Rich Gain and Poor Lose in Republican Policy Bill, Budget Office Finds

from the NYT

The far-reaching domestic policy bill that Republicans recently pushed through the House would provide rich Americans with a financial lift while taking away government benefits from the poor, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday.

The analysis is the first from the budget office that lays out how Americans at different income levels would be affected by the Republican legislation, which slashes taxes and cuts spending on safety-net programs like Medicaid and food stamps. Americans would, on average, gain from the bill, according to the analysis, but the consequences would be very different for poor Americans and for rich ones.

The bottom 10 percent, for example, would overall lose government benefits worth an average of $1,559, or 3.9 percent of their current income, each year over the next decade, according to the budget office. The bottom 30 percent of Americans would all, on average, lose more benefits than they would receive from the bill. In contrast, the top 10 percent would gain an average of $12,044, a 2.3 percent annual increase to their current income.

Middle-class Americans would see smaller gains. The middle 10 percent of Americans would on average net $514 per year if the measure were enacted, an annual increase of 0.5 percent in their current income.

Overall, the richer Americans are, the larger the benefit they would receive from the legislation. That is true for the bill overall over the next decade, as well as for each individual year through 2034 as provisions in the bill phase in and out...

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