GOP Tax Proposal Makes Clear Whose Side They Are On and Whom They Are Against

Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) today made the following statement in response to House Republicans introducing legislation to extend the high-income Bush tax cuts:

“Republicans made two things perfectly clear today:  One, they are willing to hold the middle class hostage over their refusal to ask millionaires and billionaires to contribute one cent to deficit reduction. And two, their tax pledge does not extend to middle- and lower-income families, 25 million of whom would experience an average $1,000 tax hike under the Republican plan. As the President said, ‘Let’s agree to do what we agree on’ and extend the middle class tax cuts. The very wealthiest have gained the vast majority of income growth in recent decades, with 93 percent going to the top 1 percent in 2010. The Republican response is to give them a $74,000 tax cut while middle class wages stagnated and families struggle to recover from the deep recession.”

QUICK FACTS ON GOP PROPOSAL:

374,000 households with incomes above $1 million reap a combined $27.9 billion tax cut -- equaling $74,505 for the average millionaire -- under a permanent extension of all the Bush tax cuts. The average tax cut for the typical middle-income family of four: $2,200.

81% of the extension of the high-income tax cuts (for households earning more than $250,000) goes to millionaires.

25 million families face an average $1,000 tax increase under the GOP plan to vastly curtail the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit and end completely the American Opportunity Tax Credit.