Tim "GOP stooge" Russert:

There are a couple of good reviews of Sunday's Meeet The Press dust-up between Howard Dean and Tim Russert. Of interest is Russert going to the Treasury Department for "impartial" figures showing how tax policy affects citizens. What did the Treasury supply? In at least one instance, a highly atypical family that will have taxes cut from $2,000 to $45 under the Bush plan. First of all, is that extremely low rate of taxation something to be celebrated? Either it's exceptional, and therefore unfair to the rest of us, or it represents a really bare-bones federal government. A back-of-the-envelope-estimate: If all households were taxed at that rate, total federal revenues from income taxes would be about $5 billion, or about 1/400^th of the current budget. Talk about shrinking the size of government.

Also, the $2,000 to $45 tax example has been used by Bush in several speeches this year, so it's really more of a selling point, instead of a typical case.

In any event, Russert uses that peculiar example to claim that if the tax cuts were to be rolled back as Dean proposes, it means a tax hike of 4,000%. Wow! Somebody stop that man!

The two reviews of MTP worth reading are at Liberal Oasis, and American Politics Journal's Pundit Pap (scroll down to MTP).

posted by Quiddity at 6/24/2003 10:29:00 AM