inferior class citizen« Thread Started on May 22, 2004, 11:47pm »--------------------------------------------------------------------------------From: Harry Hope (
rivrvu@ix.netcom.com)Subject: In the Bush economy, relying on work for your income turns you into a second-class citizen. This is the only article in this thread View: Original Format Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc, alt.politics.bush, alt.politics.liberalism, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.gw-bush, alt.politicsDate: 2004-01-14 10:45:47 PST If anyone thinks the Bush tax cuts have spurred economic growth, Ihave a low-tax investment in a bridge to Brooklyn. From The Washington Post, 1/14/04:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14515-2004Jan13.htmlGood for Investors, Bad for the RestBy Harold MeyersonWednesday, January 14, 2004; Page A19 If you work for a living in George W. Bush's America, you're a sap.Take a quick look, or a long one, at the tax code as Bush has alteredit during his three years as president, and you're compelled toconclude that work has become a distinctly inferior kind of incomeacquisition in the eyes of the law.Bush tax policy rewards investment and inheritance.Relying on work for your income, by contrast, turns you into asecond-class citizen.In his first round of tax cuts in 2001, Bush got Congress to phase outthe estate tax by 2010.Last year, with Republicans in control on Capitol Hill, he reduced thetop tax rate on dividends from 39.6 percent to 15 percent, and broughtthe capital gains tax rate down from 20 percent to 15 percent as well.This year, his new budget proposes that families be allowed to shieldas much as $30,000 yearly on their investment income, which willabolish all remaining taxes on such income.Meanwhile, the income tax cuts to most middle-class families don'texceed a couple of hundred dollars, and payroll taxes for employeesremain untouched.In part, this devaluing of work is simply an expression of Bush familyvalues.As Kevin Phillips points out in his new biography of the Bush dynasty,the Bushes don't do anything so vulgar as going into professions.Rather, the clan lives by its connections.For George W. and his brothers, work has meant riffling throughPappy's Rolodex.Theirs is the cronyest form of capitalism.