pResident Makes Tax-Cut Pitch to a Rural Audience

[UpInArms]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15712-2004Apr15.html

DES MOINES, April 15 -- President Bush used Thursday's deadline for filing income tax returns to argue anew for a permanent extension of the $1.7 trillion in tax cuts he pushed through Congress -- and to press the case that his economic policies are helpful to rural America.

"Now is not the time to be raising taxes on hardworking people," Bush said. "With this economy growing strong and getting stronger, we don't need to raise the tax burden."

The White House released a raft of statistics intended to demonstrate that the administration's tax policies are responsible for a record number of Americans who will receive refunds this year, and that the refunds are larger than they otherwise would have been. The Internal Revenue Service says the average tax refund increased 5 percent this year to $2,090.

<snip>

In an uncustomary touch, Bush drew attention to U.S. casualties in Iraq in a pointed way, quoting an Iowa father who recently buried his son, a Marine. Typically in his speeches, Bush refers broadly to military sacrifice, and he has not attended the funeral of any of the nearly 700 U.S. troops killed in Iraq.

<snip>

In particular, Bush singled out taxes on agricultural property, citing a ninth-generation Iowa farmer who the president said believed that the gradual elimination of the estate tax has helped ensure he will be able to pass his land to his children. "The death tax is bad for rural America, and Congress needs to make it extinct forever," Bush said.

...more...

*Co has a new form of "death tax" for this country.

[Eye and Monkey]

1. Pitch? Would that be a Tax-Cut for the Rich Pitch? Or just a screwball?

[Vogon_Glory]

2. Bush Tax Cuts Mean Service Cuts For Country Folk

George UUalker Bush's touted tax cuts translate to government service cuts for people living in rural areas. Those tax cut's to the powerful and the wealthy translate to padlocked rural hospitals, closed rural doctors' offices, hamstrung rural schools, and shredded rural EMS and fire protection.

Unless Bush's rural audience each has a staff of paid retainers and a private airplane on standby, their chances of living through an emergency have gone down and are going to sink further as more budget cuts are made.

Trust our country of historical amnesiacs and the Republicans who take advantage of them to forget just how backward and third world rural areas in the US were until the New Deal or even later.

:thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

[74dodgedart]

3. One trick pony

Tax cuts solve everything </sarcasm>