[Mb-civic] Bush's uncaring tax-cut math - Derrick Z. Jackson - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

Bush's uncaring tax-cut math

By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist  |  September 20, 2005

WE HAVE two wars abroad. Moreover, we must rebuild a Gulf Coast region 
so thoroughly devastated that had the destruction come from human 
hostilities, we would have declared a third war. Yet President Bush 
pretends in a critical way as if nothing happened at all.

''You bet, it's going to cost money,'' Bush told reporters last Friday. 
''But I'm confident we can handle it, and I'm confident we can handle 
our other priorities. It's going to mean that we're going to have to 
make sure we cut unnecessary spending. It's going to mean we don't do -- 
we've got to maintain economic growth, and therefore we should not raise 
taxes.''

Bush then hid behind a familiar prop of politicians: the common person. 
''Working people have had to pay a tax, in essence, by higher gasoline 
prices,'' Bush said. ''And we don't need to be taking more money out of 
their pocket.''

What Bush really meant was better said by White House spokesman Scott 
McClellan. On Sept. 8, a day after White House requests for emergency 
aid in the wake of Hurricane Katrina soared past $62 billion, McClellan 
was asked, ''Why does the president believe it is morally justified, why 
is it the right thing, to give some of the richest people on the planet 
a huge tax cut right now?''

McClellan said, ''It's not a fair description.''

The questioner persisted, ''Why at this point in our history is it 
justified, morally right, to do this?''

McClellan answered, ''First of all, I'd have to dispute your 
characterization, because all Americans have received tax cuts.... We've 
made tremendous progress to keep our economy growing.''

The questioner said, ''And there's no way to ask the richest people in 
America to sacrifice.''

McClellan said, ''Keeping our economy growing stronger is important to 
helping with the rebuilding and recovery efforts on the ground. The last 
thing we want to do is take more money from lower-income Americans that 
have been affected by this and have received significant help from those 
-- from those tax cuts."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/20/bush146s_uncaring_tax_cut_math/
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