Michigan Republicans favor wealth redistribution to the Super Rich

Republicans in the Michigan legislature are planning on eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit because they claim Michigan can't afford it.

From an economic stand point this really makes little sense as nationally the return on investment for money given to the poor is over one for one while tax cuts, which Republicans favor, have a much lower return.

Void of the economical argument the Republicans are really putting all of their cards on the table with this legislative decision. They are showing a clear preference for giving federal tax breaks to the Super Rich (the top 2%) while taking money out of the pockets of the poor to pay for these tax breaks.

Since the recession started taxes have gone down for Americans in every tax bracket with the Super Rich getting the bulk of the benefit. The claim has been in bad times you can't afford to raise taxes. While good economics tells you this is true, since you should lower taxes in bad times and raise taxes in good times, this decision by the Republican legislature is the exact opposite. Removing the Earned Income Tax Credit is a tax increase. Worse yet it is a tax increase on the people who can least afford it.

You can't claim that increases in taxes hurt the economy and then put forth a tax increase as a way to increase jobs.

The reality of the situation is that the Super Rich have tax loopholes that the middle class do not have access to. Thanks to these loopholes the top 400 American Wage earners, according to an IRS report, only pay a tax rate of around 16.6%. This means a guy who earns hundreds of millions of dollars a year pays the same tax rate as someone making $35,000 a year. The common belief is that the Super Rich pay more than their fair share but the facts show this is not true. This leaves the middle class paying more money as a percentage of earnings than any other tax payers.

Not only are the Michigan Republicans in the legislature being hypocritical with this policy but they are showing clear favoritism for 2% of the population at the expense of the 98% of us not making over $318,000 a year.