Truth about the Bush Tax Cuts

There has been lots of discussion recently regarding how the Bush administration cut taxes “only for the wealthy”. A quick look at the facts shows how utterly fallacious these claims about “unfairness” really are:

According to the Tax Foundation, a family of four with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $40,000 saw a reduction in taxes under George Bush's plan of 96%, from $1,178 to $45, or $1,133 back in their pockets. Similarly, a family of four with and AGI of $50,000 realized a tax reduction of 42%, from $2,678 to $1,545, or $1,133.

Conversely, families of four with an AGI of $150,000 saw only a 10% reduction in taxes, from $22,878 to $20,632, or $2,247. For the record, the “richest” 5% of Americans had an AGI of over $127,000, and the “richest 1%” had AGI’s over $292,000.

So that family earning $150,000 did get a tax reduction in dollars almost double that of the family earning $40,000, but still paid over $19,000 MORE in taxes after the cut, or twelve times MORE than that $40,000 family!

One last thing, the Bush tax cuts effectively eliminated the income tax burden on a family of four earning less than $35,000.

You see for yourself here.