------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 31, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- EDITORIAL: THE MILLIONAIRES' GAME o you want to be a millionaire? That's the game the president and Congress are playing in Washington. There was some bickering over the final details of the tax plan presented by George W. Bush and passed by the Senate May 23. In the end, the Republicans and Democrats had no significant differences over the important parts of the plan. The Bush tax plan is a giant giveaway to the stinking rich. According to a detailed report in the New York Times that can be found on its Web site, almost all of the $1.35 billion tax cut goes to the top 1 percent in income. If your yearly income is over $1.4 million, you'll get a big bonus from the tax plan. However, the Bush plan actually INCREASES the tax burden on most of those making less than $60,000 a year. The Democrats could stop this, if that is what they wanted to do. The fact is, that's not what the Democrats in Congress want. Though the Democratic Party gets lots of support from the labor movement and progressives generally, it is as much a party under the thumb of the wealthy as the Republicans. And the wealthy want the tax cuts. This game of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" is already stacked. The rich are grabbing for more. A working person has a better chance of winning the ABC-TV game show than of winning in Washington with the Republicans and Democrats. Bush says that the tax cuts will save the economy from recession, but that's what the rich always say. The same kinds of tax cuts during the Reagan administration in the 1980s were supposed to save the economy, but instead they contributed to sending the economy into a recession. Herbert Hoover had his tax cuts, too, and they certainly didn't stop the Great Depression. Many economists observe that tax cuts are more likely to accelerate an economic recession than to prevent one. Congress's endorsement of the Bush tax plan is like an orgy of the rich. They can't wait to get their hands on the money. When it comes time to name names for the economic disaster that is looming, the leaders of the Democratic as well as the Republican Party must be held accountable. But behind them is the system of capitalism itself. Merely being against the government is not enough. The politicians are corrupt and venal because the government is totally an instrument of the billionaire ruling class. The majority of the people are not millionaires or billionaires and never will be. They are workers and, on- line trading notwithstanding, they live not from investments but from selling a big portion of their lives for wages. With the rule of the super-rich becoming more unbridled and shameless, the situation cries out for an anti-capitalist movement among the workers that is independent of the political parties of big business and can militantly put forth their own class demands. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
