Chuck Grassley: “I will highlight a few points from this editorial that is based on Internal Revenue Service data. After the tax cuts…”

“I will highlight a few points from this editorial that is based on Internal Revenue Service data. After the tax cuts passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, the Federal income tax burden substantially shifts as a greater burden to the wealthy. Well, that must be a shock to people on the other side of the aisle. It says that after the tax cuts passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, the Federal income tax burden substantially shifted as a greater burden to the wealthy. It cites these statistics: Between 2001 and 2004, the percentage of Federal income taxes paid by those with incomes of over $200,000 a year and above has risen from 40.5 percent to 46.5 percent. The tax share paid by millionaires has risen, with Americans with incomes over $1 million going from 16.9 percent to 17.8 percent in 1 year, from 2002 to 2003. And what have we gotten from the tax cuts in capital gains and dividends? Not only has it sparked the economy, as Chairman Greenspan gives it credit for doing, but in response to the cuts in capital gains and dividends, we haven't seen revenues from capital gains and dividends go down as part of our overall revenues. But the Wall Street Journal editorial states that capital gains receipts have increased 79 percent after the cut in capital gains and dividend tax receipts have gone up 35 percent. We are seeing all this with the bottom line being that tax revenues have been increasing at an incredible rate.…”