in the top 1 percent of earnings, which had an average income of $1.25 million, saw their effective individual tax rates drop to 19.6 percent in 2004 from 24.2 percent in 2000. The rate cut was twice as deep as for middle-income families, and it translated to an average tax cut of almost $58,000.

Source:
Thoughts of an Average Woman

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cato:

You don't seem to have figured it out. If there were no poor, there'd be no rich. If there were no classes in our society, our society would have no class.

I question I have is why do people only judge wealth in terms of money. What about wealth of ambitions, wealth of ideas, wealth of insights, etc.?

As a society, we are just to focused on money. Who really has the most freedom in our society? Wouldn't you agree it's the homeless, jobless, starving, the people with nothing to lose. If we found away to truly go to a free market where those who haven't got the smarts to survive who be left to die, I think we'd be moving to a higher plane. Once dead they would no longer suffer. To let these bottom feeders continue to live in subsitance with no hope of legally acquiring a PlayStation 3 is just inhumane.

I'm with you! Quit you bitching you commie bleeding hearts!!!

Anonymous said...

Cato:

Ambition is the wrong direction can end up on the dead pecker bench of dispear. People with a million dollar idea and no salesmanship can end up in the bread line, while people with a $25 and the salesmanship skills can wind a millionaire -- without backdating his stock options.

It's interesting that you only seem to be judging the success of ambitions, ideas and insights in terms of money the rake in. "Wealth" isn't only about money...

Sunny Badger said...

It's an idea without the power of sales and marketing behind it.

Anonymous said...

Cato:

I didn't think the US should've gone to war in Iraq, before we went to war ion Iraq. That's proving to be a multi-billion dollar idea. My idea is generating millions and millions of dollars for a varity of corporate interests and I'm only get a $25 tax break. You could be wrong...