Got kids in high school? Have they been saving for college? Here's a news item you might be interested in, but may have missed: The headline reads,
Despite Pledge, Taxes Increase for Teenagers
More below.
According to an article in the
NYT on 5/21 by David Cay Johnston,
The $69 billion tax cut bill that President Bush signed this week tripled tax rates for teenagers with college savings funds, despite Mr. Bush's 1999 pledge to veto any tax increase.
(Emphasis added.)
While out of one side of his mouth Dubya espouses tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans, the tax bill he signed last week actually raised taxes on 14-17 year olds.
Long-term capital gains and dividends that had been taxed at 5 percent will now be taxed at 15 percent. Interest that had been taxed at 10 percent will now be taxed at as much as 35 percent.
And these increases are retroactive to the first of this year.
Didn't anyone press the administration on this obvious reversal of conviction? Well, actually, they did.
Mr. Bush pledged in 1999 to veto any bill that raised taxes. In response to a question about the tax increase on teenagers in the new legislation, the White House issued a statement Friday that made no reference to the tax increase, but recounted the tax cuts the administration has sponsored and stated that President Bush had "reduced taxes on all people who pay income taxes."
Challenged on that point, the White House modified its statement 21 minutes later to say that Mr. Bush had "reduced taxes on virtually all people who pay income taxes."
(Emphasis added.) Well, that makes all the difference.
The deputy White House press secretary, Kenneth A. Lisaius, declined to discuss the reasons Mr. Bush broke his pledge or anything else beyond the modified statement, . . .
Now, not only did Dubya go back on his word, but he reneged on a written pledge!
Americans for Tax Reform, an influential lobbying group that seeks to reduce taxes, had led the drive to press politicians to pledge no new taxes. The pledge has been signed by 256 members of the House and the Senate, nearly all of them Republicans, and by thousands of candidates for state and local office.
The pledge commits signers to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal tax rates for individuals and businesses." Mr. Bush went beyond the pledge when he was seeking the Republican nomination for president.
"If elected president, I will oppose and veto any increase in individual or corporate marginal income tax rates or individual or corporate income tax hikes," he wrote in June 1999 to Grover Norquist, president of the Americans for Tax Reform.
Grover Norquist has ". . . pledged to immediately begin a campaign to have the tax increases rescinded." This is one time I hope Grover Norquist gets what he wants!
Stay strong!