White House's taxing dilemma

"The report said that, through spending cuts and tax increases down the line, the result would be a transfer of up to $113bn (£61.5bn) in wealth from the bottom 80% of US households to the top 20%. This analysis is based on the assumption that the cuts will eventually have to be paid for. It uses two methods to calculate the impact: the first is that each household will pay the same percentage of their income to fund the tax cuts through direct and indirect means, and the second that each household will bear an equal burden for paying for the tax cuts. Households in the middle band of income are getting an average tax cut of $647 per year, but could end up between $230 and $870 worse off, according to the report. The lowest 20% of earners, who get an average tax cut of $19, would end up between $177 and $1,502 worse off, depending on which method of calculation is used. Households earning more than $1m get an average $136,398 tax cut, and would still end up between $59,637 and $134,877 up once the cuts are paid for."