Let’s just for a moment forget the great argument against Bush becoming the President, which is that he wants to spend all the budget surplus on tax breaks to the rich and save none for social security and Medicare. This might be true or it may not be. But even the closest people to Bush would agree that some of the tax breaks that he wants to give the Americans would only benefit twenty percent of Americans who pay eighty percent of the taxes.
Some of the major points of the Bush tax plan are:
According to the plan, one out of five families with children will no longer pay income taxes. These tax cuts and others are supposed to cost around $1.3 trillion dollars over the next ten years. According to Bush the reason for lowering the tax brackets is, "Today, waitresses, store clerks and janitors are paying higher tax rates than were paid by the Morgans, Vanderbilts and Rockefellers of another era." Bush feels that if they went by Gore’s tax plan, which he views as keeping all the hard earned surplus generated by the American people in Washington, the economy will go broke. He wants to give back the surplus to the people and help the people out of the lower class to the middle class by reducing their taxes. "We will take down the tollgate on the road to the middle class."
According to him death tax is more like the death of the business after a family member dies. He wants to eliminate this tax that affects 2% of the American people every year. "When a man or woman builds a business, they are also leaving a legacy. Their death should not mean the end of their life’s work. This tax violates virtually every principle of common sense and free enterprise – and I intend to abolish it." He is also against punishing people who don’t itemize their deductions properly and may miss out deductions that they can claim on the charitable contributions they have made to the various groups that are working together for a better society. "Most of these groups depend on charitable contributions. Yet today 70 percent of tax filers cannot claim the charitable deduction, because they do not itemize. Under my plan, people who don’t itemize will be given the same treatment and incentive as people who do, rewarding and encouraging giving by everyone in our society, not just the wealthy."
Under his plan, Bush feels that America can enjoy continued growth and prosperity. He wants to give back to the people that he feels have made the country what it is today. He wants to share the wealth by offering tax cuts that will make all Americans richer not just the government. "These, then, are the basic ideas that guide my tax policy: lower taxes for all, with the greatest help for those most in need. Everyone benefits – while the highest percentage tax cuts go the lowest income Americans."
