Levin -- Statement on GOP Tax Proposal
November 18, 2011
WASHINGTON – Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) today made the following statement regarding the Republican tax proposal to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that seeks to cut the top tax rate for the wealthiest Americans to 28 percent and dramatically scale back all of the tax expenditures except for the reduced rate for capital gains and dividends:
"If you pull back the curtain on the Republican tax proposal, what do you find? Surprise: A big tax cut for the very wealthy. They're proposing to go even further than an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the top earners by reducing the top tax rate to 28 percent, with the middle class bearing much of the burden. They would virtually eliminate tax preferences that largely benefit middle-income families and protect tax preferences that almost exclusively help the wealthiest Americans."
BACKGROUND:
According to a Joint Committee on Taxation analysis:
- 81 percent of the benefit of the health care exclusion and 70 percent of the mortgage interest deduction go to families earning less than $200,000 a year.
- Conversely, 88 percent of the benefit of the reduced capital gains rate and 64 percent of the reduced dividends rate go to Americans with incomes above $200,000.
As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explained:
- "The Republican proposal would significantly shift tax burdens from high-income to lower- and middle-income taxpayers."
- "High-income taxpayers would benefit enormously from the proposed cut in tax rates, while lower- and middle-income taxpayers would suffer disproportionately from the proposed reductions in tax expenditures, since the plan shields the main tax expenditure for the highest-income Americans — the highly preferential treatment of capital gains and dividend income."
- "Preliminary estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation of a plan similar to the Republican proposal indicate that taxpayers with incomes above $200,000 would get tax cuts significantly larger than the already-highly-lucrative tax cuts they will get if Congress extends all of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts."
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