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Health & Fitness

House Republican Budget Would Raise Taxes by $3K on Middle Class

Today, the House GOP passed a budget plan on a party-line vote that would either sock middle class families with a $3,000 tax hike or increase the deficit.

America's middle class families are still reeling from the great recession, but that fact was ignored by the House GOP today when they passed a budget plan on a party-line vote that would deliver a massive windfall to top earners that could be financed only by socking middle class families with a $3,000 tax hike or increasing the deficit.

Produced under the leadership of former Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan, the House Republican plan proposes to lower the top individual and corporate tax rates to 25 percent, at a cost of nearly $6 trillion in lost revenue over ten years. While the plan claims the rate reduction will be "paid for" with the elimination of tax deductions, credits, and loopholes, it refuses to specify which current tax preferences should be eliminated and which should be preserved – for instance, the deductions for mortgage interest, charitable giving, and state and local income taxes paid.

Current top marginal income tax rates range up to 39.6%, and collapsing the top rates to 25% would result in a net tax cut of $245,000 on average for households with incomes of more than $1 million a year, according to analysis from the nonpartisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) and the Tax Policy Center.

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As we saw when Mitt Romney’s budget plan was analyzed last year, the huge tax break for the wealthiest in this similarly unbalanced plan would either balloon the deficit or force middle class families to pay more--a lot more. To fully offset the massive cuts for the wealthiest, filers with children and incomes under $200,000 would be forced to pay $3,000 more in taxes on average each year.

You can read the full report on the CBPP website.

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In contrast to the Republican budget, I believe the federal government should be focusing on strategies to jump-start job growth and helping middle class families own a home, educate their children, and power the economic recovery. A new poll conducted this week by Gallup shows broad support for my view that Washington should be doing more to encourage job creation, with 79 percent supporting a tax break for businesses that create jobs in the US and 72 percent backing a program to put Americans to work on urgent infrastructure repairs.

Protecting the middle class, growing the economy and investing in our future are the priorities Long Island's hardworking families sent me to Washington to fight for, and I will continue to do so.

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