The most awkward moment of the St. Louis debate dealt with whether Bush and Cheney count as small businesses. As the exchange is replayed in the media, I have a hunch Kerry will come out on top on this one.
Bush brought up the charge that Kerry’s tax plan would hurt small businesses. It wouldn’t. Kerry explained that to arrive at Bush’s numbers, we’d have to expand the definition of small business to absurd lengths, including counting the president and vice president as small businesses.
“The president got $84 from a timber company that owns, and he’s counted as a small business,” Kerry said. “Dick Cheney’s counted as a small business. That’s how they do things. That’s just not right.”
It prompted a strange moment.
“I own a timber company? (Laughter) That’s news to me. (Laughter) Need some wood?” (Laughter)
It got the audience chuckling, but as the facts are reported, it’s Kerry who’ll enjoy the last laugh.
President Bush himself would have qualified as a “small business owner” under the Republican definition, based on his 2001 federal income tax returns. He reported $84 of business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. However, 99.99% of Bush’s total income came from other sources that year. (Bush also qualified as a “small business owner” in 2000 based on $314 of “business income,” but not in 2002 and 2003 when he reported his timber income as “royalties” on a different tax schedule.)
[…]
Vice President Cheney and his wife Lynne qualify as “small business owners” for 2003 because 3.5% of the total income reported on their tax returns was business income from Mrs. Cheney’s consulting business. She reported $44,580 in business income on Schedule C, nearly all of it from fees paid to her as a director of the Reader’s Digest. But giving the Cheneys a tax cut didn’t stimulate any hiring; she reported zero employees.
We can now add “need some wood?” to the long list of quotes for which Bush will be remembered.