Analysis: House GOP Budget Gives $187,000 Tax Cut To Every Millionaire

By Travis Waldron/Think Progress

ThinkProgress reported Tuesday that the House Republican budget, authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), would give away $3 trillion in tax breaks to corporations and the wealthiest Americans. Roughly $2 trillion of those breaks are aimed at the rich, thanks to the repeal of multiple taxes that primarily affect the rich and the dropping of the top marginal tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent.

Ryan insisted those breaks won’t blow holes in the federal budget, first by claiming a level of revenue that borders on pure fantasy, and second by promising to close tax loopholes. Even in the unlikely scenario that the GOP managed to close every tax loophole available to the wealthy, each millionaire would pay an average of $187,000 less under Ryan’s plan than they would under current law (which assumes an end to the Bush tax cuts), according to a study from Citizens for Tax Justice:

While Rep. Ryan does not specify which tax provisions he would repeal, these calculations assume he would repeal all itemized deductions, all tax credits, the exclusion for employer-provided health insurance, and the deduction for health insurance for the self-employed.

Even under these assumptions, over 92 percent of these very high-income taxpayers would enjoy a net tax cut, and the average income tax change for these taxpayers would be a reduction of $187,000 in 2014.

Dropping the top income rate to 25 percent “would provide a benefit to millionaire’s that would far exceed their loss of any deductions, credits, or breaks for health care.” Ryan said Tuesday that he designed the tax plan to bring in as much revenue as the government currently collects. But even if the Bush tax cuts were extended for everyone, that likely wouldn’t happen. “This is a very low revenue goal,” CTJ notes. “But [Ryan's] tax proposal would almost certainly fail to meet it nonetheless.”