Of the five leading candidates, four have released semi-detailed tax plans. We’re still waiting on Ben Carson’s tithe-based plan. Still, I thought everyone ought to get a look at how their plans affect the middle class vs. the rich. After all, we liberals keep nattering on about how these guys all want to “cut taxes on the rich,” so let’s see the evidence.
Well, the Tax Foundation is a right-leaning outfit, so you have to figure they’re going to give Republican plans a fair shake. And their distributional analysis of Rubio, Bush, Trump, and Cruz shows that their tax plans are all pretty similar: tiny after-tax gains for middle-income workers and huge gains for the top 1 percent. I’ve used the Tax Foundation’s static analysis, since it’s the most tethered to reality, but even if you use the magic dynamic estimates you get roughly the same result: the rich make out a whole lot better than the middle class.
That said, you really have to give Ted Cruz credit. When it comes to giving huge handouts to the rich, he’s the true Republican leader.
