A news article “George W. Bush Reveals a Presidential Regret” quotes the former president as follows:
” ‘Most small businesses pay tax at the individual income level, therefore if you raise taxes on the so-called rich, you’re really raising taxes on the job creators,’ he said, indirectly countering Obama’s stated goal to return tax rates on the wealthy to pre-Bush levels. ‘If the goal is private sector growth, you’ve got to recognize that the best way to achieve that growth is to leave capital in the treasuries of the job creators.’”
WATCHDOG: Few owners of “most small business” pay taxes on earnings above $5,000,000 annually, which could be the point of an incremental increase. In fact, if they are indeed “job creators” they probably will have plenty of depreciation due to business expansion to protect them from much taxation. Years later if they ‘recapture’ the depreciation through a sale they will pay a tax about half the individual income tax rate and meanwhile make use of the money saved without the cost of interest.
