Redistributing To The Rich
BUSH REDISTRIBUTED TO THE WEALTHY: An analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that President Bush's economic policies have "redistributed wealth to the richest Americans and left the majority with stagnating wages and declining household incomes." Looking at the effects of the first three Bush tax cuts, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that "the percentage by which the effective tax rate was cut for high-income families was nearly twice the rate cut for those in the middle of the income spectrum." Meanwhile, the administration's failure to raise the minimum wage coupled with its poor enforcement of federal wage and hour laws, trade agreements, and union rights further undermined the economic security of middle and lower-income Americans. Data prepared by the IRS from tax returns filed during the post-9/11 recovery (2002 to 2006) reveals that household income grew by $863 billion during the period. "The 15,000 families at the top of the income scale saw their annual incomes go from about $15 million a year to nearly $30 million," accounting for more than 25 percent of all of the growth in income for the entire country. The remaining 1.7 million families in the top 1 percent of households accounted for nearly another 50 percent. But while the "top 10 percent of families accounted for 95.3 percent of the nation's income growth between 2002 and 2006," the average real income for families in the bottom 90 percent of households increased by about $300 to a little less than $30,700."
MCCAIN WOULD DOUBLE DOWN: McCain claims that "in this country, we believe in spreading opportunity." But his Bush-like economic policies would only further America's income inequality. In fact, by extending Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy and proposing $175 billion in tax breaks to America's largest corporations, McCain's regressive economic agenda would redistribute wealth to the richest Americans during a period of stagnating wages and growing economic anxiety.
