Cutting taxes for the wealthy? Again?
By Steve Benen
In his unnervingly dishonest op-ed for USA Today this week, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) assured voters his party isnt just obsessed with going after President Obama. At the same time, he argued, we remain focused on the American peoples top priority: jobs and the economy.
What possible rationale could there be to justify such a claim? Its actually pretty simple: House Republicans continue to pass tax cuts. Ergo, Boehner thinks hes telling the truth when he claims the GOP is focused on jobs and the economy, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
It didnt get much attention, but late last week, House Republicans quietly approved yet another tax break, this time advancing a tax policy that benefits the wealthy while hurting the poor. Danny Vinik had a good piece on this:
Heres how the [Child Tax Credit] currently works: Couples receive a maximum credit of $1,000 per-child, meaning they can lower their tax bill by that amount. For instance, a couple with two kids and an income of $50,000 would owe $8,356 in federal income taxes. With the CTC, they would reduce their tax bill by $2,000, to $6,356. However, not everyone is eligible for the credit. Those with income below $3,000 cannot collect it. And for couples, the credit begins phasing out at $110,000 and is entirely phased out at $150,000. For singles, those numbers are $75,000 and $115,000, respectively.
Thus, the current design of the CTC creates a marriage penalty. For instance, imagine a couple where each person makes $60,000. Separately, they would both be eligible to collect the full credit. But combined, their income ($120,000) would exceed the current phase-out threshold for couples filing jointly. Therefore, the couple could maximize their after-tax income by living together, but not marrying.
Now, theres very little to suggest this disincentive actually has a real-world impact, but House Republicans nevertheless advanced a policy theyve wanted for years: they made it so that a couple can collect the same tax break, even if they file jointly. The same bill raised the phase-out ceiling to $150,000 and indexed it to inflation. The price tag: $115 billion over the next decade.
Whats wrong with that? If youre a deficit hawk, quite a bit, but theres a more glaring concern here: the House GOP measure was structured to punish the poor while benefiting the rich.
more
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/cutting-taxes-the-wealthy-again