[Dialogue] Fw: Our USA national priorities - Tax Breaks vs. BudgetCuts

[Geri Tolman]

Am I the only one who is skeptical about these numbers and categories?  
I haven't done the reading....do they explain how one calculates the "Cost
of "estate planning" techniques used by wealthy to avoid taxes"?
 
My healthy dose of skepticism is based on personal knowledge of too many
people who cheat the welfare system to get food stamps and low income
housing benefits.  Not saying there aren't people who legitimately need
these services, just that there is way too much fraud and abuse.  
 
Lists like these, whether from the left or the right, suggest that there are
easy solutions to very complex problems, and raise the emotional hackles
which tend to get in the way of generating clear-thinking solutions.
 
Respectfully,
Geri Tolman


  _____  

From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Janice Ulangca
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 2:02 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: [Dialogue] Fw: Our USA national priorities - Tax Breaks vs.
BudgetCuts


 
Information on what is up for cutting, and what's not, during budget
discussions in the U.S. Congress going on this week and next. Info is pasted
into this message.  In the attachment, it's neatly arranged in columns -
hope you can open it.  A link to sources for these figures is below.
Janice Ulangca
 
 
Programs at risk             Tax breaks for the wealthy

$11.2 billion Early childhood programs     $11.5 billion Annual cost of
estate tax cuts for millionaires

$8.9 billion Low income housing programs   $8.9 billion Mortgage interest
deduction for vacation homes (10 years)

 

$7.6 billion Supplemental nutrition for poor families (WIC)  $6.7 billion
Cost of "estate planning" techniques used by wealthy to avoid taxes

$4.6 billion Teacher training and afterschool programs      $5.2 billion
Cost of removing limit on itemized deductions for high income 

 
taxpayers (in 2011)

$4.1 billion Job training for unemployed and new workers   $4.1 billion Cost
of tax breaks for offshore operations of U.S. financial companies

$2.5 billion Low income energy assistance (LIHEAP) grants for poor  $2.5
billion Tax breaks for oil companies (write-offs

 
for drilling and oil well costs in 2012)

$2.5 billion Community health centers   $4.9 billion Cost of extending
alcohol fuel tax breaks

$2.0 billion Homeless assistance grants  $2.3 billion Tax loopholes for
managers of hedge funds and private equity funds 

 
(in 2012)

$420 million Legal services for the poor  $312 million Company write offs of
punitive damages (10 years)

$317 million Title X family planning      $303 million Special tax breaks
for timber industry

 

$44 billion All programs at risk combined

$42 billion One year cost of extending Bush tax cuts for top brackets (2012)

 
See this link for more information and sources for these amounts.  Most
figures are from various government sources.




 
<http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/02/tax_breaks_infographic.html>
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/02/tax_breaks_infographic.html


 

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