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Originally Posted by Jim in CT
It DOES NOT claim that the rich DIDN'T pay more taxes after the Bush tax cuts.
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The article does directly contradict the Heritage analysis that the wealthy paid a larger share because of the cuts.
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ritics state that the tax cuts, including those given to middle and lower income households, failed to spur growth. The cuts also increased the budget deficit, shifted the tax burden from the rich to the middle and working classes, and further increased already high levels of income inequality.[16][17][18][19][20] Economists Peter Orszag and William Gale described the Bush tax cuts as reverse government redistribution of wealth, "[shifting] the burden of taxation away from upper-income, capital-owning households and toward the wage-earning households of the lower and middle classes."[21]
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My point was that the wealthy are paying a higher share of the tax burden than ever before. That's irrefutable fact. It may not serve your particular personal agenda, but it's still fact.
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If it's an irrefutable fact then some numbers should be easy to come by. This would help with the analysis...
But if the rich are paying a higher % of the burden because of higher GDP then attributing that to a tax cut doesn't make much sense...unless you can also attribute the economic rise to the same cut.
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Spence, I never, ever claimed that the Bush cuts CAUSED the wealthy to pay more. AllI said was that after the tax cuts were put in place, they paid more. I can't prove that the cuts caused them to pay more, nor can you prove that the cuts didn't cause them to pay more. But it's fair to say that the tax cuts were not designed to allow the rich to pay less taxes...if that was the intent of the Bush tax cuts, it failed miserably.
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On an individual basis the rich certainly paid less after the tax cuts. As was mentioned above, where the burden is placed is dependent on many variables as actual revenues are a function of economic performance. As I referenced in your own link, there is debate on what really occurred.
-spence