Things That Just Piss Me Off

And the middle class gets ignored as much as possible. Those are the three key elements to every economic plan Bush puts out. This story in the NYTimes will show you how that policy works.

Tax Rebate or Payment? A Policy Debate Begins
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Nearly 40 percent of Americans owed no federal income tax last year, though even low-income workers paid taxes for Social Security and Medicare. While Mr. Bush has refused to disclose specifics of his $145 billion plan, administration officials and Republican lawmakers favor a proposal that would offer rebates of up to $800 for individuals and $1,600 for families — but only if they paid that much in taxes last year.

Many of those people who paid no federal income tax paid no tax because they are barely supporting their families from paycheck to paycheck and they legitimately owed no taxes to the government.

They paid sales tax. They spent money. They paid unemployement. They paid medicare. They do all they can.

But Bush and the republican party does not want them to get any relief. Only if you made enough to support your family and still owed taxes should you get anything according to them.

Here’s the rub. One guy works at mcdonalds and has taxes taken out of his check every week. He files his taxes. He gets all of it back because he was supporting his family just barely.

The other guy works construction. Doesn’t have taxes taken out of his check, but pays the amount that he owes at the end of the year. And he owed a little money because he made more than the fry cook. He deserves a break while the fry cook doesn’t?

Guy number three is a bigshot at XYZ corp. and makes over $100,000 per year. Doing well. So he gets the biggest break of all.

This is the bush logic of stimulating the economy? Give more money to the people that have more money? They have money in savings. The fry cook doesn’t.

The money you give back to the guy with savings just adds it to his savings. No immediate need to spend it so no economic boost.

The money you give back to the fry cook and likely the construction worker gets spent right away because they needed the money in the first place and had no savings. Immediate economic boost for the economy.

Bush says this is to boost the economy but it does exactly the opposite. Another tax break for the rich disguised as an economic stimulus package.

For practical purposes, analysts estimate, a family of four with an income of $24,000 would receive no government payments at all.

How many of you make $2000 per month or less? Bush and the republican party don’t believe you should receive any relief from the recession they have created. You aren’t valuable to the economy because you didn’t owe enough in taxes. Giving you money will not boost the economy at all.

and families with incomes below $40,000 would at most receive partial rebates.

How many of you make $3333 per month or less? The Bush boys think you are worth giving some money to, but certainly not the full tax break.

But a household with an income of $100,000 or more could get back $1,600

How many of you make $8333 or more per month? You get to add a little more money into your savings account because you likely have one already. You do not need to spend that money right away. That does not boost the economy.

If you are in this category, you likely agree with Bush on this because you want a tax break. However, it’s the economy that needs the boost. What is good for you is not necessarily what is good for the country during a recession.

For the purpose of jump-starting the economy, economists want people to spend extra money as quickly as possible.

By putting that money into the hands of workers who need it, you give them money that will be spent right away and the recession will go away. You will benefit a lot more with the economy doing better than you will with a one-time payment of $1600.

“The president again is focused on broad-based tax relief for those who are paying taxes,” said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. when asked at a news conference on Friday whether “everybody” would get a tax break. “This is something that has worked well before, has worked in 2001, worked in 2003.”

Administration officials and Republican lawmakers say it only makes sense to give tax rebates to people who actually paid taxes.

“You have to be a taxpayer in order to get a tax rebate,” said Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. “The White House is very clear that this is for people who pay taxes.”

POOR PEOPLE PAY TAXES TOO! The federal income tax is not the only way we are taxed in this country. Poor people and most middle class people also spend almost if not all of their paycheck every single week.

By percentage and by total amount, poor people and the middle class, (the real middle class that makes less than $100,000 per year, not the bush definition of the middle class that makes $200,000+ per year) put more money into the economy than those that make much more money.

Those that make $100,000 per year or more stimulate the stock market, which according to them and the bush administration will eventually boost the economy. Trickle down economics means give a lot of money to rich people and corporations and some of it will eventually trickle down to the middle class and poor of this country, but it should always go to the rich first so they can decide how much of it to give the rest of us.

Robert Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research group in Washington, estimated that under the Republican plan, as many as 65 million Americans with low or modest incomes would miss out on part or all of the payments.

“This approach fails on two counts,” Mr. Greenstein said. “It omits or partly omits those who need the help. And it omits the tens of millions of people who are living paycheck to paycheck and who would be most likely to quickly spend every dollar they can get.”

Stumble it!