News - Is George W. Bush’s tax-reform plan fair to all Americans?

Budget surpluses demand across-the-board tax cuts. Today, the American people are grossly overtaxed, with government at every level seizing 38 cents of every dollar earned. Taxes haven’t been this high since World War II — and there’s no war on.
With the people paying through the nose, the government is projecting a 10-year budget surplus — or tax overcharge — of $2.17 trillion.
George W. Bush understands the obvious, axiomatic truth that Washington should let taxpayers keep a good chunk of the money that would otherwise fund the surplus. He wants to cut taxes for all Americans by replacing the five current tax brackets with four lower ones, boosting the child tax credit to $1,000, eliminating the marriage penalty for working couples and terminating the death tax.
Bush has the right approach, one that assumes your money belongs to you, not Washington.
Al Gore, on the other hand, complains about how much tax cuts “cost” the government, starting from the false premise that tax dollars are first the government’s to grant, instead of the people’s to keep. Gore also wrongly assumes that income tax cuts would mean lower revenue. By spurring growth and expanding the overall economic pie, tax cuts often boost the treasury.
Bush’s tax cut plan would benefit almost everyone who pays taxes. Six million lower income families would pay no more federal taxes at all. Middle income people would see their taxes cut as rates declined and child credits expanded. And, yes, many higher-income Americans would get to keep more of their money as well.
In the first presidential debate, Gore played the class warfare card repeatedly, referring 10 times to the tax relief Bush’s plan would mean to the “wealthiest 1 percent.”
Fact is, people who make a lot of money pay a lot in taxes. The top 1 percent of earners now pay more than 30 percent of all federal taxes. So any across-the-board tax cut is going to benefit those who shoulder nearly a third of the total tax burden.
Gore promises “targeted tax cuts” — tax breaks that require people to behave in certain ways in order to qualify. Under Gore, we would become a nation of Pavlov’s dogs, panting for scraps from Prince Albert’s table.
And that’s assuming Gore would actually push for his meager tax cuts. In 1992, Gore and Clinton promised a “middle-class tax cut.” What they delivered in 1993 was the largest tax increase in history. Gore cast the deciding vote for the 1993 hike, which included a special tax on Social Security benefits. This year, he called it the “best vote” of his career.
Gov. Bush has a history of delivering on his tax-cut promises in Texas. There will be much rejoicing across the land when he does the same for America.