A battle over the Bush tax cuts
The president proposed extending the Bush tax cuts for one year on income of less than $250,000.
President Obama launched an election-year tax fight this week, proposing to extend the Bush tax cuts for one year on income of less than $250,000, while allowing taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans to rise. The White House said the proposal, which would let the top tax rate increase from 35 to 39.6 percent, would raise $829 billion in new revenue over the next decade. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney quickly dismissed the plan as economically harmful, saying that higher taxes on “small businesses and job creators” would only “kill jobs.”
The president is right, said The New York Times in an editorial. Higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans are “a matter of fairness and responsible policymaking.” Without them, we can never move ahead toward “solving the nation’s budget problems.” The Republicans’ insistence that this plan will hurt small businesses “is nonsense”; in fact, only about 2.5 percent of small-business owners would have to pay more. We can only hope that middle-class Americans won’t allow the economy to be “held hostage” by the GOP’s fealty to the rich.
This plan “makes no economic sense,” said Jonathan S. Tobin in CommentaryMagazine.com. The last thing our weak economy needs is “a massive tax increase on those with the capital to invest and therefore create jobs.” And it’s simply false that taxes on the wealthy would merely revert to Clinton-era rates, as Obama insisted this week, said The Wall Street Journal. Does he think we’ve forgotten about the billions of dollars in growth-killing Obamacare taxes and surcharges on investment income? And even if higher income taxes affect only a fraction of small businesses, they would hit the most productive of them—the very ones “most likely to hire workers.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Obama—and everyone else in Washington—knows this plan won’t make it through the Republican-led House, said Patricia Murphy in TheDailyBeast.com. But that’s beside the point. By lining up on whether or not to tax the rich, both parties get to “remind voters of what is at stake in the November elections.” As they dig in to their positions, however, they can’t be allowed to forget that unless Congress acts, all Americans will see their taxes increase when the Bush tax cuts expire on Jan. 1. Right now, “no one in Washington is talking about that.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
What would it be like in jail for Trump if he's convicted?
Today's Big Question The Secret Service has begun grappling with how to protect a former president behind bars
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
How much can you save shopping secondhand?
The Explainer Many Americans are buying pre-owned items to counteract the effects of inflation
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
Downtown St. Louis is in a real estate 'doom loop'
Under the Radar The city is ripe with abandoned buildings and vacant lots, with its real estate market in dire straits
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published