Monday, May 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Dems: Soak the poor!

Offering a revealing glimpse of their true philosophy, Democrats are attacking a proposal to provide tax relief for the poor and middle class.

House Republicans on Thursday put forth a measure making permanent the portion of the Bush tax cuts that in 2001 created a new bottom bracket, lowering taxes on the first $6,000 earned from 15 percent to 10 percent. The financial threshold was bumped to $7,000 in 2003.

Without action, however, the bracket reverts to $6,000 next year and disappears altogether in 2011.

Democrats, though, oppose the measure, arguing it will increase the budget deficit. They've countered with a plan to keep the expanded bracket through 2010, but to also impose a 1.95 percent"surcharge" on individuals who make $500,000 or more a year and couples who earn at least $1 million.

Two observations:

-- If Democrats are truly concerned about the deficit, they'd be agitating to control spending. But that will never happen, of course, because it would prevent them from continuing to mainline taxpayer earnings and nourishing a permanent dependent class on which they can rely for votes.

-- Despite all the rhetoric about Democrats being the party of the downtrodden, soaking the wealthy is obviously more important to House Democrats than providing tax relief to those struggling to make ends meet. Otherwise, they'd have embraced the GOP plan with no strings attached and worried about their other concerns later.

"We don't want our grandkids to pay higher taxes tomorrow to pay for our tax cuts today," said Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, the top Democratic tax writer.

And no, that apparently wasn't a joke.