7 Tax Loopholes the GOP Loves to Love
In less than two weeks the very damaging across the board “sequester” cuts will kick in unless Republicans agree to a replacement that is a balanced compromise including both new revenues from closing tax loopholes and smarter, more targeted spending cuts.
When it was convenient for them to do so, Republicans including Speaker Boehner and Mitt Romney argued vociferously for closing loopholes and ending wasteful giveaways in the tax code. But now that push is coming to shove, these Republicans are refusing to help protect the economy and jobs by replacing the sequester cuts with new revenues from closing loopholes.
This intransigence has real consequences. As the president laid out yesterday, these cuts will cause pain:
So these cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls. This is not an abstraction — people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again.
Here’s a look at the top seven loopholes and giveaways that Republicans think are more important than protecting our economy, jobs, the middle class, and the most vulnerable among us:
- Extra tax breaks enjoyed by the wealthiest Americans — $520 BILLION
- Tax break for companies that ship jobs overseas — $168 BILLION
- Special tax breaks for the largest oil companies — $25 BILLION
- The loophole that allow people like Mitt Romney to pay a lower tax rate than middle-class workers — $21 BILLION
- Tax deductions for vacation homes and yachts — $10 BILLION
- The corporate jet loophole — $3 BILLION
- Special write-offs for horse breeders (aka the Bluegrass Boondoggle) — $126 MILLION
BOTTOM LINE: The Republicans are choosing to protect millionaires and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street instead of funding our military and programs vital for the middle class and the health of our economy.
Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed
Annals right-wing media failure: how a joke became an attack against Chuck Hagel.
Florida’s GOP governor will expand Medicaid under Obamacare.
Marco Rubio is no savior for women.
800.000 defense workers to be furloughed because of the sequester.
Fox News: Al Jazeera America is a plot to activate Muslim sleeper cells in Detroit.
Supporters of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline outspend opponents 35 to 1.
The latest sneak attack on unions.
The science of addictive junk food.
How the sequester cuts hurt the long-term unemployed.