Age of Reason

Bush Considers a Tax Increase, But Not on the Wealthy

President Bush is getting set up to try to overhaul the U.S. tax code. Such a "revenue neutral" change would be designed to do away with taxes on investment, and that of course means it would shift the burden of taxation disproportionately away from the wealthy and onto the middle class. So it's a tax increase, but not for the wealthy, because Bush is against increasing taxes on the wealthy. A recent LA Times article about this was titled "Proposal Would Hit Blue State Taxpayers," as if this would somehow be a special tax on Kerry voters. It wouldn't. It would be a tax on everyone who gets most of their money by working. Drew at DailyKos points out that this is rhetoric we should strongly discourage:

What does Mike DeWine think of Bush's plan to raise taxes on Ohio's workers by almost $9 billion?  What does George Allen think of Bush's plan to raise taxes on Virginia's workers by almost $6 billion?

In the future, when you're told that a policy has a "disproportionate effect on blue states," don't be a Stupid Democrat.  Be a Smart Democrat.  Know that Republicans manufacture division; they divide white from black, they divide holy from heretic, and here, they divide red from blue.  Then, they set each against the other.  They do this to distract us from the fundamental division evident in their policies: the division between the rich and the rest of us.  

Here, as elsewhere, the Republicans have cut taxes on the rich, and they expect the rest of us to pay the price.

posted by conchis @ 6:52 AM