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May
16, 2003
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Iraq and Our
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May
15, 2003
Ayesha
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How
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Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
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Steve Perry
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13, 2003
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Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
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Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
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My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
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12, 2003
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Sharon and Sons, Inc.
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10 / 11, 2003
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May
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8, 2003
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Pushovers
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Bush's War Web Log 5/08
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May
7, 2003
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6, 2003
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May
5, 2003
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May
2, 2003
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May
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May
17, 2003
"My Man Mitch"
Dubya Does Indy
By TOM HEALY
INDIANAPOLIS. Touting his proposed budget as "an aggressive
economic plan so people can go back to work," President
George W. Bush ended a three-city national tour to promote his
latest tax cut with a visit to conservative Indianapolis on May
12-13. ("Jobs and economic growth plan, please," Bush's
outgoing budget director Mitch Daniels pleaded with a local journalist.)
Despite the stated purpose, the carefully
orchestrated event had all the makings of a dress rehearsal for
September's Republican National Convention in New York City,
with more than half of Tuesday morning's speech devoted to Terror
and the endless war thereon.
In front of a hand-picked audience of
7,000 GOP functionaries, big-money contributors, political power
brokers, and adulating Midwest fans---the "People of the
New American Century"---Bush was met with flag-waving and
cheers for even the most banal pronouncements.
The clamor was loudest when Bush asserted
more promises about "hunting down terrorists"---this
time in reference to Monday's suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia,
which killed 34, including 8 Americans. "These despicable
acts were committed by killers whose only faith is hate,"
he said. "And the United States will find the killers"---presumably
referring to someone other than the killers, who have already
committed suicide---"and they will learn the meaning of
American justice."
He has made the same promises about Osama
bin Laden and the anthrax killer as well as about Saddam Hussein
and his fabled Weapons of Mass Destruction. To date, his promises
have come up short, but the crowd rose to give him yet another
standing ovation. Fantasy sound bites such as "America is
now more secure! The world will be more peaceful if the Iraqi
people are free!" received the biggest cheers.
Bush's hour-long speech was heavy with
effusive faux-populist, heartstring-tugging homilies and ultra-light
on any specifics of how his plan would stimulate the economy.
Standing in front of a banner which read, "Tax Relief for
Seniors," Bush charmed the assembled faithful with his aw-shucks
demeanor and regular-fella diction.
He played the Washington outsider role
to good effect. "Sometimes in Washington you hear, 'Well,
we're spending the government's money.' No, you don't spend the
government's money---we're spending your money,"
he pointed out. And of course, he's the hero who will "get
Congress to act boldly on the plan to get more of your own money."
His tax-cut plan will give "the
people" back "their money," he promised. "A
family of four making $40,000 a year would see their federal
tax bill go down $1178 a year," Bush claimed. "That's
a thousand dollars not just for a year, but for years. That family
can use their money the way they see fit. After all, it's their
money to begin with."
Perhaps that family can pay down one
of their credit cards with the windfall. But will they be the
real beneficiaries of Bush's costly proposal? Not likely, according
to Indiana Fair Taxes for All Coalition. Nearly half of all Hoosier
taxpayers will see less than $100 savings from Bush's plan, while
millionaires will pocket an average of $22,511 apiece.
Apparently the attendees don't identify
themselves with the $100 majority. They cheered when Bush---a
son of wealth and privilege who has been bailed out of every
failed business venture he lucked his way into---sang praises
to the American entrepreneurial spirit. They howled with delight
when the man who is proposing a $1.3 trillion deficit called
for elected officials to "control spending."
Insisting that "there needs to be
fiscal sanity in Washington, D.C.," Bush neglected to mention
that his budget proposal would cost nearly $2 trillion over the
period 20032013 (according to the latest figures from the
Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, posted at www.ctj.org).
Bush acknowledged problems in the business
world. "Some CEOs around our country forgot what it meant
to be responsible at their jobs." He called for reform.
"We expect responsible behavior in American corporate boardrooms."
He didn't call for improved health and safety for American workers---whom
he characterized as "the best in the world." Neither
did he encourage corporations to stem the flow of jobs overseas
or to improve environmental stewardship. And he neglected to
mention conflicts of interest between members of his Administration
and companies profiting from the War on Terror. Instead, he encouraged
firms to pay dividends. "It's very important that we realize
the reform aspects of encouraging companies to pay dividends,"
he said. "Get rid of the double taxation of dividends and
more companies will pay dividends."
In Bush's scheme, recipients of dividend
income would then use the cash to buy goods and services or invest
in businesses that might create new jobs. But those who don't
earn dividend income or whose savings are socked away in long-term
retirement strategies won't benefit. Only wealthy investors will.
Bush defends his plan with populist bravado:
"You hear people all the time in Washington---they'll say,
'Well, this is only for a certain class of people.' That's the
old tired stale class-warfare argument."
How can he get away with making such
claims? A big megaphone helps, says Max Sawicky, economist at
the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. "A lot
of people look forward to doing better than they're doing now,
so when you see tax cuts proposed for income you don't have but
aspire to, you support it."
"Dividend income is income from
capital and it's very highly concentrated among a small minority
of people," he notes. "Capital income tax relief is
not going to affect most people."
So what about Bush's claim that removing
the "double" tax on dividend income will help seniors?
"Sure," Sawicky says, "if they're very wealthy.
I guess he's referring to the dividend exclusion." Whatever
Congress passes will be different from what the Administration
proposes, he adds.
Sawicky quotes from the group Citizens
for Tax Justice, which states on its Web site, "Three-quarters
of the elderly would get absolutely nothing from Bush's proposed
dividend tax exemption. That's because only one in four seniors
receives even a dollar in taxable dividends."
CTJ further states, "For the 70
percent of elderly taxpayers with incomes below $50,000, the
average dividend tax cut would be only $44."
Valerie Martin, Indiana coordinator for
Fair Taxes for All Coalition---a group composed of unions, senior
citizens organizations, consumer advocates and faith-based communities,
puts it another way. "There's not enough good stuff in [the
proposed] tax cuts. It's just reckless. Social Security, healthcare,
Medicare, education, homeland security---all these things need
priority over tax breaks for the wealthy."
Martin helped organize the "Baloney
and Crumbs" event held after Bush's speech on the other
side of the Indiana State Fairgrounds. A mere 35 folks showed
up to hear speakers address the idea that "there's plenty
of money for millionaires in the President's tax cut plan---and
nothing but baloney and crumbs for seniors."
Brenda Upchurch, local United Auto Workers
retiree representative, called Bush "the President-select"
as she expressed her concern about programs that truly help retirees.
"UAW's main focus is prescription drugs, and protecting
Medicaid and Social Security," she said.
Bush's budget proposal would undermine
these programs when they're needed most, Upchurch said. Her group
has aided seniors by taking busloads to Canada to purchase prescription
drugs at deep discounts and by promoting Web sites and mail order
houses that offer attractive pricing. "So what did Bush
do? He asked the FDA to shut down those Web sites," she
said.
Paul Severance, executive director of
United Senior Action, a Hoosier senior citizen advocacy group,
echoed Upchurch's concerns in a statement read at the counter-event.
"The United States is the only industrialized nation in
the world that does not have prescription drug coverage for its
retirees." The group claims recent studies indicate nearly
a quarter of all American seniors are unable to take prescribed
medicines because they cannot afford to buy them.
So much for the "hard-working Americans"
who are at the end of their working lives. What about those just
beginning their careers?
Jared Bernstein, also of the Economic
Policy Institute, recently released an "Economic Snapshot"
of the job market for young college graduates, and found a particularly
weak labor market and a decline in employment opportunities.
Miriam Pemberton, a fellow at the Institute
for Policy Studies, points out, "Two years ago we had the
largest tax cut in history, and since then unemployment has soared
to near 6 percent."
In his speech May 13, Bush promised to
"add a million-plus jobs by the end of 2004." It's
a promise Max Sawicky describes as "completely fraudulent
according to their own model. They don't tell you those jobs
are jobs that would be created anyway. They are not a net addition."
* * *
Bush's budget-savant, "My man Mitch"
Daniels, was undoubtedly a big reason the President included
Indianapolis on his junket---that and a particularly friendly
congressional delegation in the crowd, including putative Democrat
Sen. Evan Bayh. Daniels recently resigned his post and in all
likelihood will run for governor of Indiana in 2004. Since he's
still technically a federal employee, Daniels hasn't begun campaigning,
but "MITCH" buttons were much in evidence and Bush
couldn't resist telling the crowd, "Washington's loss will
be a gain for the people of Indiana."
The huge costs of the Bush administration's
budget proposal may finally rob Daniels of his undeserved reputation
as a penny pincher. Sawicky says, "Mitch was a farce. They
go in there and pass a huge tax cut and then talk about fiscal
responsibility. It's ridiculous---a gigantic disconnect. It's
hard to grasp."
Actually, everything about Bush's aura
of leadership, fiscal responsibility, faithfulness and humility
is hard to grasp. But unless the Democrats can enlarge their
megaphones, produce a platform that reflects average-American
concerns about the economy, education, healthcare and security,
and come up with a credible candidate who can articulate
the message, we're likely to see four more years of record unemployment,
lavish military spending, corporate malfeasance and media conglomeration.
Don't expect to hear much criticism of
Bush's economic plan. At Tuesday's event at the fairgrounds in
Indianapolis, national media journalists filed their stories
from the Sheep Barn.
Thomas P. Healy
is a freelance journalist in Indianapolis. He can be reached
at: applepress@netdirect.net
Yesterday's
Features
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaioui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
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