Wednesday, May 5, 2004

Fighting for tax relief

By DYLAN GLENN and LARRY LINDSEY
Special to The Citizen

When we worked together at President Bush’s National Economic Council, there was no higher priority than fighting for the President’s economic growth package. It is gratifying to see the payoff today from that effort in both family budgets and the national economy.

Thanks to the tax cuts, [April 15 was] a good day for the families of Georgia. Consider for example, a typical four-person family in Georgia making $50,000. Thanks to the Bush tax cut, they will pay $1,645 in taxes this year instead of $3,245.

That’s a 50 percent cut in their federal income tax liability. If both parents work they get an even larger tax cut in order to reduce the marriage penalty.

Or take a single mother trying hard to raise two children on $30,000 per year. Her federal income taxes went from over $1,000 to zero. You can’t get a bigger tax cut than that.

Senior citizens in Georgia living off Social Security and their investments also got a big benefit. The tax rate on dividends was cut from as much as 39.6 percent to just 15 percent and the tax cut on capital gains was cut from 20 percent to 15 percent. Middle income people with dividends and capital gains pay a tax of just 7 percent.

This has meant not only more money in peoples’ pockets, but also more jobs and a faster growing economy. Since last year’s tax cuts were sent in the mail 759,000 jobs have been added. The economy has grown at its fastest rates since President Reagan’s tax cuts took effect 20 years ago, and the stock market has boomed. The tax cuts in dividends and capital gains helped spur the market. The Dow has risen over 2500 points since they were proposed.

The tax cuts that we at the National Economic Council worked on implementing weren’t popular with everyone. We know that Senator Kerry and most Democrats opposed the President’s plan. They repeatedly voted against marriage tax relief and against the increase in the child credit that means $1000 per year to hard-working Georgia families. They denounced these as “tax cuts for the rich.” They must consider families earning $50,000 per year “rich.”

Georgia has benefited more than most states from these tax cuts. Its economy has ranked 12th out of 50 in economic performance since 2001. So this tax cut is important to our state, the country, and to the hard-working families that make the American economy second to none.

Having worked hard to craft the plan and get it enacted, we know the vital importance to the economy of making these tax cuts permanent. We know first-hand that Americans, individuals and small businesses, need the stability and security that permanent tax cuts provide. It remains one of the most important economic decisions for the Congress this decade. As they say, when you’ve walked the walk, and not just talked the talk, you know how to get where you want to go.

[Lawrence B. Lindsey served as the assistant to the president for economic policy for President George W. Bush and is president and CEO of the Lindsey Group, a global economic consulting firm. He spoke last month to the Fayette Chamber of Commerce. Dylan Glenn, of Columbus, Ga., served as special assistant to the president for economic policy for President George W. Bush. Glenn, a Republican, is running for Congress from the Eighth District, which includes Fayette County.]

What do you think of this story?
Click here to send a message to the editor.