
Via Up North News:
Republicans push for a “fair share” of taxes from low-income workers while defending a tax break that paid off handsomely for billionaire donors.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson continues to face blowback for recent statements expressing support for a Republican plan that would raise taxes on one-third of all Wisconsinites and open the door to end Medicare and Social Security benefits for more than 1 million Wisconsin residents.
“Ron Johnson seems proud of his goal of soaking the middle class in order to enrich the already wealthy,” said Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “And that plan seems to reflect the plans of a lot of Republican politicians if in fact they get power.”
In a March interview with Breitbart News Daily, Johnson was asked about Florida Sen. Rick Scott’s 60-page, 11-point plan for America. Johnson said that he agreed with “most of” Scott’s plan and described it as a “positive thing.”
Scott’s plan says, among other things, that “All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount.” In other words, this would mean raising taxes on the poorest Wisconsinites—an idea Wikler and other Democrats firmly oppose.
“When Republicans claim that working Wisconsinites aren’t paying their fair share of taxes, they’re ignoring the fact that people are paying into Social Security, they’re paying into Medicare, they’re paying property taxes, they’re paying sales taxes,” Wikler said. “There are a ton of taxes that regular, working Wisconsinites pay.”
In fact, under Wisconsin’s current tax system, the top 20% of earners already pay less as a share of their income than the bottom 80%, according to another analysis by ITEP.
For example, the top 1% of households, earning $512,600 or more annually, pay an average of 7.7% of their income in taxes, according to ITEP. The bottom 80% pays between 10.1% and 10.6% of their household income.