Re: tax cuts

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:26 PM 2/21/01 -0600, you wrote:
> To give some idea of what a difference it would make to cut the payroll
> tax than
> income taxes, or in addition to income taxes, consider the
> following.  While the
> bottom half of tax paying income earners pay around 4% of the total income
> tax,
> the same group pays just under 20% of the total payroll tax.  The bottom 75%
> pay 17% of the total income tax, while the same group pays half of the payroll
> tax.  Cutting payroll taxes puts moolah in the hands of lower income folks who
> need the bread, and who are more likely to spend larger portions, on normal
> goods (not luxuries).  Doesn't this mean that a payroll tax cut is the
> progressive tax cut? Max?

strangely enough, Senator Joseph Lieberman (the recently-elected Vice
President of the U.S.) agrees. (Cf. BUSINESS WEEK, February 12, 2001, p. 28.)

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine