NEW ANALYSIS: GOP Tax-Hike Plan “Would Be Devastating For Low-Income Families With Children,” “Dramatically Raise Taxes On The Least Fortunate”

New analysis from the Center for American Progress provides additional details and context about Senate Republicans’ proposal, including how “more than half of elderly households would experience a tax hike, and how their plan “would dramatically raise taxes on the least fortunate Americans.”

See for yourself:

Center for American Progress: “Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) tax proposal would be devastating for low-income families with children”
March 28, 2022
By Nick Buffie

• In February 2022, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, released “An 11 Point Plan to Rescue America.” In the section on economic growth, Sen. Scott demanded that low-income Americans begin paying federal income taxes. “All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount,” he wrote. “Currently over half of Americans pay no income tax.”

• According to estimates from the Tax Policy Center (TPC), the proposal would hike taxes on 99.9 percent of Americans making less than $10,000 per year. Such individuals would see their after-tax incomes fall by 6.5 percent.

• The plan would inflict especially large pain on the “poor families” Sen. Scott is ostensibly most worried about: If implemented, Sen. Scott’s plan would require households with children making less than $50,000 to shell out more than $4,500 in additional taxes.

• If Sen. Scott were to look beyond the federal income tax, he would see that all Americans bear some of the overall tax burden. For most people—including virtually all working-class people—federal payroll taxes are a greater burden than federal income taxes. Unsurprisingly, just 17 percent of Americans—most of whom are retirees—pay neither federal income taxes nor federal payroll taxes.

• Sen. Scott disregards all of the main taxes paid by ordinary people, including federal payroll taxes, state sales taxes, and local property taxes, as well as other taxes that are borne by consumers. Only by excluding the taxes paid by most Americans can one conclude that most Americans don’t pay taxes.

• That distinction is important. Most members of the 47 percent only fall into that group temporarily. They are retirees who paid income taxes throughout their working lives; young people who have yet to pay income taxes but will when their wages rise; and people temporarily out of the workforce who paid income taxes in recent years and will pay them again in the near future.

• While Sen. Scott has tried to deflect this particular criticism, his plan explicitly decries the fact that “[c]urrently,” more than half of Americans don’t pay income tax. Therefore, the plan seems to tax people who do not currently pay federal income taxes, such as retirees.

• Indeed, according to the TPC, more than half of elderly households would experience a tax hike under his proposal. This would have an especially damaging effect on the senator’s home state of Florida, where more than 2 in 5 residents would end up paying higher taxes.

• While promoting his 11-point plan, Sen. Scott has continued to mislead the public… In fact, the tax hike is perfectly visible on page 35 of his plan.

• Unfortunately, Sen. Scott’s plan would dramatically raise taxes on the least fortunate Americans.
  

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