Richest Americans' income doubled under Bush tax cuts

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090130/BREAKING/90130028

Updated at 9:03 a.m., Friday, January 30, 2009

Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON — The average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2 percent through the first six years of the Bush administration and their average income doubled to $263.3 million, new IRS data show.

The 17.2 percent tax rate in 2006 was the lowest since the IRS began tracking the 400 largest taxpayers in 1992, although the richest 400 Americans paid more tax on an inflation-adjusted basis than any year since 2000.

The drop from 2001's tax rate of 22.9 percent was due largely to ex-President George W. Bush's push to cut tax rates on most capital gains to 15 percent in 2003.

Capital gains made up 63 percent of the richest 400 Americans' adjusted gross income in 2006, or a combined $66.1 billion, according to the data. In all, the 400 wealthiest Americans reported a combined $105.3 billion of adjusted gross income in 2006, the most recent year for which the IRS has data.

[dkf]

1. Yes but now they lost all that money, and they can only use

$3000 in losses.

So they made a bunch of money, paid taxes, and then they lost it.

They gained nothing since 1997 yet paid taxes on the gains and can't recoup their taxes.

[stillcool]

2. Who lost what?

and whose taxes are you talking about?

[StopTheNeoCons]

3. See where the money came from here

[gratuitous]

4. They raked in profits from two wars of empire

And got their tax rates cut on top of it. Pretty sweet deal. No wonder they're squealing like little piggies in the sty to see those days coming to an end.

For our lurking dimwit Republican friends: Check out the job growth numbers during the Bush presidency. Compare them to, oh, let's say the Clinton presidency. The Bush numbers didn't even cover the number of new bodies entering the job market during those eight years. Wages were stagnant, jobs were not being created, more people were out of work. When was that trickle down going to start, if ever?