http://www.fair.org/activism/usnews-taxes.html
ACTION ALERT:
U.S. News Offers White House Spin on Taxes
February 16, 2001
U.S. News & World Report's February 19 cover story on the Bush administration
tax-cut plan featured the usual presidential-honeymoon puffery, marveling at
Bush's "derring-do" in facing down critics who "didn't fully appreciate" how
deeply he believed in his tax-cutting agenda. When the piece finally ventured
into the tax plan's specifics, it fell straight into the White House's spin.
The key aspect of the Bush proposal is that it targets only federal income
and estate taxes-- levies paid mostly by the rich. It makes no cuts in
federal payroll taxes, like those for Social Security and Medicare, which
fall most heavily on poor and working-class households. Accordingly, when
administration officials defend the plan, they're careful to cite figures
showing only its effect on income taxes, ignoring the payroll tax, which is
paid by a larger number of households. U.S. News docilely went along with
that deceptive spin. The often-heard criticism that the Bush plan gives too
much to the rich was countered by U.S. News this way: "Because the wealthy
pay the most taxes-- the top 20 percent of the country's income earners pay
80 percent of all income taxes-- any across-the-board reduction would put the
most money in their pockets. But many in lower lower-income brackets would
get a higher percentage reduction." Just like the White House, U.S. News
misleadingly focuses only on the income tax. When all federal taxes are
counted, the Bush plan would give the wealthiest 1 percent of households 36
percent of the cuts, even though they only pay 20 percent of federal taxes
(Center on Budget & Policy Priorities, 2/6/01). And despite the claim that
low-income households would get a larger percentage cut, the poorest fifth of
households, who have an average income of $8,600, would see their federal tax
burden fall the least, by 5.5 percent, while the richest 1 percent-- making
an average of $915,000-- would see their tax burden fall the most, 11.6
percent (Center on Budget & Policy Priorities, 2/6/01; Citizens for Tax
Justice, 2/8/01). The article asserts that "Americans are divided" about the
Bush tax cut, citing a poll that shows 46 percent of Americans favoring "an
income-tax cut for all taxpayers" versus 44 percent preferring a targeted
cut. But the piece fails to mention that Bush's plan would *not* cut taxes
for everyone-- almost a third of families would see no reduction, with 80
percent of them having at least one worker (Center on Budget & Policy
Priorities, 2/7/01). U.S. News includes a chart that illustrates the
potential impact of the Bush tax plan on households at various income levels.
But the magazine's hypothetical families are markedly skewed toward the rich.
Only two of the 10 households fall below the median income (a single person
and a married couple, both making $25,000 a year). The other eight households
are above the median; and six of the 10 households are in the top 20 percent
of incomes. Like most media analyses, U.S. News ignores the fact that each
dollar spent on the tax cut is one less dollar available for federal
programs. Middle-income households who stand to gain a few hundred dollars a
year from the tax cut also stand to lose potentially thousands of dollars
worth of services because of the cuts for wealthier households. Citizens for
Tax Justice calculated (2/15/01) that the revenue lost from the plan's
proposed tax cuts for households in the richest 1 percent totals $774 billion
over 10 years-- more money than the $738 billion it would take to add a fully
funded Medicare prescription-drug benefit, an idea so popular it was favored
by both the Gore and Bush campaign last year. "The fate of the package," U.S.
News writes, "may well depend on whether everyday Americans conclude there is
enough there to make a real difference in their lives, no matter how much the
rich stand to gain." But to make up their minds about the tax cut, everyday
Americans need meaningful information about the plan. U.S. News' February 19
cover article did little to supply it. � ACTION: Please ask U.S. News & World
Report to take a broader look at the effects of the Bush tax plan-- examining
the impact of the tax cuts on all income levels, by looking at all federal
taxes and at potential losses in public services.
