How The GOP Candidates’ Tax Plans Would Give Huge Tax Breaks To South Carolina’s Richest 1 Percent

The GOP 2012 presidential candidates are headed to South Carolina for its Saturday primary largely in lockstep about economic policy. Across the board, the candidates have proposed tax plans that would give huge tax cuts to the already wealthy and blow a hole in the federal budget, while doing next to nothing for the middle class.

In South Carolina specifically, the candidates’ plans would give tens of thousands of dollars (or hundreds of thousands, depending on the plan) in tax breaks to the richest 1 percent of Americans. Citizens for Tax Justice broke down the plans by candidate and income percentage:

As the table shows, the smallest tax break for the richest 1 percent in South Carolina would be Mitt Romney’s, at about $69,000. Newt Gingrich wins the race for largest tax break for the 1 percent, at more than $212,000. In South Carolina, where the median income is about $43,000, the richest 1 percent have an average income of about $945,000.

Overall, the GOP candidates’ tax plans give tax breaks to the wealthy that are up to 270 times as large as those they deign to give to the middle class. Several of them, in fact, would raise taxes on many middle class families. Romney, for instance, would raise taxes on half of middle class families with children, due to his elimination of an expanded child tax credit implemented by President Obama.