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Date Posted: 01:49:27 06/06/03 Fri
Author: Weird_Engima
Author Host/IP: 67.30.199.104
Subject: Tax cuts show Bush a divider, not a uniter

Tax cuts show Bush a divider, not a uniter
By Marianne Means

The massive, regressive tax cut package just signed into law dramatically demonstrates why dividing government control between the two parties is a good for the country.

The Republicans control the executive and legislative branches and are moving aggressively to add the judicial branch.

They are proving that Lord Acton was correct more than a century ago when he said , "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

President Bush celebrated the signing of the $350 billion, budget-busting travesty he had made the centerpiece of his economic recovery plan with an elaborate televised ceremony Wednesday in the White House.

Earlier in the week, he signed a $984 billion increase in the amount the federal government can borrow. He did that in private.

The nation's debt ceiling, which Republicans used to cite sarcastically as evidence of Democratic overspending, is now, through GOP mismanagement, at a record $7.4 trillion.

The administration peddled the tax cut saying "it's your money." But most of that money isn't going back into the pockets of average voters.

It's going to the rich, who are already expressing their gratitude by giving generously to Republicans. Bush raised $22 million at a GOP dinner last week and intends to raise some $200 million more, far outstripping anything the Democrats can raise.

Bush allies insist he really believes in the economic benefits of a trickle-down philosophy that reckons huge tax breaks for the wealthy eventually create jobs for the less fortunate.

Nearly 3 million jobs have been lost since he took the oath of office. He also apparently believes that starving the federal government of funds and tossing more responsibilities to the states is a good thing.

But governors protest that the $20 billion included for their states in the tax package was too stingy. They had sought at least $40 billion.

The governors are also unhappy because this is a one-time handout
at a time when the costs of Medicaid, security, education and other public services rise while tax revenues
decline.

Education is particularly vulnerable as districts cut classes, lay off teachers and shorten school terms.

There's more to come. The Bush administration is proposing to overhaul Head Start, the popular pre-school program for children at risk.

The states would have considerable latitude in setting standards for instruction and teacher qualifications for the program that now serves nearly 1 million children from low-income families.

This, some educators protest, would in effect dismantle the program by allowing Head Start funds to be diverted into other programs.

As for the tax cut, it is not the economic panacea Bush advertises - although the Democrats have been slow to expose it. A last-minute, unadvertised revision, for instance, actually removes millions of lower-income families from the provision increasing the child tax credit.

Advocacy groups say families with incomes from $10,500 to $26,625 will not benefit, affecting 11.9 million children. To hold the tax bill's cost at $350 billion, Republicans dropped the credit for poor families rather than reduce cuts in the taxes on stock dividends.

Bush must be convinced that voters won't pay attention to the details of his tax cuts. He speaks in simplistic sound bites; what he says does not always reflect what he does.

He believes Democrats who criticize him can be painted as unpatriotic, obstructionist, negative and overly enamored of high taxes. So far, this strategy seems to be working.

The Democrats, however, should not be dissuaded from pointing out that Bush's pandering to the rich is crippling the economy and harming public services.

The debate must be framed as a contest between the government's ability to provide for the well-being of its people and the extent to which the rich should be given special favors.

The debate has to be about Bush's abuse of his power by trashing the environment, curtailing programs to advance civil rights and women's rights, injecting religion into politics, recklessly flaunting U.S. power abroad, stacking the judiciary with right-wing activists and resisting scientific advances that could ease human suffering.

It has to be about a divisive president who deceived voters when he promised to be a uniter. It has to be about partisan overreaching.

That's not negative. That's telling it like it is.


* Marianne Means is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers, 1701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006; e-mail: means@hearstdc.com.

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