To hear the media report
it, President Obama is proposing a tax increase on wealthy Americans.
That’s misleading at best. He’s proposing that everyone
receive a continuation of the Bush tax cuts on the first $250,000 of
their incomes. Any dollars they earn in excess of $250,000 will be taxed
at the old Clinton-era rates.
Get it? Everyone is treated exactly the same.
Everyone gets a one-year extension of the Bush tax cut on the first
$250,000 of income. No “class warfare.”
Yet regressive Republicans want Americans to believe differently. The editorial writers of the Wall Street Journal
say the President wants to extend the Bush tax cuts only “for some
taxpayers.” They urge House Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts for
“everyone” and thereby put Senate Democrats on the spot by “forcing them
to choose between extending rates for everyone and accepting Mr.
Obama’s tax increase.”
Pure demagoguery.
Regressives also want Americans to think the
President’s proposal would hurt “tens of thousands of job-creating
businesses,” as the Journal puts it.
More baloney.