Bush-GOP Tax Cuts Benefit Wealthy While Jeopardizing U.S. Economic Future

Interview with Len Berman, director of the Tax Policy Center, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

Last month, the U.S. Congress voted to extend until 2010 an earlier tax cut it passed at the behest of President Bush. That extension, along with postponing for one year the requirement for many tax filers to comply with the alternative minimum tax, amounts to a $70 billion tax cut, the vast majority of it going to the wealthiest Americans. The non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates that the richest 20 percent of Americans will reap almost three-quarters of the benefits, while the top one-half of one percent will gain 20 percent of the benefits from the tax cut. But the corporate media, for the most part, reported as fact conservatives' claim that this move would benefit the American economy broadly.

Then last week, the Senate voted down an attempt to repeal the estate tax outright that would have cost the government up to $1 trillion in revenue over the coming decade. But Congress left intact many changes that have allowed wealthy families to avoid paying significant taxes upon the death of a wealthy head of household. The tax cuts and changes to inheritance laws have together dramatically shifted the tax burden from the wealthy to middle- and working class citizens at a time when the U.S. is spending $250 million a day on the war in Iraq and faces a $400 billion deficit.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Len Berman, director of the Tax Policy Center, which is a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. He explains who's really benefiting from the cuts, and who's suffering.

Contact the Tax Policy Center at www.taxpolicycenter.org or by calling (202) 833-7200.

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