It has been endlessly noted that the Republican party appears to have lost touch with reality. It denies science and shouts down, rather than engages with, those who question its articles of faith. Witness, for example, its recent suppression of a Congressional Research Office report, which reached the unsurprising conclusion that low tax rates on the rich neither create jobs nor stimulate growth. Lately the party has been taking some hits over its estrangement from reality. It wouldn’t care, except it is also losing, and there are some that believe the two facts are not unconnected.
So now it looks like Republicans are trying a new tack. If reality doesn’t comport with your bullshit, then change reality, at least when you can.
The Republican propaganda machine has quite deliberately spread the meme that an increase in taxes for those earning $250,000.00 or more would effectively raise taxes on such a person’s entire income. In fact, it only raises taxes on income above the $250,000.00 level. In other words, if I make $251,000.00, the higher tax rate applies only to the $1,000.00 by which my income exceeds $250,000.00. (Would that it did, but that’s another subject). That way, the higher marginal rates can never serve as a disincentive to earning more. Earning more can never leave you with less. Even New York Times reporters can’t seem to understand the concept, see, e.g., this story in which a woman actually states she is trying to limit her income so that she won’t be subject to a higher tax on her entire income. Even the Times’ public editor couldn’t stomach the fact that her stupid misperception went unremarked, and gave her opinion that maybe a person reporting on tax issues should point out some basic facts.
But back to the Republicans. In order to bring reality more into line with their lies, the Republicans are now proposing that we in fact do what they have implied Obama wanted to do: tax those folks at a higher rate on every cent of their income, meaning that it would cost you plenty to earn a dollar over the cutoff. Nate Silver explains:
If the tax bubble were implemented, but the tax code were otherwise unchanged, then someone making $400,000 would owe $140,000 in federal income taxes, $23,000 more than she does now, increasing her overall tax rate to 35 percent from about 29 percent.
Someone making $4 million would owe $1.4 million in taxes, also reflecting a $23,000 increase. But the increase would be minimal on a percentage basis, since it comes from a larger pool of income. Their overall tax rate would rise to 35.0 percent from 34.4 percent.
(via New York Times/Nate Silver)
So the Republicans are actually proposing that we align reality to their propaganda, thereby harming the only mildly rich, while giving the obscenely rich a free pass. Why is this not surprising?
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