The very serious Paul Ryan (R-1%) released a report entitled “A deeper look at inequality.” This report attempts to explain the findings of the CBO that show the breadth of income inequality in America. So, how’d that go? Not too well, apparently.
Greg Sargent over at The Washington Post asked University of Wisconsin economist Tim Smeeding, an expert on inequality to grade Ryan’s work.
Smeeding’s verdict: Ryan’s effort is only “half serious,” fails to prove its argument about inequality, and doesn’t offer any policy prescriptions that would fix the problem as Ryan himself defines it.
Ryan’s proposal rejects the social values imparted by a progressive tax system and sets up a series of false oppositions to reject any plan that might redistribute income (not wealth, income) downwards.
Smeeding focused on several core Ryan arguments that are central to his overall case. First, Ryan claims critics are wrong to push for tax hikes on the rich, arguing the tax system has grown more progressive in recent years. “The share of the federal tax burden borne by the top 1 percent increased dramatically,” Ryan writes.
But Smeeding says this is a typical fallacy committed by those who oppose progressive taxation. Even if it’s true that the tax burden of top earners has gone up, that’s because their incomes have gone up, and have in fact gone up at a faster rate than their tax rate, meaning they now pay a smaller percentage of their overall income in taxes. (emphases in original)
This is such a common piece of the Big Lie that conservatives keep telling. It’s what lies behind the whole “the rich pay most of the income taxes” bit. Of course they do. They have most of the income! The reality is that they don’t pay enough!
Smeeding also rejects Ryan’s false opposition of progressive taxation and income mobility. Ryan argues we should work on mobility and not income redistribution. Smeeding says we can do both. Of course we can do both. Ryan just doesn’t want to admit it. One option does not preclude the other.
“In the past 10 or 15 years, virtually all of the growth has gone to the top five percent,” Smeeding says. “If we manage somehow to increase economic growth again, Ryan’s policies offer no guarantee that we wouldn’t experience the same thing.”
Recent Comments