Fuzzy Math

Dubbya's Fuzzy Math	Real Math
The national treasury is full!	Only if we ignore the National Debt. As anyone who has passed a basic economics course knows, there are two sides to a ledger: ASSETS and LIABILITIES. As to the treasury's situation, yes, there is currently a (projected) budgetary surplus. But there is also a $5-trillion debt, which imposes a $1000-per-person annual drain on our economy. Simply ignoring it won't make it go away.
American taxpayers are overcharged!	American taxpayers are the lowest taxed of any major industrial nation. This is largely because, unlike other civilized countries, the U.S. does not regard health care and education as matters of national importance. But there is an ultimate price to be paid for such folly, as the skill and health (and consequently the productivity) of the American workforce gradually deteriorate in comparison to the international competition.
Tax cuts let people keep more of their own money to spend as they see fit!	Each American's share of the $5 trillion National Debt is about $15,000. This isn't money that is ours, but rather what we owe, mainly to pay for the previous tax-cut-for-the-wealthy of the 1980s billed as "trickle-down economics," which, aside from making some rich people a bit richer, failed to pay off as advertised for ordinary workers, consumers, and small-business operators.
Under the Bush tax-cut proposal, the average family of four is expected to see an annual federal tax cut of about $1600!	Which (divided by 4) is maybe an honest $400 per middle-income person. (Wow, enough for a couple of extra six-packs every payday!) But, with interest on the National Debt costing every American about $1,000 per year, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see we'd be far better off using most of that money to pay down the debt.
We need a tax cut to stimulate the slowing economy!	This might well be true. Experience has shown that the most effective and sustainable way to stimulate economic growth is to boost consumer demand. One way to do this is by targeting tax cuts primarily to low- and middle-income people. Bush's plan, however, hands half the total cut to the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers—the same tried-and-failed scheme that lowered real income, raised unemployment, and snowballed debt in the 1980s.
Liberals just don't understand how the economy works. Tax cuts for rich people spur economic growth by encouraging investment!	Liberals understand what experience has demonstrated: It is consumer demand which actually drives economic growth, and that growth stimulates investment—not the other way around, as some conservatives imagine. True, investment will build factories; but without broad-based consumer demand, those factories stand idle. Investors understand this; it is conservative idealogues who do not.
People who complain that most of an across-the-board tax cut goes to the wealthiest Americans are just trying to incite class warfare!	Republican plutocrats believe it is fair and just for the wealthiest people, who contribute 20% of tax revenues, to receive 40% of an artfully contrived "across-the-board" cut. To them, such exploitation isn't warfare; it's just the "natural order of things." If someone has the audacity to question the equity of that exploitation, that's "class warfare." To most of us, however, it's just a normal reaction to plain-and-simple abuse.
Even if my reasons for a tax cut don't add up, I still have to fulfill my promise to the voters!	Mr. Bush needs to be reminded that in 2000 a majority of voters expressed a clear preference for someone other than him, and in 2004 were still strongly divided. If he genuinely wishes to please the American electorate, he should adopt the policies of his former opponent on every issue except "values." But pardon us if we do not hold our breath while waiting for him to do so.

Though providing a short-term glut of dollars and feel-good sentiment, by postponing the repayment of accumulated debt, such misguided policy ultimately hurts everyone—even its supposed beneficiaries, the wealthy—as magnates Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Donald Trump point out.