Bush Assertion on Tax Cuts Is at Odds With IRS Data

[maddezmom]

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 24, 2004; Page A04


President Bush defended his tax cuts yesterday as economic fuel for the small-business sector in response to mounting criticism from Democratic presidential candidates that the cuts chiefly benefited the wealthiest Americans.

But the president's contention that upper-income tax cuts primarily benefit entrepreneurs conflicts with some of the government's own data.

Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.) have pledged to restore the top two income tax rates to a maximum of 39.6 percent if elected president, but Bush and Republican allies say such a move would disproportionately punish small businesses, most of which pay individual income tax rates on their profits.

~snip~

But under Treasury's definition, both Bush and Vice President Cheney are members of the entrepreneurial class. In his 2002 tax return, the president reported $1,549 from rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporations and trusts, including income from GWB Rangers Corp., a remnant of his days as co-owner of the Texas Rangers. Of the Cheney household's $1.2 million income, $238,682 was from business ventures within the White House's definition of small business.

Economists say the broad Republican definition of "small-business man" includes not only doctors, lawyers and management consultants but also chief executives who earn $3,000 renting out their chalets in Aspen or report $10,000 in speaking fees. An aide on the Joint Economic Committee conceded that the definition includes the army of accountants and consultants at such giant partnerships as KPMG LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, not the firms that "small business" brings to mind.

~snip~

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A488-2004Feb23?language=printer

[buckeye1]

1. Bush lied again.

[snippy]

4. Is making up lies a manufacturing job?

[RobertSeattle]

2. "Small Business" is another GOP Weasel Word

"Small Business" has positive connotations and when someone says it most people think "Mom and Pop" but it could mean practically anything this side of a 1000 person company.

[RobertSeattle]

3. Here's another great article - is the Press doing it's job?!!!!

White House Forecasts Often Miss The Mark
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A538-2004Feb23.html

[wryter2000]

8. Dana Millbank

Millbank's been on top of Whistle Ass for a long time. He and Dick Meyer at CBS news are about the only ones. And Helen Thomas.

[ms_splash]

5. Well, come on, he's not a mathmatician

or a statatician, or an accountant.

in fact, he wouldn't have passed Algebra I if it hadn't been for that nerdy kid who sat next to him.

[Fuzz]

6. But, but, he's our first CEO, MBA president!

That just can't be true!

I'm shattered. :(

[underpants]

7. "They're numbers haven't been right for 6 years why would they be now?"

-President Bill Clinton 1999