FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 16, 2012
Contact: Tom Guild, Democratic Nominee for Congress in Oklahoma’s Fifth District
Phone: 405-921-3811 or Email: TomGuild@sbcglobal.net
Challenger Tom Guild Supports Tax Cuts for the American Middle Class!
Incumbent Congressman Favors Tax Cuts for the Wealthy!
Tom Guild, the Democratic Nominee for Congress from Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional District, supports extending current tax cuts, due to expire on January 1, 2013, to those earning $250,000 or less each year. He favors allowing ordinary income in excess of $250,000 each year to be taxed at Clinton-era tax rates. This proposal would reduce the federal budget deficits over ten years by ~$866 billion. This would also help the hard pressed American middle class that has been badly hurt economically for the past ~5 years.
Despite his protestations that he wants to reduce the budget deficit, Tom’s opponent, the incumbent congressman in the fifth district, favors additional tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
“Taxpayers, including small business owners earning $251,000, would pay the Bush era rate on the first $250,000 of income and the Clinton era rate on $1,000. Less than 3% of small business owners reach the level of $250,000 in revenue each year,” states Guild.
Guild continues, “The main reason that businesses are not creating more jobs is middle class consumers and American consumers generally don’t have the financial resources to purchase needed consumer goods. Consumer spending accounts for ~70% of all economic activity. Middle class tax cuts will help spur the economy by putting more money in the hands of Americans who will spend the money to buy things they haven’t been able to afford in the past few years.
Median incomes have been dropping for a number of years and this difficult economy has hit the middle class and working poor the hardest. Those who have income over $250,000 each year are the wealthiest Americans and most of their income is taxed as capital gains, which is 15%. The capital gains tax rate would rise to the Clinton-era rate of 20% if the current tax cuts are not extended.
The tax rate for ordinary income over $250,000 would go from 35-39.6% if the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are not extended. 39.6% is the tax rate that applied to income over $250,000 during the Clinton presidency, and resulted in the generation of 22 million American jobs, therefore, it is critical that we work towards that end,” concluded Guild.
Guild is currently running as the Democratic Party Nominee for the congressional seat in the Fifth District of Oklahoma. For more information about Tom and his campaign, visit www.guildforcongress.com
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