BCT Editorial – 10/1/04

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Jogging around; Editorial; Beaver County Times; October 1, 2004.

Chew on this

The point of this editorial is to convey the idea that the middle-class tax cuts of the Bush administration don’t amount to much and that the real beneficiaries are the wealthy.  The editorial uses data from the liberal Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

For proof, the editorial shows how much taxpayers in a couple of income groups would receive in dollars.  For example, taxpayers in the $50,000 - $75,000 range would receive on average $352 while taxpayers in the $200,000 - $500,000 range would receive $2,400.¹  The editorial concluded with, “Overall, more than half of the bill’s benefits will go to those taxpayers earning more than $100,000 a year, even though they account for fewer than 13 percent of all taxpayers.”  The implication is that 13% of taxpayers reaping 55% of the tax cut benefits isn’t fair.

The editorial never told us the 13% of taxpayers pays over 60% of income taxes paid.  Further, this group on average pays nearly $200,000 per taxpayer.²  Yeah, those rich guys are getting a real break.

Finally, the editorial “forgot” to mention the tax cuts eliminated the income tax liability for 7.8 million families.³  I’m sure that was an honest oversight. <g>

Light at the end of what tunnel?

What is it with liberals constantly trying to equate Vietnam and Iraq?  Both Iraqi and U.S. leadership says elections will take place in January, and the Times resurrects Vietnam lingo.  I’m not sure how the editorial comes to the conclusion that President Bush and PM Allawi gave “wildly optimistic assessments” regarding the elections.  Both men were upbeat as I would expect leaders to be, but I heard nothing indicating they were denying reality.  Indeed, PM Allawi even acknowledged there were three provinces in which elections could not be held today.  These provinces are home to about 20% – 25% of Iraqis.  Needless to say, I don’t rely solely on the Times for Iraq news.

I hope I am wrong, but this type of talk leads me to believe the Times editorial board truly wants us to fail in Iraq just as many Americans wanted us to fail in Vietnam.  I don’t know the demographics of the editorial board or their activities during Vietnam, but I would not be surprised to learn these folks are simply reliving their youth and their victory over the United States regarding Vietnam.

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