Tax Cuts for the Wealthy - The Wrong Priority

1. Wealthy households receiving tax cuts are the least in need of government help.

2. High-income tax cuts are expensive. People making at least $1 million a year will enjoy an average $103,000 tax break this year from the 2001 and 2003 tax cut bills. That’s nearly 140 times as large as the $742 tax cut the average middle-income household will receive. Plus, the tax breaks for the wealthiest will continue to grow as more tax cuts enacted in 2001 for high-income households phase in over the coming years.

If you add up all the tax benefits that households in the top one percent of the population—a group making at least $380,000 this year—will receive each year from the 2001 and 2003 tax cut bills when they are fully in effect, this amount is as much as the federal government spends annually on education. It’s also nine times the total that the federal government spends on environmental protection each year.

3. Tax cuts for high-income households are being “paid for” with borrowed money...