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Romney’s Tax Plan Would Increase Taxes On Half Of Middle Class Families With Children

The Tax Policy Center yesterday released an analysis showing that 2012 GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney’s tax plan is heavily weighted towards the richest Americans, giving 50 percent of its benefit to those making $1 million or more. While millionaires would receive an annual tax cut of nearly $150,000, many middle class and low income families would see their taxes go up.

And because Romney would phase out tax breaks that the Obama administration put in place in 2009 specifically for families with children and families paying for a child’s college education, it’s those families that would be hardest hit. According to an analysis of the Tax Policy Center’s data done by the Center for American Progress’ Seth Hanlon and Michael Linden, half of families with incomes of less than $50,000 who have children would see a tax increase under Romney’s plan (compared to current policy):

40% of families with incomes under $100,000 who have children (more than 14 million families) get a tax hike.

55% of families with incomes under $50,000 who have children (more than 12 million families) get a tax hike.

— Families with incomes under $50,000 who have children (including the ones who get small tax cuts) see an average tax hike of $512.

Overall, under Romney’s plan, 22.1 million households would see a tax hike, including 17.4 million who have incomes under $50,000.

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Romney likes to claim that his tax plan is “focused” on providing tax relief to the middle class, but his signature tax cut gives literally no tax break to most middle class families (because he centers it on investment income that is almost exclusively collected by the wealthy). Romney tries to claims that he’s “not worried about rich people,” but his plan proves that he’s mostly worried about the wealthy, while not sparing much of a thought for families struggling with the effects of the Great Recession.