Notes & Sources

8. Woo Hoo! I Got Me a Tax Cut!

For more information on the real effects of the Bush 2003 "Mike Moore Tax Cut," check out the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' report, "New tax cut law uses gimmicks to mask cost; ultimate price tag likely to be $800 billion to $1 trillion." The Center can be found online at www.cbpp.org.

Bush and Cheney's projected tax-cut windfall was reported by James Toedtman in Newsday, "Tiebreaker's Tax Break," May 20, 2003.

As this is written, the Texas Rangers are in the cellar of the American League West, 19.5 games out of first place. (Okay, I know, they don't suck as bad as the Detroit Tigers.)

If you'd like to know more about the forty-seven people President Clinton had "killed," simply check your favorite Internet search engine and type in the words, "Clinton Body Count." Or, tune in to AM talk radio any day of the week. This urban legend is a favorite among the right.

In the summer of 2003, the Congressional Budget Office (www.cbo.gov) projected that the 2003 federal deficit would reach $401 billion. For more on that announcement, see Alan Fram's June 10 article, "CBO Expects Deficit to Shatter Record," from the Associated Press. You can read more about Bush's attempts to hide the Treasury Department's deficit projections until after Congress had approved his tax cut in "Bush Shelved Report on $44,200 Billion Deficit Fears," Peronet Despeignes, Financial Times, May 29, 2003.

Bush made his claim that every taxpayer would benefit from his tax cut in an April 26, 2003, radio address. You can find the transcript at www.whitehouse.gov. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities revealed the truth in its June 1, 2003, report, "Tax cut law leaves out 8 million filers who pay income taxes." The Center also reported on the effect the federal tax cut would have on the states on June 5, 2003, "Federal tax changes likely to cost states billions of dollars in coming years." More information can be found through the Citizens for Tax Justice (www.ctj.org), specifically the May 30, 2003, report, "Most taxpayers get little help from the latest Bush tax plan."

For an excellent look at the inventive ways states are finding to save money, including the unscrewing of light bulbs and the shutting down of schools, see "Drip, Drip Drip," Matt Bai, The New York Times, June 8, 2003, and "States Facing Budget Shortfalls, Cut the Major and the Mundane," Timothy Egan, The New York Times, April 21, 2003.

If you are expecting a refund of $1 million or more from the IRS (and who isn't?), you can download the direct-deposit form from this IRS Web site: www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8302.pdf.

Bush's comments on how the tax cut would help families with children were made during the May 28, 2003, signing ceremony for the tax cut. A transcript can be found at www.whitehouse.gov. If you would like to read more about how the tax cut Bush signed that day did not help families, including 1 million military families, check out "Tax Law Omits $40 Child Credit for Millions," David Firestone, The New York Times, May 29, 2003, and "One million military children left behind by massive new tax package," Children's Defense Fund (www.childrensdefense.org), June 6, 2003.