more tax cut questions- bush speech

Brad DeLong delong at econ.Berkeley.EDU
Wed Feb 28 14:08:55 PST 2001



>Leslilake1 at aol.com wrote:
>
>>bush tonight says a waitress with two kids making $25,000 - if she tries to
>>better her situation, every dollar she makes over $25,000 is taxed at 50% -
>>sending the awful message - "you can't get ahead."
>>
>>can this be true?
>
>No. No one is in a 50% federal tax bracket. The highest marginal
>rate is 39%, and that's well beyond the point where you pay SS
>taxes. Did he really say that?
>
>Doug

Bush's speechwriters are adding up marginal rates on EITC phaseout + FICA + income tax, while O'Neill is denouncing the very idea of doing so.

Brad DeLong



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