Tuesday, January 21, 2003Not only would the marginal working mother on welfare face a 40-hour week ? six hours more than the national average for all women with young children ? but funding would be frozen for child care, transportation and all the other things she needs to make it possible for her to work in the first place. Inflation of about 11 percent has already eaten away at these benefits, meaning less for job training and other important support programs. But the president proposes to freeze funding at the 1996 ceiling of $17 billion.
Am I caricaturing the debate? Alas, not at all. Whenever anyone points out the systematic tilt of the Bush administration toward the rich, the administration and its defenders immediately raise the cry of "class warfare." Yet when you look at the arguments the administration actually makes on behalf of its policy, they are as silly as that of the conservative in the bar. The difference is that the administration knows exactly what it's doing.
For example: On Saturday, in his weekly radio address, George W. Bush declared that "the tax relief I propose will give 23 million small-business owners an average tax cut of $2,042 this year." That remark is intended to give the impression that the typical small-business owner will get $2,000. But as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, most small businesses will get a tax break of less than $500; about 5 million of those 23 million small businesses will get no break at all. The average is more than $2,000 only because a small number of very wealthy businessmen will get huge tax cuts.
So the latest round of Bush tax cuts, like the previous round, mainly provides benefits to the very, very well off - and once again the administration is shamelessly misrepresenting the content of its own policies. But aside from the honor and integrity thing, should we care?
Bush Proposal May Cut Tax on S.U.V.'s for Business. The White House economic plan would increase by 50 percent or more the deductions that small-business owners can take right away on the biggest sport utility vehicles and pickups. By Danny Hakim. [New York Times: Politics]
They make themselves happily oblivious to the difference between thinking you are self-made and being self-made, between liking to clear brush and having to clear brush."
