Obama Claims Mitt Romney’s Proposed Tax Cut Would Give an Average of $250,000 to Every Millionaire in the Country

A quarter of a million dollars to each millionaire?…now that seems a bit much. But he keeps saying it. So, it is time to fact check it, this time with PolitiFact.com. From there article on May 5^th it breaks down this way:

For individuals:

• Cut marginal rates by one-fifth on a permanent, across-the-board basis
• Eliminate interest, dividend, and capital gains taxes for taxpayers with an adjusted gross income below $200,000
• Eliminate the estate tax
• Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax

For corporations:

• Cut the corporate rate to 25 percent
• Make permanent the research and development tax credit
• Switch to a territorial tax system
• Repeal the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax

Under individuals the first I don’t understand very well, the second doesn’t seem so bad to me, the third seems whacko, not sure about the meaning of the last one either. As for corporations I agree with PK that corporate taxes are mere pass through taxes anyway, but it would be a hard sell as tax payers would see increases. As for the last, I’m fuzzy there as well.

So, I turn to the experts in this article and it turns out that current policy" calculation  (see 1st chart below)  backs up Obama’s claim, to be exact a average tax cut of $250,535 for millionaires. But there is always more than one way of figuring things such as "current law" analysis  (see chart 2) which would show that the millionaires would get an average tax cut of $390,876. And if you go up the scale, say the top one-tenth of 1 percent the average cut would be $725,716.

Their conclusion, Obama is telling the truth. (again click on the charts to enlarge). Why doesn't this surprise me?