Tell Congress Today: End the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy!
Right now Congress is debating a Senate bill that would raise $800 billion over the next decade by rolling back most of the Bush tax cuts, letting the wealthiest 2% once again pay their fair share.
The Senate bill is important because its debate will shape the crucial post-election tax votes at the end of the year, when the Bush tax cuts are set to expire.
At a time when Kentucky’s own Hal Rogers is spearheading a House budget proposal that cuts the food stamp program by $16.5 billion over the next ten years—a cut that would eliminate food assistance to 2 to 3 million low-income people, mostly low-income working families with children and seniors—we surely can’t afford an $800 billion tax cut for the nation’s wealthiest.
Take action to roll back these tax cuts today!
Take Action!
Call Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell and your representative now at 888-744-9958. Here’s a possible message:
“I urge you to end the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2%, and oppose any extension of tax cuts for the richest 2% – even a temporary one. It’s time for the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.”
More information about the Bush tax cuts
The term “Bush tax cuts” commonly refers to the income tax cuts (for earnings, capital gains, stock dividends and other types of income) and estate tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003.
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According to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, people who earn over $1 million a year get an average tax break of $143,000 from the Bush tax cuts. People making about $50,000 a year get an average tax break of about $1,000. (That's a lot of trickling to do!) |
President Obama expanded certain parts of the income tax cuts that helped low-income families--certain provisions increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit--as part of the 2009 economic recovery act.
At the end of 2010, after much debate, President Obama and Congress enacted legislation that extended all these tax cuts for two years, through the end of 2012. Beginning in 2013, President Obama proposes to make permanent the income tax cuts for the first $250,000 a married couple makes annually and the first $200,000 that a single person makes annually. This would mean, for example, a married couple with $1 million in income would pay the lower tax rates for their first $250,000 of income, but would pay the higher tax rates (the rates at the end of the Clinton years) on the remaining $750,000 of their income.
Current tax proposals and Kentucky
- According to a report by Citizens for Tax Justice, here's how Kentuckians would fare under the Congressional Republican plan:
- The richest 1% of Kentuckians would get more than 27% of the tax cuts going to Kentucky.
- The richest 5% of Kentuckians would get 43.5% of the tax cuts going to Kentucky.
Meanwhile, Citizens for Tax Justice finds that under President Obama's proposal, only 1.1 percent of Kentucky residents would lose any portion of the Bush income tax cuts in 2013.
- Read an analysis from the Kentucky Center on Economic Policy on how President Obama's plan and the House Republican plan would impact our commonwealth.
- Check out this calculator from Citizens for Tax Justice to see how you’d be impacted under President Obama’s plan and the House Republican plan.
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