Bad Policy

The Washington Post has two articles on bad Bush Administration policy, although it uses softer language. And it correctly points out that the Democrats share responsibility.

The first is the Alternative Minimum Tax - a tax the White House knows will soon consume most of the small "middle class tax cut" which were meant to make its enormous tax cuts for the rich somehow more palatable. The Bush Administration was confronted on the AMT in 2001, and responded that its present focus was on cutting taxes and that it might address the AMT in the future. As they say, tomorrow never comes.

The AMT was designed to ensure that the ultra-rich, who are very good at sheltering their money from taxes, paid at least some tax. The rich, as you might expect, have created new tax shelters which take the AMT into consideration. Meanwhile, as the AMT isn't indexed to inflation, it reaches more and more taxpayers. To fix the AMT would seriously upset the financial projections made based upon its reaching huge numbers of middle class taxpayers - people the AMT was never intended to reach, but people who simply don't matter to Bush. (Sorry if I shattered your illusions - if I just described you, it's true - you don't matter to Bush.)

Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress (with barely a peep from the opposition) are permitting corporations to underfund their pension funds. Never mind that they are already underfunded. What the heck - you're rich enough that you don't really need your pension, right? (Assuming you are one of the lucky few who still qualifies to receive a pension....)

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