When it comes to taxes, Jeb Bush is sending a love letter to America’s wealthiest. On Sunday, the presidential hopeful and former Florida Governor appeared in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” with host Chris Wallace, during which he discussed his tax proposal, Politico reports.
His proposal calls for larger tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. His reasoning:
The simple fact is 1 percent of people pay 40 percent of all the taxes. Of course, tax cuts for everybody is going to generate more for people that are paying a lot more. I mean that’s just the way it is.
Wallace mentioned that, if Bush’s plan is enacted, middle-class Americans would receive a 2.9% income boost while the top 1 percent would get an 11.6% income boost. Bush himself would save an extra $3 million per year. Bush responded by saying that middle-class Americans would benefit “disproportionately,” adding that people with a higher income will proportionately pay more under his plan than they do now.
Bush’s plan calls for tax deductions to be capped at 2% of gross income, excluding donations to charity, and a lower corporate tax. He also wants to implement three tax brackets at 10%, 25%, and 28%.
In defending his proposal, Bush spoke about similar cuts made by his brother, George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, which he believes were underestimated:
They created a dynamic effect of high growth. And that’s what we need. If people think 2 percent growth is OK, then we’ll have more people living in poverty and disposable income for the middle class will continue to decline. We have to jump-start the economy so that people can have more money to make decisions for themselves.
Wallace pointed to an analysis of Bush’s tax plan that estimates that it would raise the deficit between $1 trillion and $3 trillion.