| Taxes: Tax Percentage: Tax Bracket |
The percentage of individual income taxes for the lowest and highest tax brackets.
Tax Proposal Just a Piece of Health Reform Puzzle
Published Monday, July 20th, 2009
One proposal to pay for national health insurance calls for imposing a surtax on income tax bills of the top 1.2% of American households. The tax would start at 1% for couples making $350,000 – $500,000. The surtax would rise to 5.4% for households making more than a million dollars; this is lower than depression era recovery efforts. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, very few small businesses would be affected. Plus, according to the proposal, small businesses that offer health insurance will see their cost reduced under the new plan. The tax increases of the House bill won’t take effect until 2011.
The Obama administration hopes that this tax increase will help pay for the record budget spending increases of the federal government, which has reached a total of $2.9 trillion in 2008. Mandatory spending now equals $1.788 trillion, an increase of 4.2%, this includes Social Security (+4.5%), Medicare (+5.2%), Medicaid and SCHIPS (+5.6%), Unemployment (+1.8%) and Interest on the National Dept (+9.2%). Discretionary spending equals $1.114 trillion, an increase of 3.1%, which includes double digit increases of 45.8% on the Global War on Terror, 12.1% on the Department of Defense, 18.7% for the Department of Veterans Affairs, 22% for the Department of State, and 13.1% for the Department of Transportation.
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The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Federal Tax Policies - http://www.cbpp.org/pubs/fedtax.htm
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is one of the nation’s premier policy organizations working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.
Understanding Your Money - http://www.mymoney.gov/
MyMoney.gov is the U.S. government's website dedicated to teaching all Americans the basics about financial education.