$1M not equal to $250K
I get that the Senate D鈥檚 want to pay for the President鈥檚 jobs bill by raising a tax surcharge on millionaires and billionaires, and I understand the rationale.
I also get that red is the new black, or something to that effect.
But it鈥檚 very important that we don鈥檛 allow $1 million to become the new $250,000.
That is, when people talk about sunsetting the highend Bush tax cuts, we鈥檙e using $250K as a cutoff, not $1m. To switch to the higher number makes an already tight tax base too tight to raise the revenue we need. Remember, just above 2% of households, and about the same share of small businesses,* are above $250K, so the lower cutoff is not biting the middle class. And moving to the $1m cutoff loses you slightly less than half the revenue from the highend sunset.
*The majority of 鈥渟mall businesses鈥� above $1m are law practices, hedge funds, self-incorporated consultants who are not going to hire anybody, etc鈥ot mom and pop shops.
