Stupidest Administration Alive: The Clown Show That Is Bush Administration Fiscal Policy

That's twenty for you, forty-two thousand for me. David Corn directs us to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

David Corn: Twenty Dollars--Hooray!: Dog bites man--that ain't news. And it seems that tax cuts for the well-off in the Bush years don't cause much of a splash, either.... Here's the CBPP breakdown:

http://www.cbpp.org/5-4-06tax.htm House and Senate negotiators have reportedly reached final agreement on the $70 billion tax-cut reconciliation package. Although no official description of the agreement has been released, press reports on the contents of the final package indicate that it will offer virtually no benefits to low- and moderate-income households, but shower high-income households with very large tax cuts.

The Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center has examined the major provisions that are expected to be in the package, including a two-year extension of capital gains and dividend tax cuts, a one-year extension of relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax, and a proposal to lift the income limits that apply to converting retirement funds to Roth IRAs. Preliminary estimates by the Tax Policy Center show that:

• About 87 percent of the benefits of the reconciliation conference agreement would flow to the 14 percent of households with incomes above $100,000, and 55 percent of the benefits would go to the 3 percent with incomes above $200,000. Households earning more than $1 million a year, which represent only 0.2 percent of all households, would receive 22 percent of the benefits of these tax cuts.
• In contrast, the three-quarters of households with incomes below $75,000 would receive just 5 percent of the benefits. The 60 percent of households with incomes below $50,000 would receive less than 2 percent of all benefits.
• Looked at in dollar terms, the differential treatment of various income groups is even more striking. The average tax cut for the 20 percent of households in the middle of the income spectrum would be just $20. But the average tax cut for those in the top one percent of the income spectrum would be $13,800. For those with incomes above $1 million, the average tax cut would be $42,000.

Twenty bucks for average Americans. Happy days.