Should-Read: Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman: Republican tax plan slams workers and job creators in favor of the rich and inherited wealth

Should-Read: Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman: Republican tax plan slams workers and job creators in favor of the rich and inherited wealth: “The tax plan… is a remarkable document… most notably in that it achieves the opposite of its stated goal…

…Presented as a tax cut for workers and job-creating entrepreneurs, it is instead a giant tax cut for the rich and inherited wealth…. Cuts the top rate on profits recorded by so-called pass-through businesses from 39.6 percent to 25 percent…. Investors… [who] do not work will pay 25 percent…. Entrepreneurs who work to earn income from start-ups… will pay the higher rate of 39.6 percent. Wealthy investors win bigly. More jobs are not created. Workers get nothing…. The Republican plan… eliminates the estate tax…. The proposed bill cuts corporate income taxes by $846.5 billion…. In contrast, the successful start-up owner who is actively growing his business in Silicon Valley sees his marginal tax rate increase from 47.6 percent to 52.9 percent… because of the repeal of the deductibility of state income taxes….

The share of national income going to the top 1 percent has doubled from 10 percent to more than 20 percent, while income accrued by the bottom 50 percent has been almost halved, from 20 percent to 12.5 percent. There has been no growth at all in the average pretax income of the bottom half of the population over the past 40 years—during which trickle-down enthusiasts promised just the opposite. Now they’re doing it again. Will we listen?