July 30, 2013
Most people are sophisticated enough when it comes to politics that they know politicians can’t always be taken at their word. Unfortunately, the people who write for major news outlets apparently lack this sophistication. That is the reason an AP article in the Washington Post warned readers that Republicans may oppose a proposal for reforming the corporate income tax because:
“they have long insisted on tying corporate and individual tax reform so that small business owners who use the individual tax code would be offered cuts along with large corporations.”
The Republicans claim that their interest in reforming the individual tax code is to help small businesses, but there is no reason to believe this is true. The vast majority of small businesses would receive little or no benefit from Republican proposals to change the tax code, which center on reducing the top tax brackets. In addition, the vast majority of the people who would benefit from reductions in the top tax bracket are not small business owners.
It is of course possible that Republicans are focused on reducing the top tax brackets as a way to help small business owners. But it is also possible that Republicans just say that they want to help small business owners because it sounds better politically than saying that their platform calls for giving more money to rich people.
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