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Friday, November 30, 2012

Republican New Revenue Options Would Bring More Revenue Than Obama's Tax The Rich Death Trap

By Susan Duclos

Earlier we took a look at the middle class Americans and small businesses, which employ 93 percent of workers employed by small businesses, who would all be caught in Obama's tax the rich death trap as well as the millions being held hostage to Obama's tax scheme.

Then we took a look at the Conservative case for jumping off the fiscal cliff with Obama by refusing to allow him to catch those employees and small businesses in his tax death trap.

In one of those pieces, I ran across something very interesting at Washington Post:

Since Republicans are (for the moment) holding firm to their opposition to raising tax rates, the only way to increase revenues in a down payment is to close loopholes and limit or eliminate deductions — something Republicans have expressed a willingness to do as part of a larger deal for tax and spending reform.

As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, there’s a lot more revenue here than most people realize. According to the liberal Tax Policy Center, capping all itemized deductions at $50,000 a year would yield $749 billion in extra revenue over 10 years — almost as much as the $823 billion that President Obama’s plan to raise tax rates on top earners would yield in the same period. Moreover, such a cap would soak the rich first. The top one-fifth of income earners would pay more than 96 percent of the higher taxes.

If you lower the cap on deductions even further to $25,000, there’s even more revenue to be found — an additional $1.286 trillion over 10 years. And a $17,000 cap would raise an additional $1.747 trillion in a decade.

Obama's plan to directly raise taxes on the so-called rich would bring in less than other revenue raising options, but would harm small businesses, who create the jobs, more.

Something to think about huh?