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Go Home Bush: Rich Avoid Taxes, So Let's Give Them Tax Cuts

THE PLANK FEBRUARY 10, 2008

Bush: Rich Avoid Taxes, So Let's Give Them Tax Cuts

BY ISAAC CHOTINER

When Chris Wallace sits down for a not-quite-Valentine's Day love fest with President Bush, you can be sure there will be some fun moments. This one caught my eye:

WALLACE: How does [McCain] overcome all of
that and...

BUSH: Because there's two big issues. One is, who's
going to keep your taxes low? Most Americans feel overtaxed and I
promise you the Democrat party is going to field a candidate who says
I'm going to raise your tax.

If they're going to say, oh, we're only going to tax
the rich people, but most people in America understand that the rich
people hire good accountants and figure out how not to necessarily pay
all the taxes and the middle class gets stuck.

We've had -- we've been through this drill before.
We're only going to tax the rich and all you have to do is look at the
history of that kind of language and see who gets stuck with the bill.

What a truly remarkable answer. The Democrats want to raise rates on the wealthiest Americans, but Bush is saying that in fact this will screw the middle class because the rich have ways to avoid paying taxes. The obvious question is, then, why has Bush spent so much time giving tax cuts to the rich?!?!

--Isaac Chotiner

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14 comments

Why give tax cuts to the  rich?  Because that reduces the deficit, of course.

If you can't get on board with the RNC talking points, Isaac, don't bother trying to understand The Decider.

- Brent

February 10, 2008 at 2:23pm

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Headline should be: "Bush Continues to Exist"

- huntlib

February 10, 2008 at 2:26pm

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I am trying to wrap my brain around this bit of logic.

That's not just a Bushism, that's the motherload. Maybe he's secretly mocking Republicans? Seriously, I expect better responses to that from the jackals on Ron Paul websites.

- guyminuslife

February 10, 2008 at 2:29pm

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Isn't it obvious Isaac? All the money the rich spend on accountants to get out of paying taxes is money that could be invested in the economy, increasing our productive capacity and raising all boots with the generosity of their rising tide. Except they get left behind, since their boots have (loop)holes in them. True selflessness! Bush knows something about noblesse oblige.

- skipper2379

February 10, 2008 at 2:58pm

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I think he's inferring that tax cuts for the rich are actually thinly disguised tax cuts for the middle class. Therefore, the middle class should vote Republican. As Republicans will reduce their tax burden by reducing taxes on the wealthiest...do I have that right?

Why not just reduce the taxes on the middle class? Why be so deviously progressive? Those sneaky liberal Republicans.

I'm going to miss him. God, I miss him already. He's brutally honest, or maybe just brutal.

I love him; I think he's great.

- The Ignorant Populist

February 10, 2008 at 3:38pm

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Y'know buried beneath all the supply-side drivel, I think almost unintentionally, there's a good point here.  Deductions and loopholes do favor the wealthy, as well as favoring large businesses over small ones (probably more so), and in that way are pretty regressive.  Of course, just lowering tax rates doesn't address this deficiency without also eliminating all those deductions as well, but then that's probably not the point Fearless Leader was trying to make.

- adaglas

February 10, 2008 at 4:10pm

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Isaac -- good catch.  Bush actually harped on this theme quite a bit in his 2004 stump speech, but no one ever seemed to call him on it.

- ecolumbu

February 10, 2008 at 4:13pm

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If there's one good thing Ronald Reagan did as far as taxes are concerned, it's that even as he lowered taxes for the rich, he eliminated a lot of loopholes. Bush is just plain greedy.

- rozenson

February 10, 2008 at 4:21pm

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This line had me laughing:

"Most Americans feel overtaxed..."

That's right.  We're going to base our tax rates on how people FEEL about things, not actual facts.   Like the fact that the US is spending waaay more money than we're taking in, or the fact that our tax rates, when compared to Western Europe, are bargain-basement.

- bcbaird

February 10, 2008 at 4:55pm

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Could George Orwell have come up with a more perfect vision of Big Brother than shrub?  Note that the "decider", who claimed it can work with Democrats, still uses the pube code words like "Democrat Party".

Nothing has changed in it's little pea brain.

I cannot wait until late Jan 2009 to be rid of that piece of vermin forever.  May it  rot in hell.

- tnmats

February 10, 2008 at 5:41pm

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I seriously forgot Bush was president.

- virginiacentrist

February 10, 2008 at 6:13pm

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Never Miind The B*llociks.

In his own uniquely peculiar way, the president actually speaks truth- to-power.

"Swiss Cheese" followed by this propaganda concession that Republican economics has to, at the very least, pretend that it favours the Majority.

I hope he gets his own talk show; he doesn't get enough air-time if you ask me.

He's a loveable old rogue with a somewhat enlightened immigration policy and I'm sure that prescription benefit helps a lot of "folks" even if it is a direct big government state subsidy. He's a LockHeed Martin salesman but with a heart, and a keen sense of wit, pseudo Texan style.

Great stuff.

All of my peers love watching him. Even the non-political ones. Not because he's an idiot - he's clearly a very capable man - but because he's so unpredictable. He's the Jonny Rotten of US politics.

God bless him. Long live Punk.  

- The Ignorant Populist

February 10, 2008 at 6:59pm

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Rich people often employ lawyers to avoid conviction for crimes, so prosecutors should only bring criminal charges against poor and middle-class criminals.

Rich parents often find ways to shelter their children from conscription, so in a national emergency we should only send draft notices to poor and middle class young adults.

Rich citizens often donate money and hire lobbyists to override the will of the people, so we needn't bother with letting poor and middle-class Americans vote.

Anyway, there are only two responsible follow-up questions to Bush's answer here:

1. Do you evade paying taxes you owe? Does any member of your administration?

2. How much money have you, personally, saved thanks to your tax cuts? How much has Vice President Cheney saved?

- rhubarbs

February 10, 2008 at 9:24pm

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Does anyone else think everytime Bush opens his mouth, McCain's chances in the general drop like a stone? There must be a collective groan when he praises McCain and pitches more Bushonomics as the answer to our current finanical problems.

Isaac, I do think you overlooked the best part of the interview. His insights on the Middle East were, ugh, let's just say they were unmoored from reality. To his credit, he had an answer for that, too: facts be damned, it's about that feeling in your guts.

- mpatrickhendri

February 11, 2008 at 8:17am

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