“Tax Plans of G.O.P. Favor the Rich Despite Populist Talk”

John Harwood NYT:

All told, the conservative Tax Foundation estimates that Mr. Rubio’s plan would cut taxes an average of 17.8 percent for all taxpayers — but 27.9 percent for the top 1 percent of earners.

Mr. Rubio’s rivals would also deliver disproportionate gains to the most affluent. Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida would adjust tax brackets so that the number of families that owe no income tax would rise to 81 million, from 66 million. But he would cut the top income tax rate of 39.6 percent more than twice as much as his brother did as president, to 28 percent, while reducing the top capital gains rate to 20 percent and eliminating theestate tax.

The Tax Foundation estimates that Mr. Bush’s plan would raise the after-tax incomes of top earners 16.4 percent, more than any other group. The foundation says the proposal from the real estate magnate Donald J. Trump, who leads Republican polls, would raise incomes of the top 1 percent of earners 27 percent — also the most of any group.

That pattern reflects a party still wedded to the theories of supply-side economics 35 years after President Ronald Reagan championed them under far different circumstances, when the top income tax rate was 70 percent. And the reaction to Mr. Bernanke’s suggestion reflects deferential instincts toward financial executives, despite voters’ anger after Washington bailed out Wall Street.

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