High Income Taxpayers Need To Man Up

Great op-ed in the NYT on how the taxes going up on the mega-rich will not have a big negative effect. The story of the rich changing their lifestyle and/or charitable contributions is pretty weak:

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group, estimated that in 2011, when the changes would be due to take effect, only 1.8 million taxpayers — 1.2 percent of the total — would have their deductions reduced. Just 1.9 percent of taxpayers with income from a small business earn enough to be affected by the limits.

So roughly 98% of the population is unaffected, and the 2% that are, are mega-rich.

Get out my violin. The tax cuts for the rich in 2001 under Bush were not needed. It was just his way of rigging the system. Those days are over. The middle class is going to get its day.

Source: NYT