Reagan supported millionaires paying their fair share

VIDEO: NEW PRIORITIES USA AD: Featuring President Ronald Wilson Reagan Asking Wealthy to Pay Their Fair Share

Priorities USA today launched an ad calling on Republicans in Congress to reform a tax system that favors millionaires and billionaires over the middle class. The ad features a ‘Special Guest’—President Ronald Reagan—who makes a compelling case for a tax system in which middle class Americans are treated fairly and the wealthy pay their fair share. 

“Today's Congressional Republicans insist on bringing our nation to the brink by forcing a tax policy that puts an unfair burden on middle class families when they can least afford it,” said Bill Burton, Senior Strategist, Priorities USA. “Republicans should listen to President Reagan and, as he said, ‘close the unproductive tax loopholes that have allowed some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share.' 

Ensuring that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share, while giving middle-class Americans a tax cut should not be a Republican or a Democratic issue.  But the sad truth is the tax policy proposed by Congressional Republicans is out of step with the middle class and out of step with President Reagan."

The 30-second ad will run Iowa, on national cable and online. YouTube link to ad: http://youtu.be/3YYP3pqrGcQ. 

Priorities USA is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to mobilizing Americans to preserve, protect and promote the middle class, and to ensure opportunity and freedom for the next generation. 

BACKGROUND

In 1986 speech on tax policy, President Reagan explained how tax loopholes allow the wealthy to pay lower taxes than the middle class. Ronald Reagan said, “We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that have allowed some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing while a bus driver was paying 10% of his salary, and that’s crazy. […] Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver?” [The American Presidency Project, 12/6/11; Video]

Congressional Research Service: Many American millionaires pay federal income taxes at a lower rate than moderate income Americans. According to the Washington Post, “The report, by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, found that when all federal taxes are taken into account — including those on wages, investment income and corporate profits — some households earning more than $1 million a year paid as little as 24 percent of their income to the Internal Revenue Service in 2006. That’s substantially less than the share paid by many families making less than $100,000 a year that faced a top effective tax rate exceeding 26.5 percent, the report said.” [Washington Post, 10/12/11] 

Extension of the payroll tax cut failed due to Republican opposition to a millionaire’s tax. [Politico, 12/1/11; Los Angeles Times, 12/1/11]

Payroll tax cut is worth $1000 on average to the middle class. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Because the current payroll tax holiday expires at the end of the year, it has a potent political force. If Congress fails to extend the cut, virtually all workers will see a tax increase come Jan. 1 that would average $1,000. That not only could be politically unpopular, but might create a drag on the economy.” [Los Angeles Times, 9/9/11]

The Republican budget passed by the House of Representatives would raise taxes for the middle class. According to the Center for American Progress, “For one thing, the basic math makes a middle-class tax hike unavoidable. The rate cut at the top, of course, benefits only those in the top brackets (the richest 2 percent of Americans), but to pay for this, Rep. Ryan says he will “broaden the tax base.” Broadening the tax base means removing some tax expenditures that currently benefit both the middle class and the rich—though remember that the rich are getting a huge rate cut. [Center for American Progress, 4/5/11]

The Republican budget pass by the House of Representatives has numerous tax cuts targeted at the wealthy. [Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 4/6/11; Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 4/8/11; Alan Blinder Op-Ed in Wall Street Journal, 4/19/11]