Analysis: Filers in Top 5 Percent Will Get Tax Cut 42 Times Bigger Than Bottom 60 Percent If Bush Tax Cuts Continue; Deficit Will Double

As Congress and the President debate whether and on what conditions to raise the debt ceiling, America will mark the tenth anniversary of the policy change that accounts for much of the federal budget gap: the Bush tax cuts.

On June 7, 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law the first of the tax cuts that would turn the budget surpluses of the 1990's into historic deficits. A new analysis from Citizens for Tax Justice explains that making these tax cuts permanent would almost double the long-term budget deficit.

The richest one percent of taxpayers, with an average income of about $1.4 million in 2013, would get an average tax cut of $68,079 that year if the Bush tax cuts are extended again. The poorest three fifths of taxpayers, with an average income of $29,000 that year, would receive an average tax cut of just $487.

The analysis also finds that the higher a filer's income, the larger the tax cut as a percentage of income. If the Bush tax cuts are extended again, in 2013 the poorest one fifth of taxpayers would receive tax cuts equal to less than one percent of their income, while the richest one percent would enjoy tax cuts equal to 4.6 percent of their income.

Some in Congress have threatened to cause the U.S. to default on its debt-obligations unless President Obama agrees to major cuts in federal spending to reduce the budget deficit, but they simultaneously demand the Bush tax cuts be made permanent.

Individual fact sheets for all 50 states and the District of Columbia along with facts about the costs of the Bush tax cuts nationally are at: https://www.ctj.org/bushtaxcuts10yrs.php