“For the most part, by summertime, the negative effects on the economy will have abated,” he said. “Most of the pain has been felt.”
No Push
Even congressional Republicans, who warned that the tax increases would destroy jobs, aren’t making a serious push to repeal them. They’re acting as though the new tax rates and increased take for the U.S. government are here to stay, even if they don’t like it.
House Republicans’ budget plan and draft tax-code revamp call for reshuffling the tax system in ways that would reduce top rates without actually reducing the amount of money the government collects. Also, the tax plan was designed so it wouldn’t cut the share of taxes paid by top earners.
Senate Republicans didn’t include a major rollback of Obama’s tax increases in their latest job-creation plan, instead focusing on repealing the 2010 health care law and blocking regulations that would limit energy production.
That’s a concession to political reality, said Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
“We know we can’t do it with Democrats in control of the Senate,” he said, “so it’s going to be a feckless effort.”
It took Obama two presidential campaigns, four years in office and a past-the-wire legislative fight at the end of 2012 to undo a fraction of the tax cuts secured by his predecessor. Obama prevailed two years after he signed a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts.
Marginal Rate
The result set the top marginal income tax at 39.6 percent, up from 35 percent, starting at $450,000 of taxable income for married couples and $400,000 for individuals in 2013. The top basic rate on capital gains and dividends rose to 20 percent from 15 percent.