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| | Tax Returns: A Comprehensive Assessment of the Bush Administration’s Record on Cutting Taxes, Revised 4/23/04 |
 | | The cost of the tax cuts, however, is 18 times the cost of the increases in domestic discretionary spending. | | | Because the tax cuts are so tilted toward the highest-income households — and become even more so over time, as some of the upper-income tax cuts phase-in — the burden of financing these lopsided tax cuts ultimately is likely to be borne disproportionately by households who gain only modestly from the tax cuts. | | | The share of tax cuts received by those with very high-incomes is also greater than their shares of national income and of taxes paid. |
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http://www.cbpp.org/4-14-04tax-sum.htm
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| | Bush Tax Cuts After 2002: June 2002 CTJ Analysis |
| | Compared to the federal taxes that would have been paid in 2010 before the tax cuts, Bush& program reduces taxes on the wealthiest by 15 percent. | | | The 2001 tax act temporarily mitigated this problem by increasing the alternative tax exemption (from $45,000 to $49,000 for couples). | | | Estate tax cuts show federal estate tax changes only, and thus assume that states keep their estate and inheritance taxes, despite repeal of the current full credit for most state estate taxes. |
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http://www.ctj.org/html/gwb0602.htm
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| | Growth From Reagan Tax Cuts |
| | Politicians are expected to repeat the mantra, "Reagan tax cuts were responsible for declining revenues and soaring deficits in the 1980s," but no such thing occurred, according to budget analysts. | | | The increasing tax revenues following from the surging economy led to a balanced budget by 1969 -- the last time that the government was able to balance its books. | | | Receipts from individual income taxes rose to $446 billion in fiscal 1989 -- President Reagan's last budget -- from $286 billion in fiscal 1981, the year Reagan began to slash personal tax rates -- a 56 percent increase. |
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http://www.ncpa.org/pi/taxes/pdtx64.html
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| | Brief Overview of the Administration's Tax-Cut Agenda, Revised 3/20/03 |
| | For example, when the tax cut is fully in effect, the total benefits it provides just to the top 1 percent of taxpayers will be 1½ times the size of the Department of Education budget and nearly nine times the size of the EPA budget. | | | For example, the proposed tax credit for the purchase of individual health insurance would weaken employer-based health coverage, but is unlikely to make comprehensive health insurance coverage affordable for most lower-income individuals and families. | | | In other words, the revenue loss from the tax cuts will skyrocket at the same time as the need for revenue to finance the baby boomers’ retirement increases. |
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http://www.cbpp.org/2-14-03tax.htm
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| | Spinsanity: Bush tax cut tactics spread to Democrats and beyond |
| | According to calculations [48K PDF] by the left-leaning Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), for instance, the average reduction in taxes for Iowa residents with incomes in the middle 20% of the income distribution resulting from the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts is actually $908 for 2004, not $1,700-$1,800 as the Democrats quoted above claim. | | | However, such methods often exaggerate the benefits of the tax cut for those with incomes in the middle of the income distribution - either because the arithmetic mean is skewed upward by the incomes of the wealthiest Americans, or because calculations are based on hypothetical families which benefit disproportionately. | | | These statements appear to calculate the benefit to the "average" family either by dividing the total amount of the tax cut by the number of families receiving a cut, or by calculating the benefits of the cuts to specific hypothetical families. |
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http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20040112.html
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| | Bush Tax Cuts Widen US Income Gap |
| | KAREN N. But Bush and congressional Republicans rest the tax cut on their own argument of fairness: It is the prosperous who pay the bulk of income taxes, so they should get most of the tax relief. | | | But it was changed from a "class tax" to a "mass tax" during World War II because of the need for higher government revenues. | | | These numbers include estate and payroll taxes (such as Social Security) as well as the income tax. |
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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0523-02.htm
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| | ArgMax Economics Weblog: Tax Cuts? |
| | Once the financing is included, the 2001 and 2003 "tax cuts" are best seen as net tax cuts for about 20-25 percent of households, financed by net tax increases or benefit reductions for the remaining 75-80 percent of households. | | | Under that scenario, each household receives a direct tax cut based on the 2001 and 2003 legislation, but it also "pays" $1,520 per year (2004 dollars) in some combination of reductions in benefits from government spending or increases in other taxes to finance the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. | | | We therefore examine the "net effects" of the tax cuts, accounting for both the direct benefits and the costs of financing those benefits. |
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http://www.argmax.com/mt_blog/archive/000474.php
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| | ED.gov |
| | These tax cuts effectively make the first two years of college universally available, and they will give many more working Americans the financial means to go back to school if they want to choose a new career or upgrade their skills. | | | Students will receive a 100% tax credit for the first $1,000 of tuition and required fees and a 50% credit on the second $1,000. | | | The student has a total student debt of $12,000 and is in the 15% federal income tax bracket. |
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http://www.ed.gov/updates/97918tax.html
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| | AlterNet: Shifty Tax Cuts |
| | Between 2000 and 2003, the United States saw a federal-to-state tax shift of historic magnitude: the share of the total tax burden borne at the state and local level jumped 15 percent. | | | Current tax policies are fueling the national debt, imposing an average $13,000 in additional debt on each man, woman and child in America between 2002 and 2007 -or more than $52,000 in added debt per family of four. | | | The choice to send nearly $200 billion to the top one percent rather than to state governments underscores just one way the federal tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 are actually "tax shifts," not tax cuts, for the vast majority of Americans. |
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http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18483
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| | Bush's Tax Cuts Are Unfair ... - To the rich. By Steven E. Landsburg |
| | Likewise, Bush's income tax cuts have sharply reduced the progressive income tax, but haven't touched regressive taxes like payroll taxes and excise taxes. | | | The biggest percentage tax cut—about 17.6 percent—went to taxpayers in the second-lowest quintile, that is to taxpayers with below-average incomes. | | | The Bush tax cuts (which Congress just voted to extend) are an affront to the most fundamental principles of fairness. |
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http://slate.msn.com/id/2108201/fr/rss
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| | The Bush Tax Cut: One Year Later |
| | These findings show that tax cuts are not simply a matter of returning unneeded or unused funds to taxpayers, but rather a choice to require other, future taxpayers to cover the long-term deficit, which the tax cut significantly exacerbates. | | | A tax cut or increase that gives every household the same percentage change in take-home income is distributionally neutral—meaning that it holds the distribution of after-tax income constant before and after the policy change. | | | Unlike tax cuts, reforming budget procedures would provide a more accurate picture of the government's finances, and would not create deeper fiscal problems if it failed to restrain spending. |
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http://www.brookings.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb101.htm
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| | Reason: You May Already Be A Winner: Who really benefits from the Bush tax cuts? |
| | Using tax amounts due in the pre-Bush tax cut year of 2000 as a baseline, we ran some numbers based on households that made between $50,000 and $75,000 a year in total income. | | | Mike Snell is a tax consultant specializing in tax planning for small business. | | | In both the childless and two-child scenarios, the amount of taxes saved over the three years of Bush tax cuts is substantial. |
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http://www.reason.com/links/links100604.shtml
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| | Tax, Spending Cuts Packaged (washingtonpost.com) |
| | Collins said this week that including tax cuts in the budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 could prove to be an even tougher sell, "given all the sacrifices that we're asking of some very important programs." Snowe said her position on the budget and tax cuts is unchanged from last year. | | | Senate tax writers also hope to extend a deduction for college tuition, stretch out expanded tax breaks for small-business investment and lengthen a one-year provision to slow the alternative minimum tax, which is designed to tax the rich but is increasingly ensnaring the middle class. | | | Those cuts are vital in the effort to control rising budget deficits, especially with tax increases politically off-limits. |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18244-2005Mar8.html
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| | USATODAY.com - Most economists credit Bush's tax cuts in rebound |
| | Washington cut taxes over the past three years, but it also sharply increased government spending on everything from the military and homeland security to education and health care. | | | These economists also say tax cuts were just one of several influences that helped the economy out of its slump, and it's hard to determine how they rank. | | | Most economists say the tax cuts helped stimulate consumer spending and the economy in the short run. |
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-02-16-whatfixedit_x.htm
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| | Tax Cuts |
| | The state's annual budget is $5 billion and the tax cuts have cumulatively cost $3.7 billion. | | | As the result of both the tax cuts and a slowing economy, Governor Tom Vilsack (D) has revised his proposed FY 2002 budget downward by $145 million and another $140 million is adjustments--including using $120 million from an economic emergency fund. | | | One other tax cut that will directly benefit the stock market is ending, or at least substantially reducing, fees on stock registrations and transactions. |
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http://www.thepubliccause.net/TaxCuts.html
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| | The Reagan Information Page:The Tax Cuts |
| | Further evidence of the relative tax burdens comes from the CBO itself in the form of the total overall federal tax burden for each taxpayer. | | | All taxpayers received these cuts, not just the rich as anti-Reagan revisionists would have you believe, as shown in the table of effective tax rates. | | | In addition, income tax revenues increased during this period and the share of taxes paid by the rich increased also! |
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http://www.presidentreagan.info/tax_cuts.cfm
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| | UE Political Action Issues Briefing: Opposing Tax Cuts for the Rich |
| | Tax cut supporters claim that the tax money that rich people no longer have to pay will be automatically invested in new business, new plants, new equipment, and consequently new jobs will be created. | | | The thousands of tax loopholes and tax shelters must also be eliminated, compelling wealthy individuals and corporations to finally pay their fair share of the tax burden. | | | When taxes are cut, revenue to the government falls, leading to an inevitable belt-tightening. |
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http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/polact_isu_tc.html
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| | Working poor suffer under Bush tax cuts - 9/26/04 |
| | The analysis of the three Bush tax cuts is based in part on estimates by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, using data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. | | | For the poor, inequities of the Bush tax cuts are further exacerbated by the long-standing disparities in the Social Security tax, which has increased nine times since 1977. | | | To help pay for federal tax cuts, many programs that served the working poor were reduced or eliminated as the deficit grew. |
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http://www.detnews.com/2004/specialreport/0409/26/a01-284666.htm
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| | Greenspan backs Bush tax cuts - The Washington Times: Business |
| | Greenspan said Congress' first priority should be to reinstate budget rules that expired in 2002 that require any new or extended tax cuts and spending programs to be offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget. | | | Sarbanes that Congress needs to "show restraint on both spending and tax cuts" to address the deficit, though spending cuts should be considered first. | | | Any cuts would be difficult to pass in an election year, when spending usually goes up. |
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http://www.washtimes.com/business/20040212-093059-5041r.htm
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| | The Tax Cuts Re-Examined (washingtonpost.com) |
| | To starve the government with tax cuts is to misread this trend. | | | Critics, including this page, say the tax cuts are not affordable; defenders retort that the president has a five-year plan to halve the deficit and that a combination of economic growth and entitlement reform can shore up the government's finances in the longer term. | | | By converting the payroll tax into contributions to personal accounts, government could reduce the tax burden on workers, thereby boosting incentives. |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1415-2004Aug14.html
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| | CBS News Bush Signs Tax Cuts Into Law May 29, 2003 20:53:59 |
| | The bill accelerates several income tax cuts previously scheduled to take effect later in the decade, including rate cuts and the federal child credit; lowers taxes on many married couples; eases levies on investors; and allows bigger write-offs for small businesses. | | | Highlights of $350 billion in tax cuts and new spending: | | | Democrats also have criticized the package as a giveaway to the wealthy, stressing its cuts on taxes on capital gains and corporate dividends rather than its lower income tax rates and increases in the federal child credit. |
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/21/politics/main554935.shtml
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| | Debating the tax cuts - Jan. 16, 2004 |
| | At the urging of President Bush, Congress has passed tax cuts in each of the past three years that, combined with a recession, a bear market in stocks, terrorist attacks and wars, helped to turn a $127 billion budget surplus in 2001 into a projected deficit of nearly $500 billion in 2004. | | | The "crowding out" theory is disputed by many Republicans, some of whom argue that tax cuts will make the economy grow so much that it will boost tax revenue enough to balance the budget. | | | Any negative effects of repealing tax cuts could be offset, Zandi and some other economists said, by returning some of the money to the economy in other ways. |
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http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/14/news/economy/election_taxes
(1099 words)
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| | Bush seeks to make tax cuts permanent - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics |
| | The president's first major cut, passed in 2001, was supposed to provide $1.35 trillion in tax relief over 10 years. | | | Critics saw the move as an attempt at yet another tax cut "costing more than $1 trillion over the next decade" at a time when Democratic presidential candidates are demanding that Mr. | | | In 2008, capital-gains taxes are scheduled to rise by a third. |
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http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030905-120757-2326r.htm
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| | Repeal All Bush's Tax Cuts - We'd still have at least four more years of deficits. But it's a start. By Timothy Noah |
| | Even if the Bush tax cuts are fully repealed, then, the budget deficit for fiscal year 2004 will still be a not-inconsiderable $301 billion. | | | According to Robert McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, a labor-backed nonprofit whose data on tax policy have proven extremely reliable over the years, the combined revenue loss from Bush's three tax bills for fiscal year 2004 will be $266 billion. | | | According to a June 4 study by Citizens for Tax Justice, by the end of this decade the average combined Bush tax reduction for everyone except the richest one percent of the population would be only 5 percent. |
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http://slate.msn.com/id/2088237
(985 words)
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| | Budget/Taxes |
| | Statement A: Federal tax cuts have been worth it, because they have helped strengthen the economy by allowing Americans to keep more of their own money. | | | Statement B: Federal tax cuts have NOT been worth it, because they have increased the deficit and caused cuts in government programs. | | | These tax cuts will expire unless extended by Congress. |
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http://www.pollingreport.com/budget.htm
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| | FactCheck.org Here We Go Again: Bush Exaggerates Tax Cuts |
| | In fact, all taxes were not cut and millions who pay only federal payroll taxes got no benefit from Bush's cuts. | | | But according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, 35.6 million individuals and families got zero benefit from the Bush cuts because their income was so low they were not paying federal income taxes before the cuts. | | | That's because much of the tax relief for 2003 comes in the form of a tax break for married couples -- reduction of the so-called "marriage penalty" -- and a doubling of the tax credit granted for each child under 17, to $1,000 per child. |
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http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=145
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| | Tax Cuts and Class Wars |
| | Whether a tax cut reduces a single mother’s payroll taxes by forty dollars a month, or allows a wealthy business owner to save millions in capital gains, the net effect is beneficial. | | | When dividends are taxed only once, as corporate income, investment is encouraged and shareholder demand for dividends increases. | | | Tax cuts necessarily benefit those who pay the overwhelming bulk of the taxes. |
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http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2003/tst012003.htm
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| | Connect the Dots, Folks: Bush Tax Cuts for Rich |
| | The only good part of the Bush's tax cut plan is the $400 increase in the tax credit per child — at least that spreads it around a little. | | | Ditto with accelerating the 2004 tax cuts: 64.4 percent to the top 5 percent of taxpayers; 7.7 percent to the bottom 80 percent. | | | As we all wade into these numerical battles over exactly how much of this tax cut goes to the very rich, the more fundamental question is whether it's a good idea — either economically, or in terms of social justice, to have the very rich get very much richer than they already are. |
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http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0115-05.htm
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| | Tax cuts boost joblessness, encourage outsourcing ajc.com |
| | They granted an enormous tax cut to big business in the form of "bonus depreciation." Under bonus depreciation, the more corporations spend on equipment, the less tax they have to pay on the same economic income. | | | Second, until tax experts are included more regularly in economic analysis and debate, economists are likely to continue missing the boat in ways that can and should be avoided. | | | The most recent Bush tax act helped solve this problem by cutting U.S. taxes on the repatriation of offshore profits. |
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http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0304/29equal.html
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| | Tax Cuts Increase Federal Revenues |
| | In 1980, the last year before the tax cuts, tax revenues were $956 billion (in constant 1996 dollars). | | | Any increase in budget deficits was therefore the result of spending increases rather than tax cut-induced revenue decreases. | | | Flat Tax Revolution: Using a Postcard to Abolish the IRS |
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http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/wm182.cfm
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| | CNN.com - Bush discusses economy in Kentucky - Feb. 26, 2004 |
| | Tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year include most of the increase in the child tax credit to $1,000, an expansion of the bottom 10 percent tax bracket that lowered taxes for virtually every worker, and some changes lessening the marriage penalty. | | | The administration's economic forecast predicted that payroll jobs would average 132.7 million a month this year, but to achieve that average, the economy would have had to create more than 2.6 million jobs in coming months, which is unlikely. | | | "I'm calling on Congress to make the tax cuts set to expire permanent," Bush said at ISCO Industries, a family-owned company, just east of downtown Louisville. |
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/26/elec04.prez.bush.trip.ap
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| | Tax cuts spur economic growth |
| | If taxes have such a weak effect on growth, then we should consider tax cuts or hikes for their other effects, like income distribution or alleviation of poverty. | | | But what is not debatable is that taxes started falling for the rich in 1978 (with a capital gains tax cut). | | | Reagan accelerated these cuts with a vengeance: the top income tax rate was slashed from 70 to 28 percent. |
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http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-taxgrowth.htm
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| | Why public misses downside of tax cuts csmonitor.com |
| | Most people understand that the tax cuts will increase the budget deficit. | | | The International Monetary Fund, a multilateral institution, says the tax cuts would be poorly timed and probably unnecessary, while failing to confront the looming costs of Medicare and Social Security after the baby boomers retire. | | | Perhaps voters are persuaded by Bush's argument that a tax cut is needed to stimulate the economy. |
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0519/p17s01-coop.html
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| | 13myths.org |
| | The tax cut is fair because many people will pay no taxes, while the rich get less than 25% of cuts. | | | The tax cut will benefit all Americans--including those who are struggling most. | | | The Bush tax cut is needed to fight off a recession. |
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http://islandimage.net/oc/13myths/Factsheet.cfm?ID=2
(228 words)
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| | Kerry and Edwards on the economy - Jan. 20, 2004 |
| | Supporters of tax cuts for the wealthy say structural changes in the economy have made small businesses and sole proprietors more important than ever for job creation and economic growth. | | | He would repeal tax cuts -- including dividend and capital-gains tax cuts -- for what he says are the top two percent of Americans, those making $240,000 or more per year. | | | Raising their taxes could force them to hire fewer workers and slow down investment, according to this theory. |
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http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/20/news/economy/election_bigmo
(1066 words)
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| | New Law's Tax Cuts Mean Extra Cash Now |
| | Lower tax rates for long-term capital gains and qualifying dividends may allow you to reduce your estimated tax payments for the rest of the year. | | | Employers have generally lowered the amount of federal tax withheld from their workers’ paychecks, reflecting lower tax rates for most people and a larger standard deduction for married couples. | | | One good thing about the tax cuts in the new law is that most people didn't have to wait long to start seeing the savings. |
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http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=109816,00.html
(391 words)
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| | Your Tax Cuts At Work |
| | “Your Tax Cuts at Work” is a grassroots message campaign coordinated by United for a Fair Economy to draw attention to the real impact of federal, state and local budget cuts. | | | And when budgets do get cut, as they are beginning to now, the effects are often slow death and decline. | | | One of the challenges of defending government and public spending is that its benefits are often invisible and unadvertised. |
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http://yourtaxcutsatwork.org
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| | Robert Freeman: Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity |
| | The effects of Bush's tax cut on the deficit and debt are exactly what we would expect having seen Reagan's results-only worse. | | | If Bush's tax cuts do not represent a fiscal process wildly out of control it is hard to imagine what does. | | | Two thirds of his new $350 billion tax cut will go to the top 10% of income earners. |
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http://www.counterpunch.org/freeman05302003.html
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| | The Idolatry of Ideology-Why Tax Cuts Hurt the Economy by Russ Beaton |
| | Increase taxes and balance public budgets by having government re-spend the money. | | | It is virtually always the case (especially with this President) that a tax cut returns money to high income people disproportionate to the middle or lower income taxpayer. | | | One is a systemic tax structural subsidy, and the other is a government expenditure subsidy. |
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http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/25/beaton.html
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