Taxing Your Imagination Yet Again

The non-partisan Tax Policy Center calls shenanigans on Paul Ryan's "balanced in ten years" budget, to the tune of adding $5.7 trillion to the national debt.

In its study, the center concludes that Ryan's budget would add $5.7 trillion to the deficit — because of proposals to simplify the income tax code to two levels of 10 and 25 percent, repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax, repeal certain tax increases from the Affordable Care Act, and cut the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent.

It's "hard to imagine" Ryan's budget plan working out to be revenue neutral, the TPC's Howard Gleckman wrote in a blog post accompanying the study.

But if Ryan plans to implement those tax cuts and still make good on his promise to balance the budget, other taxes would have to be raised by $5.7 trillion. 

According to the study, the Ryan budget's tax cuts would also proportionately benefit upper-income earners. Here's a look at each income bracket's percent change in after-tax income looks in chart form:

To recap, the richest 1 percent would get a 17.4% tax cut, and the richest 0.1% would get a 20% tax cut, or about $1.2 million extra.  Meanwhile, in order to balance this budget, Ryan and his GOP friends are going to have to raise nearly $6 trillion in taxes over ten years on somebody.

Guess who?

If you've been paying attention, you already know the answer.