Congress' $3,000 per Household Tax Increase
by Brian Riedl

Posted: 03/24/2008

Washington has no budget problems that higher taxes cannot solve. So seems the message from Congress.

The House- and Senate-passed budgets would raise taxes on every American taxpayer by an average of $3,000 per household. But don’t expect Congress to share in the sacrifice: The budget would hike discretionary spending by 8 percent, and not cut a single government program.

First, the tax increase. The largest four-year revenue surge in 40 years has pushed tax revenues to 18.8 percent of GDP -- well above the historical average. Yet the House-passed budget tied itself to a revenue baseline that assumes the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will expire, and that the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) will catch another 20 million Americans. That baseline also assumes the child tax credit would be halved, the marriage penalty reimposed, and the 10 percent tax bracket raised to 15 percent. Investment taxes would likely rise, and the 55 percent “death taxâ€