Mitt Romney Job Creation
Keeping track of Mitt Romney's Job Creation claims and history.

Taxes on the Rich & Class Warfare

Mitt Romney plans to cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans (his plans to pay for these tax cuts are to close tax loopholes which he has yet to specify, but has non-partisan sources claiming he will be unable to do this without raising the tax burden on middle income earners). He also believes that America is getting away from the “classical America” and becoming more of a “European Socialist” state. There is one problem here. Taxes on the rich are at the lowest they've been since the Great Depression (minus a brief period during the Reagan administration). As taxes on the wealthy have been reduced, more and more of the wealth has coagulated at the top. The average American has actually seen their income stagnate or even drop, while the added wealth in America has gone primarily to the top 1%.

Lowered taxes on the rich have not correlated with faster GDP growth

Lowered taxes on the rich have in fact correlated with an increased disparity in wealth

Capital Gains taxes

The chart above actually understates how much taxes on the rich have been lowered, because the wealthiest Americans primarily make their wealth through capital gains—and this is taxed at 15%, which is far lower than federal income taxes for many in the middle class. What’s more is this: Mitt would like to reduce them to 0. Sadly, there also appears to exist no correlation between lower capital gains taxes and increased economic growth.

Source: Tax Policy Center

Class Warfare

There are those who consider discussing the very real disparity of wealth and the causes thereof to be "class warfare." Whether or not this really constitutes such, the disparity is real.

After-tax income declines for the lower income brackets

The ratio of CEO to worker pay is at historic high

The Wealth Disparity in America now rivals that of developing nations

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America now lags in socioeconomic mobility

To add insult to injury, America no longer leads the world socioeconomic mobility. Those born into poor families have a higher likelihood of remaining poor and the wealth tends to stick to those born into families with money (Mitt Romney for example). Who does America trail behind Canada and those European countries—all of whom have a stronger social safety net than we do?

Source (warning: large PDF)

Tax burden across nations

It should be noted that America has the lowest tax burden of almost any OECD country and lower than it’s been historically. In other words, the “old America” that people like Romney pretend to long for, had not only far higher taxes on the rich, but a higher tax burden overall. In fact, job growth was actually higher under this period.


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The 7 Biggest Economic Lies