Bloomberg News Back In Form
There must be elections coming up because Bloomberg News, after a welcome hiatus, is back pimping for Democratic economic policy. In a Bloomberg TOP story that I can't find on their website (too embarrassed, Al?), Ryan Donmoyer, who appears to have a history of railing against cap gains tax cuts, unleashes an attack on Republicans that is dripping with class warfare ethos, not to mention ananlytical inanity. The article is nutty on so many fronts. The title of the article is "Republicans Set Aside Middle-Income Tax Cuts to Focus on Rich." Here's the opening line.
"Republican lawmakers, facing the prospect that their power to cut taxes may soon be curbed, plan to extend tax breaks that mostly benefit the wealthy and Wall Street at the expense of reductions for middle-income households."
Pretty subtle. First it assumes that Republicans can simply cut any tax at will and implies that they have made a conscious choice to screw the poor. The political reality is that Republicans are pretty much limited to the extension of capital gains dividend taxes at this point. They are facing immense deficit pressure and these tax cuts have been wildly successful and are the only tax cuts that are defensible given the political environment. (Don Luskin has the analysis.) So Donmoyer's analysis begins completely divorced from the political realities driving tax policy. Then, in a double whammy, Donmoyer assumes that all tax cuts are equal in their effect and that tax policy is solely about social engineering.
"IRS data showed tax show taxpayers who earned at least $1 million reaped 43% of all savings from reduced rates on dividends and capital gains."
and
"In contrast, households earning less than $75,000 received about 70% of the benefits from increasing the child credit and 64.4% of the benefits from creating the 10% bracket on the first $14,000 of income"
For centuries, civilizations have understood that the essenestial purpose of taxation is to raise revenue for the state. The cap gains and dividend tax cuts are raising huge sums for the state, in contrast to the child tax credit and the bottom income bracket, which are not revenue generators. No matter for Donmoyer. He simply ignores the revenue generation capacity of the policy alternatives, and frames the debate solely on where the benefits go. He also has not heard of something called the "investor class" which refers to the 55% of Americans that own stocks either directly or indirectly. Sure these tax cuts benefit the rich, but it also benefits millions of the unrich. Donmoyer is hardly making the flawed but understandable error of where the perfect is the enemy of the good. He is flatly presenting his idealogical viewpoint that tax policy should be progressive/redistributive.
Watch out David Cay Johnston, Ryan J. Donmoyer is gunning for your title as 'Journalistic King of the Tax Policy Class Warriors'.
"Republican lawmakers, facing the prospect that their power to cut taxes may soon be curbed, plan to extend tax breaks that mostly benefit the wealthy and Wall Street at the expense of reductions for middle-income households."
Pretty subtle. First it assumes that Republicans can simply cut any tax at will and implies that they have made a conscious choice to screw the poor. The political reality is that Republicans are pretty much limited to the extension of capital gains dividend taxes at this point. They are facing immense deficit pressure and these tax cuts have been wildly successful and are the only tax cuts that are defensible given the political environment. (Don Luskin has the analysis.) So Donmoyer's analysis begins completely divorced from the political realities driving tax policy. Then, in a double whammy, Donmoyer assumes that all tax cuts are equal in their effect and that tax policy is solely about social engineering.
"IRS data showed tax show taxpayers who earned at least $1 million reaped 43% of all savings from reduced rates on dividends and capital gains."
and
"In contrast, households earning less than $75,000 received about 70% of the benefits from increasing the child credit and 64.4% of the benefits from creating the 10% bracket on the first $14,000 of income"
For centuries, civilizations have understood that the essenestial purpose of taxation is to raise revenue for the state. The cap gains and dividend tax cuts are raising huge sums for the state, in contrast to the child tax credit and the bottom income bracket, which are not revenue generators. No matter for Donmoyer. He simply ignores the revenue generation capacity of the policy alternatives, and frames the debate solely on where the benefits go. He also has not heard of something called the "investor class" which refers to the 55% of Americans that own stocks either directly or indirectly. Sure these tax cuts benefit the rich, but it also benefits millions of the unrich. Donmoyer is hardly making the flawed but understandable error of where the perfect is the enemy of the good. He is flatly presenting his idealogical viewpoint that tax policy should be progressive/redistributive.
Watch out David Cay Johnston, Ryan J. Donmoyer is gunning for your title as 'Journalistic King of the Tax Policy Class Warriors'.
posted by Donny Baseball at 8:54 AM
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