Here’s a great clip to share with friends and family if you want to talk about Donald Trump’s tax plans.
In a short video posted Friday, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt—a two-time Emmy winner who has been working since childhood and is in the top 1% of earners—explains why he doesn't want the $70,000 tax break Trump wants to give wealthy people like him.
“So Donald Trump wants to give me $70,000 in tax cuts, per year, Gordon-Levitt says. “And by the way, he doesn’t want to give that to everybody, but I just read that’s the average tax break for the top 1%, if Donald Trump is elected president.”
The “3rd Rock from the Sun” star goes on to point out that regular, middle-class people are not going to benefit from this because “nearly half of it is gonna go to just the top 5% of people.”
“It doesn’t feel right to me,” he continues.
You don’t have to take Gordon-Levitt’s word for it. The Penn Wharton Budget Model, a group within the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, analyzed both Vice President Kamala Harris’ and Trump’s tax proposals last week.
"It's true that Trump looks like he's a winner for everybody, but he'll provide much bigger giveaways to the top 1% and top 0.1%, whereas Harris will be negative for these people," Kent Smetters, faculty director of the Wharton program, told CBS News Friday. According to their analysis, people making $81,415 annually would get $1,740 in breaks, while people earning $19,595 would get just $320 in Trump’s plan.
“Do you want to talk about who’s going to really help most Americans? It’s Kamala,” Gordon-Levitt says in his video. And he’s right, according to Wharton. That bottom quintile of earners would see $2,355 in tax relief, and those in the middle, $2,165. The top 0.1% who would get a $376,910 gift from Trump, but would have to pay an additional $167,255 in Harris’ plan.
As the “Inception” actor says, “Trump’s going to help the same people he always tries to help—the wealthy, himself.”
“So Mr. Trump, thank you, but no thanks.”
Your $5 or more to help Harris-Walz win could more than pay for itself in taxes! That's a good deal.
