Gov. Nathan Deal Proposes Massive Tax Cuts For The Rich, Big Tax Hikes for Middle Class

[cal04]

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal Proposes Massive Tax Cuts For The Rich, Big Tax Hikes for Middle Class
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/03/tax-cutting-nathan-deal/

(snip)
Gov. Nathan Deal (R-GA) made tax cuts a major part of his campaign promise last fall. In an ad put out by his campaign in February 2010, Deal bragged about running on “tax-cutting policies.” Watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nThQsu8lF0

(snip)
Now that Deal is Governor, the state legislature is currently drafting major tax legislation. Deal has been a guiding hand in the negotiations over the bill, and stands behind the latest version of the bill being debated among senate and house legislators. The bill does, as Deal promised, cut many taxes.

For example, it lowers the state personal income tax rate from 6 to 4.5 percent. Yet at the same time, the bill is being touted as being revenue neutral — meaning that revenue has to come from somewhere. Georgia Republicans, under the leadership of Deal, have decided to make up the difference by eliminating a whole host of tax exemptions and increases in sales taxes. The end result? Georgians making over $180,000 would see steep tax cuts while middle class Georgians making between $20,000 and $180,000 would see tax hikes. This chart compiled by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jay Bookman using data from Georgia State University’s Fiscal Research Center illustrates this:



Update: Georgia Politico's Brett Johns has more details about how the GOP's plan is sizing up to slam the middle class and enrich the already wealthy.'
http://gapolitico.com/?p=17969

[Old and In the Way]

1. It's a race to the bottom!

Republicans can't seem to drop taxes fast enough for the rich and corporations. It's like the grand tax experiments of Reagan and BushII never occurred, because the promised results certainly never did. Instead of uniting around who can sell out our states the quickest, they ought to be uniting on making responsible taxes fixed and non-negotiable with the well off and corporations.

[msongs]

2. Obama did half of exact same thing = tax cuts for the rich. he may do the other half soon when

he agrees to slash all the government programs to appease his republican friends, in the true spirit of one way bipartisanship of course.