Save the Middle Class… and Everyone Else

William McGurn, the esteemed Wall Street Journal columnist and soon-to-be editor of the editorial page of the New York Post, has made an interesting observation about the fabulous Bush tax cuts that are about TO lapse. They amount to a substantial sum of money for a middle-class family. For the middle-class it will be a big deal if they disappear. The Bush tax cuts have been portrayed by President Barack Obama as a rich person's tax cut, but now he is portraying them as a huge tax break for the middle class. Of a sudden he says do not let them lapse! Instead raise taxes on the wealthy!

The President has recently said, "A typical middle-class family of four would see its income taxes go up by $2,200. That's $2,200 out of people's pockets. That means less money for buying groceries, less money for filling prescriptions, less money for buying diapers." Certainly we would all agree with the President that a $2,200 bite from a middle class income will hurt the middle class, a substantial swath of the American people. Thus he wants to take a bigger bite from the top two percent of income earners towards balancing the budget. That will, according to his plan, add up to seven percent of the deficit. Unfortunately it hardly puts a dent in his trillion-dollar problem, a trillion-dollar problem that will confront him every year of his second term. Moreover, it will almost certainly impede growth and job creation. What is to be done? Sacrifice the middle class or sacrifice the upper two percent? Read more....