Bush's Tax Credit Under Pays Families
For about 25 million American parents, the check is, or will soon be, in the mail courtesy of the United
States Treasury. Around $400 per child will be "returned" as part of President Bush's latest unnecessary tax
cut as the child tax credit is raised to $1,000 from $600. Those couples making more than $110,000, of
singles making more than $75,000, or those making less than around $25,000 will get lesser amounts. Still,
it isn't the size of the bribe that is important, but rather the importance is in the fact that the bribe is being
offered.
Despite its protestations of being pro-family and pro-child, the Grand Old Party has done precious little
during Bush the Lesser's presidency to help them along. The nation's schools are underfunded (many
arts and foreign language classes are gone now), day care remains a nightmare, and the chance to earn a
college degree without incurring bone-crushing debt is receding faster than Vice-President Cheney's
hairline.
Instead, tax cuts that have resulted in a $450 billion deficit (from the party of fiscal responsibility, no less)
have gone to wealthy individuals whose tax bills have fallen by more than the median national income.
Congress and the White House, Democrats colluding when feasible, have made certain that special
subsidies were never noticed in the latest tax bill until well after it was signed into law. Various parts of
the body politic have discovered that voting themselves funds from the public purse is a cost effective
way to grow rich -- it also poisons said body.
Yet the very rich are few in number, and in a representative democracy such as America's, eventually
numbers do start to matter. In the last presidential election, Mr. Bush came in second with 50.4 million
votes, good enough to be appointed by the Supreme Court. A $400 per child pay off to 25 million parents
is a fine start toward another "winning" total.
The GOP has a fine understanding of how much everything costs, but a poor working knowledge of what
things are worth. One hopes that they learn soon that a vote is worth more than an extra $400 per child,
and it should cost more accordingly. Proper funding of the republic's obligations to the next generation
of citizens comes to mind.