Wednesday, August 4, 2010

News Flash: Small Businesspeople Are Not the Rich

Motivational-style poster with a photo of Joe the Plumber and the headline 15 Minutes of Fame
Hey, remember the whole Joe the Plumber thing? Joe thought that small business people would be hurt by taxes on "the wealthy." (Never mind that Joe himself didn't have the level of income in question, and didn't even own a business or have the money to buy one.)

The same reason is now being used to oppose ending the Bush-era tax cuts on high-income people. Raising taxes on the wealthiest will hurt small businesses, it is argued.

Not true, according to an op-ed in today's Star Tribune (originally from the Washington Post):

If, as proposed, the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire for the highest earners, the vast majority of small businesses will be unaffected. Less than 2 percent of tax returns reporting small-business income are filed by taxpayers in the top two income brackets.
Thanks to William G. Gale for writing that pithy bit of reality.

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