McBush Wants to Redistribute Wealth

McBush is now claiming that Barack Obama wants to "redistribute wealth" through his tax policies implying that his oppnent is a dreaded socialist. Senator Obama has repeatedly said that he wants the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire in 2010. Of course McBush's demagoguery totally ignores the redistribution effects of Bush's tax policies. According to the Congressional Budget Office the effective federal tax rate (2004) was reduced twice as much for the wealthy as the middle class from base year 2001 levels. In Table 2 of the report the effective federal tax rate for the middle quintile increases from 15.2% in 2001 to 18.2% in 2014. In the same period the top 1% income group rate increases from 33.0% to just 33.6%. The IRS reports that the top 10% of families in income accounted for 95.3% of income growth between 2002 and 2006. Yet the regime stubbornly refused to increase the federal minimum wage for almost ten years. McBush proposes more of the same by extending the Bush tax cuts and proposing $175 billion in tax reductions for America's richest corporations. A study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on extending the Bush tax policies says that the middle twenty percent (quintile) would receive 14% of the benefit, but the top quintile income group would recieve 74% of the benefit. Wealth or net worth is distributed even more unequally than income in the US. According to OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development) the top 1% control some 25-33% of net worth and the top 10% hold 71%. Our forecast is for the disconnect between McBush rhetoric and reality to continue until November 4th.