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<DIV class=timestamp>April 15, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">The Pirates of Capitol
Hill</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By CHARLES M. BLOW</H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
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<P>Corporations are <A title=" "
href="http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm">roaring</A>.
Wall Street is rolling in cash. C.E.O. bonuses are going <A title=" "
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206903329068840.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection">gangbusters</A>.
It’s a really good time to be rich! </P>
<P>If you’re poor, not so much. The pall of the recession is suffocating. The
unemployment rate is still unbearably high. <A title=" "
href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb10-144.html">The
Census Bureau reported</A> in September that the poverty rate for 2009 was 14.3
percent, higher than it has been since 1994, and the number of uninsured reached
a record high. And the Department of Agriculture has reported record “prevalence
of food insecurity.” </P>
<P>So in a civil society, which of these groups should be expected to sacrifice
a bit for the benefit of the other and the overall health and prosperity of the
nation at a time of great uncertainty? The poor, of course. At least that seems
to be the Republican answer. </P>
<P>Under the guise of deficit reduction, <A title="The Republican budget"
href="http://www.budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/PathToProsperityFY2012.pdf">the
Republicans are proposing</A> to not only make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy
permanent, but to reduce their taxes even more — cutting the top individual rate
from 35 percent to 25 percent to “promote growth and job creation.” And they
plan to pay for this by taking a buzz saw to programs that benefit the poor,
elderly and otherwise vulnerable. </P>
<P>But the spurious argument that cutting taxes for the wealthy will somehow
stimulate economic growth is not borne out by the data. A look at the
year-over-year change in G.D.P. and changes in the historical top marginal tax
rates show no such correlation. This isn’t about balancing budgets or fiscal
discipline or prosperity-for-posterity stewardship. This is open piracy for
plutocrats. This is about reshaping the government and economy to benefit the
wealthy and powerful at the expense of the poor and powerless. </P>
<P>And it’s not that the rich haven’t already gotten their tax cuts. According
to <A title=" "
href="http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/taxes_on_the_wealthy_have_gone_down_dramatically/">an
analysis released Thursday</A> by the Economic Policy Institute, the average tax
rate for the top 1 percent of households dropped by about 20 percent from 1979
to 2007, while the average tax rate for all Americans dropped by just 8 percent
over that time. However, in just the period from 1992 to 2007, the tax rate on
the top 400 households in America — those with an average annual income of
nearly $350 million — fell by more than a third. In fact, the tax rate for these
supermillionaires is now less than the tax rate for average Americans. </P>
<P>This even though, as the institute pointed out, “between 1992 and 2007, a
time in which income for the average household and top 1 percent grew 13% and
123%, respectively, the income for the top 400 households grew fully 399%.” </P>
<P>As my colleague Catherine Rampell <A title=" "
href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/inequality-is-most-extreme-in-wealth-not-income/">pointed
out last month on the Economix blog</A>, the top 1 percent of Americans earn a
fifth of the income and control a third of the wealth. </P>
<P>More tax cuts would be gluttony in a time of starvation. That is not America.
That is a nation about to be plundered, and a people laid to waste.  
</P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
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<P></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center">•</P>
<P>I invite you to join me on <A
href="http://www.facebook.com/CharlesMBlow">Facebook</A> and follow me on <A
href="http://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow">Twitter</A>, or e-mail me at <A
href="mailto:chblow@nytimes.com">chblow@nytimes.com</A>. </P>
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