MARINA DEL REY, CALIF.--President Bush's tax-cut bill was met with cries from Democrats that it only benefits the "top one percent" and will hurt "working families." This is an outrageous lie, said Robert W. Tracinski, a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and a columnist for Creators Syndicate.
"Bush's plan would cut taxes for everyone and cuts them most for the poor," said Tracinski. "But more important, the Democrats are trying to hide the fact that the wealthiest one percent of Americans pay a vastly disproportionate share of the nation's taxes."
Tracinski said that studies by the IRS and the Congressional Budget Office reveal that:
- The poorest third of wage-earners pay no income taxes at all.
- The wealthiest one percent of earners pay, on average, income tax of 27 percent-five times the income tax burden of the average worker.
- The top one percent pay a total of more than $240 billion, nearly one third of all federal income taxes.
- The wealthiest 10 percent of earners pay more than $460 billion, roughly two-thirds of all income taxes.
"The wealthy are the only group whose tax burden has increased over the past decade," said Tracinski. "Our current system shifts the majority of income taxes away from poor and middle-class voters, preferring to confiscate the wealth and earnings of a small minority. The wealthiest one percent includes the most productive people in America-the entrepreneurs and executives who direct the course of the nation's businesses. These people work hard and shoulder enormous responsibilities. They provide the knowledge, the entrepreneurial energy, and the investment capital that drives our economy. Yet they are vilified as idle swindlers by the left-and the right is too timid to defend them openly.
"These people deserve a tax cut, not just because it will stimulate the economy, but because it is morally the right thing to do."
Ayn Rand Institute fellow and Creators Syndicate columnist Robert W. Tracinski is available for interviews.
Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Visit the Institute's Web site at www.aynrand.org.
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