Tax hike for wealthy won’t kill growth: CBO
Here’s yet another chart that says a lot - look back to the Mid Sixties where the streams crossed. At that point it was still normal for a single middle class earner to reasonably support a family of 4-6, now it takes two earners. At that time the economy was pretty much blue sky. At that time money supply was more dispersed and the middle class held on to more of their earnings while those “corporate persons” paid more of their fair share.
Allowing income tax rates to rise for wealthy Americans, and maintaining rates for the less affluent, would not hurt U.S. economic growth much in 2013, the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday, stepping into a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over how to resolve the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
The report by the authoritative non-partisan arm of Congress is expected to fuel President Barack Obama’s demand for higher taxes on the rich, part of his proposal to avoid the full impact of the expiring tax cuts and across-the-board spending reductions set to begin in early 2013 unless Congress acts.
Republicans argue that any tax increases would be devastating to the economy, particularly to small businesses, and to U.S. employment rates.
They have held firm to their position that none of the cuts, which originated during the administration of President George W. Bush, should be allowed to expire.
The CBO said the tax hikes for the wealthy would reduce job growth by around 200,000 jobs, much less than the 700,000 in job losses claimed by Republican Speaker of the House John A. Boehner.
Chart source: Joint Committee on Taxation