Happy Birthday to the Bush Tax Cuts!
Today they are 10 Years old. My, my, it seems like only yesterday, that the Bushies were promising us the world, if Congress just went along with their altruistic 'Invest in American' sales pitch.
Well THAT turned out well, eh?
Citizens for Tax Justice (pdf)
The Bush Tax Cuts Cost Two and a Half Times as Much as the House Democrats’ Health Care Proposal
Newly revised estimates from Citizens for Tax Justice show that the Bush tax cuts cost almost $2.5 trillion over the decade after they were first enacted (2001-2010).[1] Preliminary estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office show that the House Democrats’ health care reform legislation is projected to cost $1 trillion over the decade after it would be enacted (2010-2019).[2]
[...]
And the GOP swears we CAN'T "afford" health care reform ...
[Continuing ...]
It’s difficult to see how the Bush tax cuts could provide us with two and a half times the benefits of health care reform. In 2010, when all the Bush tax cuts are finally phased in, a staggering 52.5 percent of the benefits will go to the richest 5 percent of taxpayers.
President Bush and his supporters argued that these high-income tax cuts would benefit everybody because they would unleash investment that would spark widespread economic prosperity. There seems to be no evidence of this, particularly given the collapse of the economy at the end of the Bush years.
SO, How big a slice did you get from the Bush Tax Cut pie?
What was 'your take' of the GOP hand-outs, designed to get America moving again?
I guess, a lot depends on which 'step of the economic ladder' you're on, now doesn't it:
Shares of the Bush Tax Cuts in 2010
Lowest 20% 0.8%
Second 20% 4.5%
Middle 20% 7.4%
Fourth 20% 12.6%
Next 15% 22.2%
Next 4% 14.7%
Top 1% 37.8%
For more on WHAT America really could have gotten for our $2,500,000,000,000 Tax Cut investment give-aways, I would direct you to the Front Page post from earlier today:
What the Bush tax cuts hath wrought: $2.5 trillion in lost opportunities
by Meteor Blades for Daily Kos -- Tue Jun 07, 2011
All those Lost Opportunities, are really going to add up, some day. No wonder the GOP argues we need EVEN MORE of them. Guess, they're trying to Get out Dodge, while the getting's good, eh?