Obama Leadership Essential to Winning New Revenue

Institute for Policy Studies April 13, 2011

http://www.ips-dc.org/

REPORT: Unnecessary Austerity: Identifies $400 billion
in Revenue from Reversing Tax Cuts to Wealthy and Tax
Dodging Corporations

LINK:
http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/unnecessary_austerity_unnecessary_government_shutdown

"The President's statement today was a welcome step in
breaking the silence about revenue in the current
budget and deficit debate," said Chuck Collins, co-
author of a new report, Unnecessary Austerity.
"Before we face another round of budget cuts that
undermine the American Dream, U.S. millionaires and
corporations like General Electric should pay their
fair share."

"Unnecessary Austerity," a new Institute for Policy
Studies report examines how Congress could raise more
than $4 trillion in revenue over the next decade by
reversing years of tax giveaways to the richest
Americans and largest corporations.

"When President Obama was born in 1961, families with
more than a million dollars of annual income paid 48%
of their income in federal income taxes," said Scott
Klinger, report co-author. "This year, they will pay
just 23%. We need the president to stand tall."

The report examines massive shifts in the tax code
since 1961. For example, if corporations and households
amassing $1 million or more in income each year paid
taxes at the same rates as they did in 1961, the
Treasury would collect an additional $716 billion a
year - $7 trillion over a decade.

The report prescribes eight new potential revenue
sources. Taken together, they would boost revenue by $4
trillion over the next decade. These include:

    * Closing overseas tax havens ($90-100 billion)

    * Adding new tax brackets for households with more
    than $1 million ($60-80 billion) in annual income

    * Instituting a modest financial transaction tax
    ($150 billion)

America's increasingly concentrated income and wealth,
coupled with historically low effective tax rates on
the richest households, are fueling the deficit,
according to this new report.

For example, if U.S. corporations were taxed at the
same effective rate that they paid in 1961, the
additional tax revenue would total $485 billion.

Institute for Policy Studies (IPS-DC.org) is a
community of public scholars and organizers linking
peace, justice, and the environment in the U.S. and
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