The Homa Files

Excerpted from WSJ: “The Tax Issue Still Resonates”, Karl Rove,
Oct. 2, 2008

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Conventional wisdom says tax cuts have lost their political power. One reason offered for the alleged decline of tax cuts as a potent issue is that since 2000, tax cuts have taken 13 million filers off of the income tax rolls. Today, one-third of all filers have no federal income tax liability and nearly 40% of all federal income taxes are now paid by the top 1% of taxpayers (60% by the top 5%). The fewer people who are paying taxes, the fewer people who care about tax cuts, or so goes the reasoning.

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In a July 2008 Pew Poll, 52% of Americans said it was “difficult to afford” taxes. By comparison, 46% said the same about health care, 49% about home heating/electric bills, and 38% about food.

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Obama says that only the top 5% will pay higher taxes under his proposals.

But, nearly three out of every four filers who’ll pay higher taxes under a President Obama are small businesses, the source of most new jobs and growth.

An Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center study found that 73% of the filers hit by Mr. Obama’s tax increases report business income — i.e., they are small business owners. His tax hikes will affect every worker at those enterprises.

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Ken’s POV:

The bottom line is that Obama’s tax hikes won’t impact you unless you work for a big company, a small company, or buy stuff from either big or small companies — who will simply increase prices to offset higher taxes.

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This entry was posted on October 3, 2008 at 7:45 am and is filed under Government & Politics, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.