Bush has apparently succeeded in branding Democratic criticism of his tax cut proposal as "class warfare." Polls show that statements like these have helped to raise support for his tax cut by 10% in the last two weeks.
Bush took another preemptive strike yesterday during a speech in Albuquerque when he told a small-business audience, "Oh, you'll hear the talk about how this plan only helps the rich people. That's just typical Washington, D.C., political rhetoric, is what that is. That's just empty rhetoric."
As for whose rhetoric is empty, take a look at the numbers from the Brookings Insitution, hardly a bastion of left-wing ideologues:
Those same middle-income households would receive a tax cut of $452 and an income boost of 1.1 percent, while millionaires would receive a cut of $93,537, enough to increase their after-tax income by 4.4 percent.
So if you're a millionaire, you can buy a couple of Lexuses with your tax cut. If you're a middle-income household, then hip-hip-hooray! that's just over half a month's worth of housing for a family of four. That's money your family will barely notice.
Anyway, I suppose my point is this: if you want to cut taxes for ideological reasons--for example, because you dogmatically believe in trickle-down economics, or because you want to bankrupt the government in order to limit the scope of its responsibility--then be up front about it. It's too bad that a president who makes so much of personal morality is so intellectually dishonest.
Posted by david at May 13, 2003 10:13 AMApparently, the Republican-controlled Congressional Budget Office has just completed a study showing that Bush's tax cut will have very little impact on the economy. Of course, this optimistic assessment discounts the effect that deficit spending will have on interest rates: it will send them sky-high, making it harder to borrow capital for new business initiatives.
Remind me again: why are we about to wreck the nation's finances? Oh, that's right... Bush is up for re-election and needs to show he's accomplished something on the domestic front.
I agree with your point about the transparency of what is happening. Ignoring all the arguments about whether or not it's "right" to do the tax cut in the fashion he is doing - i.e. giving proportionally more to wealthier people - he should be upfront about it.
But to be upfront about this would make things very ugly. It always appalls me that the very same people who get screwed by this double-dealing are the ones who proudly slap Rush stickers to their bumpers. The motto of the GOP should be "Ignorance is Strength". Or, more precisely, "Your Ignorance is Our Strength".
(Not that I'm bitter or anything.)