A tax cut only the rich could love

[Bruden]

By ignoring the federal deficit and manipulating their own rules, congressional Republicans have sent President Bush another round of tax cuts. The months of negotiations did not erase their fiscal irresponsibility or make them any fairer. The result is that the nation will go deeper into debt to extend tax cuts to those wealthy Americans who need help the least.

The federal deficit will exceed $300-billion this year, but Washington could not care less. Congress is adding another $70-billion in tax cuts over five years. Even that total is deceiving. Republicans held it to that number so they could pass it by a simple majority vote and avoid a filibuster. Another tax cut bill of at least another $20-billion is on the horizon, with popular tax breaks such as those for state and local taxes and college tuition.

Want more? Republicans used another gimmick to hold down the size of this tax cut as they allowed wealthier Americans to convert individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs, which are taxed when money is put into them but enable all gains to be tax-free. That brings in to the federal government more than $6-billion in the short term, but it costs billions in the long run.

Want more? The legislation extends the reduced 15 percent tax rate for capital gains and dividends, which would have expired at the end of 2008, for two years. But the much-needed fix for the alternative minimum tax, to ensure that more middle-income families won't pay it, lasts for only one year. That demonstrates who is really important to this Congress, and it isn't the middle class.



http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/12/Opinion/A_tax_cut_only_the_ri.shtml

[dempsterholland]

1. The Unpatriotic Rich

The constant push of the wealthiest Americans for more tax cuts reveals an underlying lack of patriotism on the part of those who no doubt consider themselves as our "finest" citizens. Yet their actions are causing serious harm to our country by massively increasing the deficit, jeopordizing the retirement income of millions of Americans and putting severe pressure on the middle class. It is time that the vast majority of Americans fight back in this class war being waged by the rich against the rest of us.

[indepat]

2. And the unpatriotic reich wing