Lies, Damned Lies, and Republicans

In a piece in the in the business section of yesterday's Times, analyzing the effects of Bush's 2003 tax cuts, it was hard not to laugh at this line:

Because of the tax cuts, even the merely rich, making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, are falling behind the very wealthiest . . .

That's the funny part. Here's the serious part:

• The average tax bill for those with incomes of over $10 million has decreased by more than $1 million
• Taxpayers with an average income of $26 million pay about the same in taxes as those making less than $0.5 million
• About 1/10 of 1% of all American taxpayers received 43% of the total savings on investment taxes. 70% of the savings went to just 2% of the population.
• Those earning less than $50,000 per year realized an average savings from these investment tax cuts of . . . . . wait for it . . . . . $10

Yes. Ten dollars.

Compounding the lies under which this tax cut was initially pitched, Rep. David L. Camp (R-MI) said the following, on the House floor:

Nearly 60 percent of the taxpayers with incomes less than $100,000 had income from capital gains and dividends.

Practically all people with low-to-modest incomes who get any capital gains or dividends get them in the form of automatic reinvestments in retirement accounts; i.e., money they can't touch now, and which will be taxed as straight income, when they can.

In fact, as the Times points out:

But I.R.S. data show that among the 90 percent of all taxpayers who made less than $100,000, dividend tax reductions benefited just one in seven and capital gains reductions one in 20.

Mr. Camp, who had said in an interview that his figures were correct, said Monday through a spokesman that he had been misinformed by the staff of the House Ways and Means Committee.

So, he lied repeatedly, and then said (through someone else) that he was "misinformed."

Sound like any presidents other Republicans you know?