Misplaced Priorities

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Cost of Tax Cuts Relative to Other Administration Priorities

The cost of the tax cuts for the highest-income households substantially exceeds the amounts being devoted to other matters the Administration has identified as national priorities.

• The Administration’s avowed top priority is national security, and homeland security is one of the few areas of the budget for which the President is requesting a funding increase in 2007. Nonetheless, the total amount that the Administration has requested for homeland security in 2007 — $58 billion — is slightly less than the $63 billion that the top 1 percent of households (those with incomes above $400,000 in 2007) will receive from the tax cuts in that year.

Posted on The Human Stain