Did you know this?

From the Los Angeles Times on the Bush plan:

... the state aid, if included in the final plan, [is] only [a] one-year program, in contrast to the elimination of the dividend tax, which would be permanent, and the income tax rate cuts, which would remain in effect until 2010. As a result, their price tags are considerably smaller than those for the tax cuts.

In addition, the aid package, which would funnel $6 billion to financially troubled state governments, is largely designed to solve a problem that Bush's elimination of the dividend tax is expected to create for states -- a reduction in their already diminished tax revenue.

The problem occurs because in eliminating the dividend tax -- rather than just reducing it -- the administration would wipe out the need for companies to tell Washington what they pay in dividends and the need for the Internal Revenue Service to collect the information.

As a result, states, which also tax dividends based on the federal information, would no longer be able to impose that tax. The inability would cost them from $4 billion to $5 billion in lost revenue a year, according to the independent Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

Yup, let's hear it for Bush's tax-evasion program.

Seriously - what we are witnessing is a move to eliminate taxes completely. Sounds radical, but that's what's going on. Sure, there may be some base level - say on the scale of Brazil - where absolutely essential programs are paid for, but other than that, it's cash-and-carry time. Privatize everything! Privatize roads, utilities, the electromagnetic spectrum, elder health care, postal service, weather bureau, retirement insurance --- then deregulate --- and watch the "magic of the unregulated marketplace" create huge entities that dominate and overcharge the public.

Almost sounds like science-fiction, doesn't it?


posted by Quiddity at 1/07/2003 09:10:00 PM