As more than 800,000 long-term job seekers today face the loss of their emergency unemployment benefits due to Congress's inaction, it's hard to ignore one particularly sad and ironic contrast. Come January 1st, this very same brand of Congressional inaction could result in an extension of Bush-era tax cuts--which would result in ridiculous monetary gains for many already-wealthy CEOS and execs.
If tax cuts on incomes over $1 million are allowed to expire at the end of 2010 as scheduled...
- CEOs of big banks on Wall Street stand to reap rewards of between $700,000 and $1.6 million each.
- CEOs of the health insurance industry--who slashed benefits and instituted breathtaking premium increases--would receive between $335,000 and $875,000 each.
- Former U.S. Chamber Board member and CEO Don Blankenship of Massey Energy--the company who owns the mine in which twenty-nine miners died--would receive more than $700,000.
This week, a new U.S. Chamber Watch report details the millions of dollars that corporate CEOs stand to gain personally from a permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich. According to the report, instead of focusing on creating millions of new jobs through infrastructure and other investments, the U.S. Chamber has been lobbying heavily for a permanent extension of these CEO tax breaks.
According to figures from the U.S. Treasury, it doesn't seem as if extending the Bush-era income tax cut for the richest 2 percent would have much of a trickle-down effect for regular working Americans. Tax policy group Citizens for Tax Justice estimates these tax breaks could end up costing $678 billion over a decade.
More on just how much benefit some CEOs will gain from an extension of Bush-era tax cuts on http://www.fixtheuschamber.org. Full PDF report from U.S. Chamber Watch here.
