Paul Krugman: Stop tut-tutting, it really is the rich vs. the rest of us - Post Bulletin

Paul Krugman: Stop tut-tutting, it really is the rich vs. the rest of us - Post Bulletin:

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And neither group is living in the real world.

First of all, this election really is — in substantive, policy terms — about the rich versus the rest.

The story so far: Former President George W. Bush pushed through big tax cuts heavily tilted toward the highest incomes. As a result, taxes on the very rich are currently the lowest they've been in 80 years. President Obama proposes letting those high-end Bush tax cuts expire; Romney, on the other hand, proposes big further tax cuts for the wealthy.

The impact at the top would be large. According to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the Romney plan would reduce the annual taxes paid by the average member of the top 1 percent by $237,000 compared with the Obama plan; for the top 0.1 percent that number rises to $1.2 million. No wonder Romney's fundraisers in the Hamptons attracted so many eager donors that there were luxury-car traffic jams.

What about everyone else? Again according to the policy center, Romney's tax cuts would increase the annual deficit by almost $500 billion