Religions > Atheism > WSJ (That Lefty Pinko Journal of NYSE) Calls Bush a Fucking Liar
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Yang AthD \h.c.\ eacmole@AWOLGWBmail,com" |
| Date: |
02 Apr 2004 09:40:22 PM |
| Object: |
WSJ (That Lefty Pinko Journal of NYSE) Calls Bush a Fucking Liar |
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/000554.html
Why Oh Why Are We Ruled by These Liars? (Hide Behind Small Business Edition)
The Wall Street Journal's David Wessel bangs his head against the wall as he
contemplates the quality of the information about taxes coming out of the
Bush White House:
WSJ.com - Capital: There is a serious debate worth having about the wisdom
of extending or undoing the Bush tax cuts on the best-off Americans. Taxes
are almost certainly going to climb from today's levels because of the
budget deficit and the bipartisan unwillingness to restrain popular
spending. Raising tax rates at the top is one option. Raising gasoline taxes
is another. Restructuring the tax code to eliminate deductions, credits and
loopholes to keep rates low is yet another. But raising tax rates on
upper-income Americans isn't about small businesses. Few of them make enough
money to be affected by Sen. Kerry's proposal to undo the Bush tax cuts on
those with incomes above $200,000.
You'd never know that from listening to Republican rhetoric. The Republican
National Committee declares: "Kerry's Economic Plan Would Raise Taxes on
Small Businesses." "When you're cutting income taxes on the individual," Mr.
Bush said last week, "you're really cutting taxes on small businesses." His
Treasury secretary, John Snow, last week told the Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce: "The tax cuts were designed to give entrepreneurs and employers
like you the break that you needed to invest in your companies."
"It reflects the fact-free nature of a lot of the analysis that comes out of
the White House these days," complains Sen. Jon Corzine, the New Jersey
Democrat who was co-chief executive of Goldman, Sachs & Co. before going
into politics.
So a few facts:
A lot of upper-income taxpayers do report some income from what might be
considered a small business. (I do. I dutifully fill out Schedule C to
report the honoraria I get for an occasional speech at a college or a piece
of free-lance writing.) The Tax Policy Center, a number-crunching joint
venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution think tanks, says
about 60% of taxpayers in the over-$300,000 bracket show some small-business
income; so do 45% of the over-$175,000 bracket. But most live off their
paychecks, not business profits. Of all tax returns that list any
small-business income, 60% report that income accounts for less than half of
the taxpayer's total income. And most small businesses don't make nearly
enough money to be touched by Mr. Kerry's tax plan... less than 4% of
taxpayers reporting any small-business income had total income above
$200,000....
Who are these "small-business owners"? Some of them are the heroic
job-creating corner stores or start-ups that Mr. Bush's speeches describe.
But the pay of anyone whose business is organized as a partnership --
doctors, lawyers, management consultants -- shows up on a tax return as
small-business income. The successful ones end up in the top tax bracket
where Mr. Kerry's tax plan would bite. Checks that members of corporate
boards of directors receive, royalties that authors get, and consulting fees
that professors charge show up as small-business income, too, and those
folks are hardly the job creators of the modern economy.
This tactic is an old one. Tax foes used it back in 1993 when President Bill
Clinton raised tax rates at the top. Once, they used the owner of a small
Alabama home-health services company as a news conference prop. The Wall
Street Journal later reported that her business made so little money that
she didn't face any tax increases under the Clinton plan.
The small-business owner is to modern Republicans what the yeoman farmer was
to Thomas Jefferson, the hero of the economy. But most Americans today work
for big firms that are taxed as corporations, not as small businesses on
individual tax returns. More than 70% of Americans work for firms with more
than 50 employees, and half work for firms with more than 500 employees. And
those are facts.
Posted by DeLong at April 1, 2004 04:09 A
--
Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Socerey Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec
The Bush 'balanced' budget: 1.2 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: -3 million jobs and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -598 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
