Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (149338)	10/27/2004 6:44:30 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

OT >> 1 - Each person who pays less taxes has a tax cut. By that measure Bush's statement is true. Sorry, this does not compute. He did not say that most of the people benefiting from his tax cuts were middle and lower income. It is quite obvious that most people are not rich. So using your interpretation of the above, Bush could (hypothetically) give $1 tax cut to bottom 60% and a $10,000 tax cut to the rest and still make the same claim...so no go. It is a go because of Bush's vague language. He didn't say "most of benefit from the tax cut" he said "Most of the tax cuts". If he meant this first posibility then he didn't state things very well , he should have said something like "most of the people who got a tax cut", but ithe first posibility matches up with his words as well as the posibility your source assumed. >> 2 - Measure by the biggest percentage of federal income tax decrease. This is the only normal interpretation of his statement. Well if you accept that interpretation as true or even reasonably possible then your argument that Bush's comment was a lie is invalidated. To repeat my comment about possibility #2 (without the table, that I reposted in the earlier post) -------------- 2 - Measure by the biggest percentage of federal income tax decrease. By that standard Bush's statement would also be true. The tax payers with the lowest incomes dropped off the rolls completely. They had a 100% tax reduction. Using the data from your link... ...would support Bush not having lied. A 1.5% reduction in the tax rate for the lowest 20% of income earners reduces their effective tax burden by 23.6% (The 5.2% rate is 77.61% of their previous tax burden if the change due to the Bush cuts is -1.5%). The top5% would get a reduction of 16.9% when you calculate the same way. ------------- Tim