Pawlenty loves himself some class warfare (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
On Wednesday, I wrote about Tim Pawlenty's
absurd new tax cut proposal, saying it would cost $10.3 trillion when you include the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts. According to
a new analysis, it turns out that was an underestimate. The actual cost of his tax cut plan would be roughly $11.6 trillion. And most amazingly of all:
The top 0.1 percent of U.S. taxpayers would save an average of $1.4 million in taxes under the economic plan of Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, according to an independent analysis.
Pawlenty’s $11.6 trillion tax-cut plan, which reduces rates on income, capital gains, interest, estates and dividends, is almost three times larger than the proposals endorsed by House Republicans.
Compared with current tax policy, 63.6 percent of U.S. households would receive a tax cut, with most of the remainder experiencing no change. Almost half of the benefits would flow to taxpayers in the top 1 percent of income distribution, or those earning more than $593,011 in 2013.
So the top 0.1% would get an average of $1.4 million cut, an amount equal to nearly thirty times the median family income, but almost four in ten taxpayers wouldn't see their taxes go down by a single dime.
We already know that this sort of tax cut won't work. It didn't work under Bush, and it wouldn't work under Pawlenty. It's an amazingly stupid idea. In the end, it represents nothing more than robbing from the middle-class and poor to line the pockets of the wealthy.