The Republican Party is still deeply committed to big tax cuts for the rich.
I guess it’s “blast from the GOP past” week or something, because after we learned that Jeb Bush thought the Iraq War was a good idea Chris Christie tried to shore up his floundering presidential campaign by rolling out his economic proposals early. Jonathan Chait pointed out one of the center pieces of this package is, you guessed it, a big tax cut aimed at the rich. As Chait puts it:
…[Christie] proposes to reform the tax code, cut the top tax rate to 28 percent, and reduce the bottom tax rate to a “single digit,” while maintaining deductions for mortgages and charitable deductions.
Any plan that meets those specifications would necessarily give a huge tax cut for rich people. In 2012, the Tax Policy Center attempted to model a similar promise by Mitt Romney, to cut the top tax rate to 28 percent and the bottom tax rate to 8 percent. It found that the revenue gained by eliminating tax deductions for the rich does not add up to enough to offset the revenue lost by reducing tax rates for the rich. Indeed, Christie’s plan would be even more lucrative for affluent taxpayers than the TPC assumes. The Tax Policy Center’s hypothetical plan would eliminate the home-mortgage tax deduction, which is a huge and highly regressive deduction. Christie’s commitment to preserving it for first homes would make his proposal even more regressive.
The big thing to remember here is the context in which Christie decided to release his plan. Simply put the New Jersey governor has fading fast in the “invisible primary” party of the 2016 nomination cycle for some time now. And the recent indictment of key aides in the so called “Bridgegate” scandal, not to mention the fact that he himself is under investigation, probably means that he’s now toast. Obviously not wanting to give up (presidential candidates rarely want to give up until the very end) he tries to firm up his party support with a can’t miss policy proposal, which for today’s Republican Party is proposing a big tax cut for the rich.
Simply put one of the most important policy positions for the modern Republican Party is cutting taxes, especially for the rich. Christie’s gambit just proves how central that position really is. Which means if we elect a Republican to the White House next year, we can expect an attempt at a round of tax cuts focused on wealthy Americans.
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Photo by 401(K) 2012/Flickr
considering the top 20% pay something like 80% of taxes… who else would they cut taxes *for*?
Democrats are good. Republicans are evil. No nuance or context necessary. That is literally every single political article on this site.
Nice balance article there, John. Jonathon Chait is an unbiased expert on tax policy, isn’t he?
Personally, I’ve never been anything like “rich”, but since I file as a self-employed taxpayer, I get screwed just like the “rich” because leftists like you hate anyone who isn’t part of your Manichean dichotomy of ‘Labor’ and ‘capital’. What we really need is a flat tax which treats every taxpayer EQUALLY. Equality before the law, remember?
Nothing about this site is balanced, especially the political articles.
Articles like these are the norm. And it is getting really old. I check in every now and then to see if anything changes…. and it doesn’t. Always the same standard clichés, Dems are for the little guy and Repubs are for the big guy or Dems care about people Repubs care about money, same story all the time, with different headlines…