Preserving tax breaks for 98% BZZZT WRONG. Everyone would still get a tax break.
We have a progressive tax system. A decrease of the lowest tier is also felt by ALL OTHER TIERS. Dropping the lowest tier tax rate, while leaving all other tiers unchanged results in a tax break for all incomes. So retaining the lower tax breaks is a tax break for 100% of incomes.
You write off the first ~10k (that's your I'm a single person deduction, double it if filing married). The next tier is 15%, and we'll say it takes effect from 10k-30k. If you cut that tier by 5% to 10% total the tax liability (assuming you earned exactly 30k) is 10% of 20k (2000$) which is down from 15% of 30k (3000$). So you got tax relief of 1000$.
So that means that everyone above 30k ALSO gets that 1000$ extra in tax relief, because everyone pays the same taxes on the first 30k.
Tiers are approximations and probably off, possibly substantially, but the point is the same and how it actually works is the same too so I just picked easy numbers to make this quick.
