Tea party rock star senator Marco Rubio rose to the floor of the Senate this week to speak on behalf of excluding Olympic athletes from paying taxes on the bonuses they win when they medal in their events. “Athletes representing our nation overseas in the Olympics shouldn’t have to worry about an extra tax bill waiting for them back home.”
Noble gesture? Or just another opportunity to reward the most successful while denying resources to the most vulnerable?
A study released this week by the Tax Policy Center revealed that Mitt Romney’s tax policy plan, given the most generous reading of the plan possible, wants to raise taxes on poorest 95% of American citizens. On average, middle class families would pay about $2,000 more. You can find out how much you’d pay under Romney’s plan here.
The richest 5% on the other hand would receive tax breaks more than double than they received in the Bush era—the tax breaks the blew the surplus and basically created no jobs. The idea that any billionaire should get one cent in tax breaks while we’re slashing government jobs and services is insanity. This is Romney’s plan that he turned to as he was getting battered in the Republican primary for not being conservative enough. It is the worst of trickle down economics and if he were to lose the election because of it, that would be sweet justice.
Romney’s campaign attacked the group that put out the study, a group they once praised, but they offered no evidence contradicting the findings.
“Nukemarine” on reddit described Romney’s plan like this:
Romney Logic: 1 man with 1 billion dollars is better for job growth than 10,000 people with 100,000 dollars.
Put it in Olympic terms. Romney would give Michael Phelps, the pro-beach volleyball guys, Serena Williams and the Dream Team millions in tax breaks. Then he’d have everyone else on the U.S. Olympic team pay more.
This isn’t rewarding success; it’s making success for everyone but the most powerful impossible.
It’s also insane economics. For generations the GOP has hammered the Democratic Party for wanting to raise taxes. Now that they have a unlikable candidate offering tax hikes for 95% of Americans, all they can do is hope no one is paying attention.
[CC image by DonkeyHotey]
