More tax cuts for the rich. Because, why not?
by David Atkins
It takes a very special kind of person to look at America today with record income inequality, roaring stock markets, low wages and high unemployment, and conclude that we need more tax cuts for rich people. It takes an even more special person to believe that taxes need to go up on the poor and middle class. But then, Republicans generally and Ohio Governor John Kasich in particular are very special people:
Gov. John Kasich (R) wants to get the top income tax rate in Ohio down below 5 percent, Cincinnati.com reported Thursday. The speech came 18 days after Kasich signed a budget that gives top earners in the Buckeye State a $6,000 per-person tax cut while raising the burden faced by the poorest 20 percent of the state.
The new budget took the state’s income tax rates down by 10 percent across the board, but features a 4.5 percent hike to sales taxes that disproportionately impact the poor. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analyzed the plan and found that it cuts the overall tax burden of the top 1 percent of Ohio earners by $6,083 per year. That group includes people making over $335,000 annually. Folks in the $33,000 to $51,000 earnings range, the middle of Ohio’s spectrum, will see just a $9 tax cut. And for the poorest fifth who earn less than $18,000 per year, taxes are going to go up by $12. That increased tax burden on the poor comes despite a new credit targeted at low earners, and other tweaks to Kasich’s even more regressive original proposal.
Keep in mind, if John Kasich and friends were just trying to make the rich richer, it would suffice to cut taxes on the wealthy and then cut social services to make up for it. That would be evil, but rationally self-interested evil.
But the desire to raise taxes by small margins on poor people isn’t rational self-interest. It’s religious ideology. It’s based on a creed that poor people are undeserving moochers who deserve extra punishment.
You can’t reason with people like this, and you can’t compromise with them. They see the world in very special ways that make them unwilling to engage in even the most basic agreements with rational, empathetic people. Any “compromise” with the likes of John Kasich is by definition immoral. They have to be defeated at the ballot box.
.