Leonhardt in the NY Times: “In the Senate, Republicans were so desperate to find money that this past week they released a new version of the bill that made virtually all of the middle-class tax cuts temporary. They expire before the bill’s final year, 2027. An assortment of middle-class tax increases — again, to help cover the cost of the tax cuts for the wealthy — last for the full life of the Senate bill. As a result, it ends up being a tax increase on households making less than $75,000, according to the only rigorous analysis so far, by the Senate’s Joint Committee on Taxation. For families making somewhat more than $75,000, the tax cut is modest and likely temporary, given the deficit. The plan, says Martin Sullivan, chief economist at Tax Analysts, a highly regarded research group, has “stunningly meager tax benefits for middle class.””
Remember, the Republicans have to “find money” for the tax cuts because the only way they can pass this without actually bringing it to a vote in the Senate is if it doesn’t add more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit after the 10th year. So they sunset all the middle class breaks at the end of the 10th year, while the corporate and billionaire tax breaks are forever. You could not construct a more blatant form of pillaging if you tried. This is simple case of top-down class warfare.
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