Taxing The Imagination

How bad is Tim Pawlenty's economic plan?  It's considerably worse than even the Bush tax cuts for the rich, making deeper cuts to social programs and giving trillions more to the wealthy than Bush dared to dream of.

After taxes, the very wealthiest people in the country would see their after-tax income spike by over one-third. Those on the other end of the income spectrum would hardly notice the bump. And that's to say nothing of the fact that, without all that revenue, the government would no longer be able to fund the services many middle class and lower income Americans depend on.

From CBPP: "In 2013 the Pawlenty plan would give people in the top one-tenth of 1 percent on the income scale (i.e., people with incomes above $2.7 million) an average annual tax cut of $1.8 million"

His plan is driving the debate among GOP presidential hopefuls. Though not all of them will ultimately match his cuts or exceed them, they will certainly be using it as a benchmark.

That's insane.  It would add trillions to the national debt.  It would force the country to abandon the social safety net, not to mention basically everything but defense spending.   And yet it's the new reference point for just how much of the remaining country's wealth would be given to the nation's richest people at the expense of 90% of America.

This is what "moderate Republicans" like Tim Pawlenty plan to do should Republicans get control of Congress and the White House, and it would be the end of the country as we know it.