Choosing Sides On Taxes

CORE MESSAGE

Politicians show their true loyalty when they side with the richest 2% at the expense of everyone else.

Connect: Our tax system is rigged in favor of the wealthy and big corporations. That needs to change.

Values: Americans applaud financial success, but when the rich get special tax breaks they don't need, the middle class has to pay the difference.

Define: The wealthiest people in our country already receive the biggest tax breaks, but Republicans in Congress won't extend tax cuts to everyone else unless the rich get more.

Explain: Republicans will only agree to important middle class and small business tax cuts if the richest 2% get $1 trillion more in wasteful tax breaks.

Contrast: The Democratic plan would finally end the Bush tax cuts that only the richest 2% can get, while protecting Obama's tax cuts for 120 million working families.

Bottom line: It's not right for politicians to stack the deck in favor of their wealthy donors and stick the rest of us with the tab. It's time they pay their fair share.

Words to use: Bush tax cuts for the richest 2% [instead of "$250,000"];
Special breaks and loopholes

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ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

ATTACK: "We should extend the tax cuts for everyone."
RESPONSE:

• Let's be clear: Republicans will only agree to important middle class and small business tax cuts if the richest 2% get $1 trillion more in wasteful tax breaks.
• That's why the Republicans' own plan would raise taxes on 25 million families by $1,000 each and why they've already voted over 10 times in the last year and half to massively raise taxes on the middle class.
• Now they're opposing the Democratic plan that would finally end the Bush tax cuts that only the richest 2% can get but extend them for everyone else -- along with Obama's tax cuts for 120 million working families.
• Politicians show their true loyalty when they side with the richest 2% at the expense of everyone else.

ATTACK: "The wealthy are job creators -- raising their taxes will hurt our economy and cost jobs."
RESPONSE:

• That's ridiculous: if giving rich people more tax breaks created jobs, we'd already be swimming in jobs. 
• American families are concerned about jobs, what those jobs pay, and making ends meet -- but Republican politicians are more concerned about giving the richest 2% even more special tax breaks.
• These politicians have signed a pledge promising that they will never vote to make the wealthy and big corporations pay a penny more in taxes, even by closing loopholes that reward them for shipping American jobs overseas.

ATTACK: "The Democrats' plan increases taxes on our small businesses."
RESPONSE:

• Actually, the Democratic plan has tax cuts for 97% of all small businesses.
• And according to Republicans in Congress, the less than 3% of small businesses that would be affected include hedge funds and mega law firms.
• If Republicans in Congress cared about small businesses, they would be working to bring more customers into their stores and voting to level the playing field that's tilted in favor of big corporations.
• But instead Republicans keep doing the opposite -- voting to kill small business tax cuts, take money out of the pockets of regular Americans, and protect tax loopholes that reward big corporations for shipping our jobs overseas.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Only 2% of American households make more than $250,000 a year -- that's over $20,000 per month.
• President Obama has signed 18 tax cuts for small businesses into law and has cut taxes for middle-class families every year he has been in office, by an average of $3,600 over the past four years.
• The Democratic plan would extend the tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of the year for 98% of Americans, as well as the Obama tax cuts for working and middle-class families.
• In contrast, the Senate Republican tax planwould --
  • Keep the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2% (who have an average income of $800,000) and give millionaires each a tax cut worth over $150,000.
  • Add nearly $1 trillion more to the deficit than the Democratic plan.
  • But raise taxes on 25 million middle-class families by an average of $1,000, by ending the tax credits enacted in 2009 for parents raising children and trying to pay for college.
• If Republicans get their way and deadlock Congress into doing nothing about the expiring tax cuts, almost 120 million middle-class families will see their taxes go up by an average of $1,600.
• Nearly 1,500 people who made more than $1 million paid no federal income taxes in 2009.
• America's 400 richest families have seen their effective federal income tax rate drop by more than half over the last 50 years, from about 40% to less than 20%.
• In fact, many millionaires and billionaires -- approximately 55,000 -- are paying lower taxes than millions of middle-class Americans.

We develop messaging by aggregating, analyzing and distilling polling, tested messaging, and expert recommendations, and monitoring the media to identify what is and isn't working. See here for some of the experts and organizations we draw on.