The Benefits of Obamas Tax Bill. Why new tax legislation is good Persuasive - Essay Example

The bill mostly raises taxes on the wealthy to levels which are closer to what the rest of Americans pay, and does not cause lots of damage to benefit programs like Medicare and Social Security. Despite these positive aspects of the bill, it does have strong opponents. The opponents do not like the way it raises taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and also argue that it will hurt small business owners. I believe, however, that the bill is a good thing, and will help everyone in by avoiding massive spending cuts and tax increases which would definitely hurt the economy.

One of the best parts about the American Taxpayer Relief Act is that it makes very limited cuts to benefits for those who need them the most. These include continuing some of the tax breaks that were going to expire, so that “families will continue to receive tax credits to help raise their kids and send them to college,” and companies “continue to receive tax credits” for things like research, investment, and clean energy jobs (Compton). In addition to tax breaks, though, the bill does not make any cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or social security, all of which help “seniors, students, the poor, and working families” (Compton).. ng over $400,000 a year should be easily able to pay a little more without having to worry about their well-being, their housing situation, and their medical bills.

The fact that the bill does not raise taxes or remove cuts on middle-class or low-income groups where these things would be problematic is a good thing. The comments that opponents of the bill usually have focus mostly on the total amount of money that will be put onto American taxpayers. For example, they say that combined with the so-called “Obamacare” act taxpayers will have to pay almost $60 billion in new taxes starting this year (Patten). The biggest single increase is the one on payroll taxes.

Critics argue that the removal of the “payroll tax holiday,” which was removed in order to increase payments to Social Security, “will actually hit lower- and middle-income taxpayers harder, in percentage terms, than the wealthy” (Patten). Another common argument is that small business owners, who are supposed to be good for the economy, will suffer under the bill. For example, they point out that “750,000 small businesses would be impacted if taxes were raised on individuals making more than $500,000” (Patten).

Despite what opponents say, I believe that the new tax bill will mostly help the economy recover, while having a limited impact on the American people. It is dishonest to suggest that the bill will affect all taxpayers the same, as it is mostly the wealthy who have increases. Although the rich are upset about this, really since they make so much more money than most people it is fair to have them pay more in taxes than the average middle class American does. On the other hand, the tax bill makes tax cuts to lower-income Americans permanent, doesn’t cut benefits to the most needy, and