President's Tax Return Proof Economic Conservatism is a LIE

From the Nashua Advocate
http://www.nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/



Friday, April 15, 2005



President's Tax Return Conclusive Proof That Economic Conservatism Is a Lie, G.O.P. Dogma on Taxation Is a Farce



By ADVOCATE STAFF

Ever listened to conservative radio?

Then you know that "the government" takes 50% of your annual income in taxes every April 15th.

Indeed, you'd be hard pressed to find a Republican in the national media who claims to--or, rather, admits to--be paying anything less than half his or her yearly draw to the feds.

Except, that is, the President--the leader of the National Republican Party--who's never paid anything like half his income in taxes, giving the lie to conservative whining about the tax burden of (so say they) "the average American."

Want the details? Check here for all the proof you'll ever need that economic conservatism is a lie, and the G.O.P.'s perennially barked-out dogma on taxation is an absurdist farce.

This year, the President, one of the top 0.5% richest wage-earners in the United States, and a member of one of the richest families in the nation, paid 30.8% of his income in federal taxes.

Which must have appalled him.

For in 2004, he paid only 27.6% of his income to the government.

In his first year in the White House, Bush gave up only about 26% of his draw.

[Put aside, for the moment, that given the way he's plunged this nation into a Second Vietnam, a recession, and budget deficits for the next two hundred years, he should probably be returning 100% of his income to the people].

And as for Dick Cheney, our obscenely wealthy, imp-like Screwtape of a Vice-President?

The poor bastard paid 30.2% of his taxes to the government, and has dipped below that 30% mark several years during his tenure as President of the United States.

Sorry, Vice-President of the United States.

Officially.

So, where to that long-lost 20% of income conservatives have been whining about for years?

And does anyone find it at all likely that "average Americans" are paying 50% of their income to the federal government, when the richest among us are doling out just over a quarter of their (largely inherited or else merely unearned) income each annum?

So, please--look at your tax returns this April 15th.

Do the math.

And figure out who, if anyone, is lying to you to get your vote every four years.

Nobody believes in excessive taxation, but given that the U.S. has among the lowest tax rates in the world, no one likes to be perennially lied to by their elected representatives, either.