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The media has reported the fact that budget proposals by conservatives at both the state and federal levels cut services that the middle class depends upon such as education and Medicare and Medicaid. But with the exception of some of my Center for American Progress colleagues, few have covered the tax hikes on the middle class that the conservative movement is supporting. The budget proposals being pushed by a number of conservative governors and state leaders, as well as the plan passed by congressional Republicans, would increase taxes on the middle class to pay for their plans’ tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.
Up until now, conservatives have usually wrapped their tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations in the cover of helping the middle class. The Bush tax cuts are a textbook example, where the lion’s share of the benefits went to the wealthy but middle-class taxes were cut. Taxpayers in the top 20 percent received more than 70 percent of the tax cuts, while the middle 20 percent of the population received less than 9 percent, according to analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice.
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