Here's Where The $$$ Went: Bush Tax Cuts Robbed---Each American Taxpayer---$48,000 Of Pre-Tax Income

[kpete]

Mark Karlin:

Advocates of so-called trickle-down economics have grounded their thinking in the idea that the entire pool of US wage earners benefits financially when the rich get increased tax cuts. According to Johnston, however, this is disproven by actual IRS statistics. Quite the opposite has happened to US workers; more than $6.5 trillion has gone missing from the incomes of those who are not wealthy. Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer because of enormous tax cuts and a record-breaking stock market.

Think about what you could have done with that extra $48,000 every time you hear the word "Bush."

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/more-than-6-5-trillion-dollars-lost-in-us-income-due-to-tax-cuts-for-the-rich

****************************************


According to an analysis by Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter David Cay Johnston, formerly of the New York Times, the Bush tax cuts, touted as a harbinger of prosperity by the Republican Party, actually robbed each American taxpayer of $48,000 in pre-tax personal income during the twelve years of their existence, for a total of approximately 6.6 trillion dollars.

In 10 of the 12 years when the Bush tax cuts were in effect, the average income shown on tax returns was lower than in 2000. In the two upside years, average income rose modestly, up $504 for 2006 and $1,744 for 2007.

Total those 12 years and the net shortfall per taxpayer comes to $48,010.

He notes that after twelve years of tax cut mania average real hourly wages are now 6% less than they were in 1972-1973.
Less than they were forty years ago. Where did the money go?

Of the total national increase in income in 2012 over 2009, an astonishing one-third went to just 16,000 households, and almost 95 cents of each dollar went to the top 1 percent, while the bottom 90 percent lost ground.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/6/taxes-jobs-economicgrowthbls.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/11/1313326/-Report-Bush-Tax-Cuts-Gutted-Americans-Incomes-6-6-Trillion-Dollars

[brewens]

1. Add to that where they actually make money off the tax code in the first place. How many

at the very top were coming out ahead before the tax cuts already? Look at people at the top of companies that do a lot of business with the government. Thier huge salaries and bonuses come right out of the tax payers pocket to begin with. Then if they are invested in defense contractors, oil companies or whatever, tack all that on too. We buy a shitload of fuel for the military and government. Overtaxed at the top my ass! You don't buy a tax code and give yourself the short end of the stick!

[House of Roberts]

2. Tax cuts allow employers to pay workers less,

without the workers realizing a loss. Coupled with the increases in health insurance costs during those years, workers saw their real income drop as the dollar dropped.

Larry Beinhart used to be on Thom Hartmann from time to time. I thought he got the psychology of tax cuts right.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-beinhart/tax-cuts-theology-facts-t_b_144281.html

[Yavin4]

3. The sad part is that a significant portion of the American people believe that...

giving tax breaks to rich people is what creates jobs, and no amount of data nor facts will disabuse them of this. They believe that ALL government spending goes to lazy Blacks or illegals, and they get none of it. Through the years, the Republicans have parlayed prejudicial and bigoted opinions into support for tax breaks for the rich.

This is a generational thing, and it won't change until the older generations die off.

[dickthegrouch]

4. ... so far!

That's only an estimate of what Bushco has cost us thus far. After paying interest on that government borrowing to pay for all the waste for another 150 years, it will end up being 100 times what we can point to now.

[woo me with science]

5. And now most of them have been made permanent. nt

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[hughee99]

7. Weren't the tax cuts supposed to expire at the end of 2010 until the president

signed an extension through the end of 2012?

[woo me with science]

8. They are the Obama-Bush tax cuts, now.

[former9thward]

9. These are the Bush/Obama tax cuts.

The Bush cuts expired long ago. But tax cuts had nothing to do with the average wage going down. That is terrible economics. The average wage has gone down due to decent paying jobs leaving and being replaced in part by lower paying service sector jobs. That has been demonstrated over and over again.