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Article published Aug 16, 2004
Another study finds that those who pay taxes benefit from
cuts
The Congressional Budget Office released a study last
week with groundbreaking news. Those who actually pay taxes received most of the
benefit from President Bush's tax cuts.This is likely to be controversial during
this presidential election. There are many who opposed the president's plan who
insisted that the tax cuts should go to those who don't actually pay taxes.These
are the people who wail that most of the benefit of the tax cuts went to the
richest Americans. They like to complain that much of the cuts benefited the
richest 1 percent of the nation.What they fail to tell anyone is that this same
1 percent of the population pays more than 20 percent of all the taxes. So when
they get more than 1 percent of the benefit, it's because they carry more than 1
percent of the burden.It makes simple sense, unless you take a completely
twisted view of tax reduction or choose to demagogue the issue in order to score
partisan political points.Many do just that. They ignore the fact that Bush's
tax cuts benefited everyone who pays income taxes. In fact, many poor Americans
saw their income tax burden eliminated. Middle-class Americans saw their taxes
reduced.But the drive to twist the issue for political gain forces opponents of
tax cuts to ignore those facts. They also ignore the fact that the tax cuts have
done what they were intended to do. They have pushed the nation back toward
economic growth.It would be unfortunate if voters responded to a tax policy that
boils down to a cry of: "Look, that rich guy is getting more than you."Genuine
tax relief will always have to go to those who actually pay taxes. If the
government passes a measure that provides the same monetary benefit to everyone,
it is not tax relief. It is universal welfare.And that's the key difference
between the approaches on taxes. Making the Bush tax cuts permanent would give
the government less power over our money and make Americans less dependent on
the government.Giving everyone a universal welfare benefit gives the government
more power and makes Americans more dependent.We don't need more government
benefits, we just need to be able to keep more of our own money.