Why Mitt Romney's tax plan is worse than the Bush tax cuts and hurts the poor.

Original Link: http://www.examiner.com/liberal-in-orlando/why-mitt-romneys-tax-plan-is-worse-than-the-bush-tax-cuts-and-hurts-the-poor-1

By Robert Sobel

Mitt Romney recently stated that "any time a job is lost it's a tragedy." Mitt Romney also recently said that he likes to fire people. Taken out of context or not, Romney shows in his actions rather than his words who he supports. According to a report by the Center for American Progress, the Mitt Romney tax plan doesn't just favor the rich, it hurts average Americans.

The Center for American Progress released a report this week that showed that while the Bush plan gave an average tax cut of $141,000 to people making over a million dollars a year, the Romney tax plan is twice as generous with tax cuts that would reach nearly 287,000 for millionaires. What is more outrageous is that Romney claims that his plan doesn't favor the rich, but instead the middle class. Once again it's a case of actions speaking louder than words. The numbers don't lie and Mitt Romney's tax plan is twice as dangerous for America than the current destructive Bush tax cuts. The Progress Director of Tax and Budget Policy for Center for American Progress, Michael Linden, has stated that the current wealth gap between the rich and the rest of the American people would only continue to grow under a Romney presidency.

Michael Linden: Romney’s plan for federal taxation begins with a hefty portion of Bush-era tax policy: Permanently extend all the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003, including those that mainly benefit the extremely wealthy. Then Romney layers on a heaping batch of new tax cuts for the rich, including a full repeal of the estate tax—which is currently paid by only the richest 0.14 percent of estates—and a massive corporate tax cut.

It seems to be a growing theme within the Republican party for decades, blame the poor at the dinner table while stealing from the middle class to give to the rich under the table. The ideology of "trickle down" economics is getting old and has proven to reward only a select few in America. As the wealthy continue to pay less in America, the weight on the shoulders of the middle and lower class will get heavier. Those who can barley get by now will be asked do more as the elite continue to line their pockets.

Under the Romney plan, those making under $40,000 a year would actually see a tax increase. From incomes of $50,000 a year to $100,000 a year would see less than a 1% tax cut, but as incomes grow the tax cuts grow with them. Unlike the current progressive tax plan, the more you make the more you pay, Romney's tax plan works in reverse and attempts to turn the US tax code into a regressive system giving more to those who make more. The conservative economic agenda didn't work in the past and under Presidents like Reagan and Bush and in the future it wouldn't work under Romney in the White House either.