Ted Cruz Is New Winner in Richie Rich Tax Contest

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Hooray! The Tax Policy Center has analyzed Ted Cruz’s tax plan, which means we now have data for all of the top four Republican candidates: Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Cruz. Click the links for details. Or just look at the charts below for the nickel summary.

Folks, Ted Cruz is killing it. The other guys are touting tax plans that give paltry income gains to the middle class and big income gains to the rich. Cruz gives the usual paltry sop to the middle class, but incomes of the rich would skyrocket 26 percent under his plan. 26 percent! That’s what I call a tax plan.

Trump is still the winner in the budget-busting contest, but Cruz is close. His plan would increase the deficit $8.6 trillion over ten years. Overall, I have to say that Cruz is bringing his A game. If you calculate his Richie Rich Index™—percentage deficit increase plus percentage income increase for the rich—Cruz clocks in with a score of 87.4, beating out Trump by a hair. Congratulations, Ted.

They want to control the story. Our readers don’t let them.

Powerful forces are working to control the narrative, rewrite history, and keep you in the dark. That’s why the Mother Jones newsroom is fiercely independent, not backed by billionaires or bending to political whims.

But we can’t do this work without you.

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by our readers. Each donation helps strengthen our work, so we can continue to investigate and publish, no matter what an authoritarian-minded administration wants the media to say.

Stand with us. Make a gift today.

They want to control the story. Our readers don’t let them.

Powerful forces are working to control the narrative, rewrite history, and keep you in the dark. That’s why the Mother Jones newsroom is fiercely independent, not backed by billionaires or bending to political whims.

But we can’t do this work without you.

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by our readers. Each donation helps strengthen our work, so we can continue to investigate and publish, no matter what an authoritarian-minded administration wants the media to say.

Stand with us. Make a gift today.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate