The policy agenda that Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida unveiled last month—and has continued to promote despite mounting backlash—would hike annual taxes on the poorest 40% of people in the United States by $1,000 on average while not raising taxes on the richest 1% by a single penny.
So concluded a state-by-state analysis of Scott’s plan released Monday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), which estimates that “the poorest fifth of Americans would pay 34% of the tax increase while the next fifth of Americans would pay 45% of the tax increase.”
According to a summary of Scott’s proposal—entitled “An 11-Point Plan to Rescue America”—every American who currently isn’t required to pay federal income taxes would “pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount.”
Tens of millions of U.S. households don’t owe federal income taxes each year, either because their annual incomes are below a certain threshold or they qualify for programs that offset their tax burdens.
To analyze the potential impact of the plan outlined by Scott—the chair of the National Republican Senatorial […]