When it comes to taxes, Republicans don’t mind leaving the working poor behind

Let’s take a quick stroll down memory lane and review what George W. Bush thought about tax cuts during the 2000 campaign.

On Oct. 17, 2000, during the third Gore-Bush presidential debate, Gore emphasized his desire to cut taxes for the middle-class and the working poor. Bush criticized the approach for playing favorites among taxpayers — as far as Bush was concerned, everyone should get a benefit when taxes are getting cut, not just middle- and low-income families.

“If you’re from Washington, you want to pick and choose winners,” Bush said. “I don’t think that’s the role of the president. I think if you’re going to have tax relief, everybody benefits.”

Bush added, “The vice president believes that only the right people ought to get tax relief. I don’t think that’s the role of the president to pick, ‘You’re right,’ and ‘You’re not right.’ I think if you’re going to have tax relief, everybody ought to get it.”

Two and a half years later, we see that Bush’s commitment to helping “everybody” doesn’t match the rhetoric of the campaign. Under the latest round of tax cuts, Bush and the GOP did exactly what Bush accused Gore of doing, picking and choosing who got lavish new tax cuts — in this case, the very wealthy — and who got screwed — in this case, the working poor.

First, we learned that the party of “family values” decided to limit the child tax credit for families with incomes between $10,500 and $26,625 so lawmakers could give a huge income tax break for millionaires and billionaires. As a result of the last-minute change, nearly 12 million children in low-income families will be left behind by the new tax cut while wealthy families receive a windfall.

Next, adding insult to injury, we also learned over the weekend that millions of low-income working families will get literally no break in their taxes. Oh sure, Bush swore the so-called $350 billion plan would “reduce tax rates for everyone who pays income tax,” and Ari Fleischer guaranteed the plan “certainly does deliver tax relief to people who pay income taxes.” But like most of the administration’s claims, these promises weren’t true.

In all, 8.1 million low-income families who pay income taxes will get literally no benefit from the latest round of Bush tax cuts. Not a damn penny. Taxpayers who make over $300,000, meanwhile, can look forward to tens of thousands of dollars in breaks. Indeed, the size of the tax cuts for the wealthy will be significantly larger than the entire salary of those who will get nothing out of the new law.

As Bob Herbert explained in today’s New York Times, it really is a “reverse Robin Hood.”

“The fat cats will get their tax cuts,” Herbert said. “But in the new American plutocracy, there won’t even be crumbs left over for the working folks at the bottom of the pyramid to scramble after.”

Some of you might be thinking, “But Carpetbagger, I thought you opposed cutting taxes at all! Now you want a new tax cut for the working poor?” It’s true; with the largest deficits in American history, I believe more tax cuts on top of the largest cut in the history of the world just two years ago is a bad idea.

But the problem here is an intentionally mean-spirited and patently dishonest slap in the face towards those who are already struggling. The White House and Republicans in Congress promised to cut taxes for everyone. Once they decided on a huge tax cut, budget negotiators could have sliced pie any way they wanted. They alone chose who would win and who would lose.

They made their choices, broke their promises, and decided to leave the working poor with nothing.