Are we surprised?
Ryan's still offering the same old trickle down solution to the incredib le disparity in the distribution of wealth in this country.
Slog is less kind:
Unsurprisingly, it's full of the same old Republican talking points, gussied up with a few more misleading smarty-pants graphs. It's the same shit sandwich, though: Trickle-down economics, lowered taxes for everyone, and fixing the loopholes in the tax code.
Quick Latin lesson: Reductio ad absurdum. That's what you've been reading. Ryan's argument is that if you can make a small segment's potential contribution to the whole seem small, then you shouldn't press for more from that segment, regardless of how little it gives now. If that were legit, then the Baynton-Bachmann argument for nothing from Baynton would be legit, too. Preposterous.
But wait. What about the idea that enough money to run the government for four months isn't very much? Four months is one-third of the year, and Ryan's hypothetical case raises it from about 1/400 of personal tax returns. So his example actually shows that even if you taxed the top 1/400 at a lower, reasonable rate and then asked profitable corporations to bear a significant proportion of the whole, the contribution of those two segments would be substantial. The tax burden on the rest of us, even assuming present spending levels and a balanced budget, would be far lower than what happens with those two segments making small contributions.
If you still think Ryan believes millionaires lack the potential to contribute in a big way, ask yourself this: When it's time to finance his next campaign, will he bother with the millionaires?
The Chief, an Oshkosh blogger who deserves a wider readership, asks:At a minimum, the Cain plan is a distributional monstrosity. The poor would pay more while the rich would have their taxes cut, with no guarantee that economic growth will increase and good reason to believe that the budget deficit will increase.Even conservatives are quick to point out that the plan increases the tax burden on the middle class:
Even allowing for the poorly thought through promises routinely made on the campaign trail, Mr. Cain’s tax plan stands out as exceptionally ill conceived.
The Atlantic: Rep. Paul Ryan blasted the Democrats' plan to raise taxes on millionaires … In (an) interview at the Washington Ideas Forum with David Leonhardt of the New York Times, Leonhardt questioned the idea that lowering taxes was a panacea for growth. Taxes increases didn't prevent growth in the 1990s, he said, and tax cuts produced disappointing growth in the 2000s.
Ryan responded that "growth occurs on the margin" and when you raise taxes on work, savings, and investment, you get less work, less savings, and less investment -- and less growth.
And finally, let’s put a stake through the heart of the “say it enough and it’s true” BS that taxing work, savings and investments discourages anything…at all. It’s a Paul Ryan lie, used to market voodoo economic snake oil. What is it with the press too?In the 1990s, Ryan added, other factors such as stable interest rates and a productivity boom helped to compensate for higher tax rates on income and capital.
Paul Ryan says President Obama's proposed tax increase for millionaires is nothing short of class warfare. If you would like to know what shaped Paul Ryan’s economic philosophy, Google Ryan Incorporated Central. The company was founded by his great-grandfather and is responsible for the fact that when Ryan’s father died at the age of 55, Ryan was able to bank his entire Social Security survivor benefits for college instead of living on them the way my siblings did when our father died at the same age...Paul Begala says it better in a CNN opinion piece:
Ryan’s big “real business” experience was working for one branch of the family conglomerate as a “marketing consultant.”
He actually has a B.A. in economics and political science from Miami University, but some people are never capable of letting book learning override personal experience. Ryan is apparently one of them. He ended up in politics at his mother’s urging because she was afraid he was going to end up “a ski bum.”
Mr. Ryan won the genetic lottery. There is no doubt that his great-grandfather worked hard to build that company. But a century and a quarter later, young Mr. Ryan -- who estimates his net worth at up to $2.4 million -- has no calluses on his hands. Just on his heart.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on Sunday that House Republicans would oppose President Barack Obama's payroll tax cuts for both employers and employees, arguing that the policy had already failed to provide a sufficient boost to the economy. "It hasn't worked," Ryan said, suggesting the current temporary tax cut should be allowed to expire, which will amount to a 50 percent tax hike on workers making less than $106,000 per year.
He also said that he opposes the president's plan to require millionaires to pay the same tax rate as the middle class. As chairman of the House Budget Committee and the author of a long-term plan that radically alters Medicare and slashes tax rates for the wealthy as well as social spending, Ryan serves as something of an economic spokesman for House Republicans.The payroll tax cut hasn't worked?
Paul Ryan, author of the plan to end Medicare, is leading Wisconsin Congressional Republicans in tax hypocrisy, calling the payroll break for workers a sugar high" while defending tax cuts for billionaires and hedge fund managers.
Ryan is part of a Congressional Republican leadership that wailed to the heavens when the Bush-Era tax cuts for the richest one percent of Americans were set to expire. But now, with President Obama considering extending the payroll tax holiday as a way of stimulating a sluggish economy put at risk by the "Republican Downgrade" of long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, Ryan and Wisconsin Republicans are hypocritically balking.
"When a fat cat pays a penny in taxes it is cause for Paul Ryan to scream bloody murder about tax increases, but when American workers are allowed to keep more of their hard-earned dollars, Ryan and Wisconsin's Republican delegation sing an altogether different tune," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Thursday. "Apparently, sipping $350 bottles of wine is the only type of work that Ryan and the Republicans believe is worth rewarding."
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has for months argued for closing tax loopholes as a way to pay for his proposed tax cuts. But it turns out he has a penchant for creating those same loopholes when it comes to helping out his biggest donors.His history is just the opposite, seeking to expand loopholes for his donors. For example:
Since unveiling the House GOP budget in the spring, Ryan has been touting provisions aimed at ending tax loopholes and deductions in exchange for lowering tax rates in general...
Take S.C. Johnson & Son, one of Ryan's biggest donors. The multibillion-dollar company, which is based in Ryan's district and manufactures popular cleaning products like Pledge and Windex, donated $41,092 to the congressman between 1998 and 2012, according to OpenSecrets.org.No surprise they didn't go anywhere. Ryan has passed two bills since 1999, and one was to name a post office for Les Aspin, his Democratic predecessor.
Ryan introduced two bills in May 2005 that would have granted the company special exemptions from tariffs. Specifically, his bills sought to suspend duties for imported components of "unique air freshener products … assembled by S.C. Johnson in the United States," Ryan said during floor remarks at the time. Neither bill advanced.
One little-noticed effect of the debt ceiling impasse is that Paul Ryan, that Paul Revere of fiscal calamity, darling of the anti-deficit lobby, has been exposed as a fraud. Technically, I guess he hasn't been exposed if nobody pays attention to it, in the same sense that a person walking naked down a deserted street might as well be at home in the bedroom. But if you care to pay close attention, Ryan's fraudulence is perfectly clear.Ryan's opposition to the so-called Gang of Six proposal, which does what he claims to want, proves, Chait says, that:
Ryan doesn't really care if nominal tax rates are lower and that all the savings come from closing tax expenditures. He just wants rich people to pay less money to the government, and whether that lower tax bill comes in the form of lower rates or bigger loopholes is the secondary consideration.More here.
