Via Ed Kilgore, I see that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal wants to raise taxes on the poor as a way of funding big tax cuts on the rich. He doesn’t put it that way explicitly, of course (“It’s time to…foster an environment where businesses want to invest and create good-paying jobs”), but it’s hardly buried in the fine print, either. Basically, he wants to increase the sales tax (which hits the poor and middle class heavily) in order to eliminate income and corporate taxes (which are paid largely by the well-off).
Is this because Louisiana’s rich folks are being soaked and need relief? Not really. According to data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the poor in Louisiana currently pay about 10% of their income in state taxes. The rich pay about 5%.
Too much! Bobby Jindal won’t be happy until that ratio is more like the 10:1 that God intended. Welcome to some of that fresh new thinking from the up-and-coming young stars of the Republican Party that you’ve been hearing so much about lately.
