[Mavdog]

The issue in the article above is how the middle class saw their share of the tax burden increase while the wealthiest class saw their share decrease. An equitable tax cut would be neutral in its affect on the different income brackets tax share.

BTW an interesting article of how the Pres and VPres saw their taxes go down. Kerry's went up.
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President Benefits From His Tax Cut
Bushes' Payment Drops 15 Percent On 2003 Return; Kerry's Taxes Triple

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 14, 2004; Page A04


Last year's tax cut proved to be a significant windfall for its main architect and political instigator, saving President Bush tens of thousands of dollars on his 2003 return.

Meanwhile, for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the Democrat seeking to drive Bush from the White House, his tax burden more than tripled on income that surged with the sale of a million-dollar painting.

Bush and first lady Laura W. Bush had income totaling $822,126, down 4 percent from the $856,058 they reported last year, according to tax forms released yesterday by the White House. But the president's taxes fell much more. His federal income tax payment last year dropped $41,229, or 15 percent, from the 2002 level of $268,719.

In all, the tax cut Bush signed into law last summer saved him and his wife $30,858, according to Robert McIntyre, executive director of the labor-backed Citizens for Tax Justice.

Vice President Cheney and his wife, Lynne V. Cheney, reported income of $1,273,334, up $102,965, or nearly 9 percent, from 2002. Their tax burden dropped sharply, to $253,067 from $341,114, a decline of more than $88,000. Although the Cheneys were easily in the top tax bracket of 35 percent, their effective tax rate fell from 29 percent in 2002 to 20 percent in 2003.

But the Cheneys' declining tax burden was due to other write-offs and was not directly related to the new tax cut, according to Terrence O'Donnell, an attorney for the vice president. The cut would have lowered the Cheneys' tax payments by an additional $35,400, but they ran afoul of the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax designed to ensure the affluent pay their fair share. The Cheneys' AMT hit totaled $47,198.

"The AMT ate their tax cut," McIntyre said.

Kerry's income totaled $395,338 last year, up from $144,091. Because he filed a return separate from his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, income from her substantial fortune is not included.

The increase in John Kerry's income was almost entirely from capital gains worth $145,805. Those gains came almost exclusively from the March 3 sale of a painting by the Dutch baroque artist Adam Willaerts, which fetched $1.35 million. Kerry's tax payment was $90,575, up from nearly $30,000 last year.

Kerry opposed Bush's tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, but he was a beneficiary. Dividends last year worth $11,047 would have cost him as much as $2,600 more in taxes without last year's cut. His $147,818 salary put him in the 28 percent tax bracket, which was 30 percent before the 2003 tax cut was enacted.

The release of the White House tax returns provided a clear window into the Bushes' and Cheneys' finances, as well as a glimpse at the impact of their economic policymaking. Last year's tax cut lowered the top rate -- paid by households earning more than $311,950 -- from 38.6 percent to 35 percent.

The Cheneys' wages totaled $454,301, including the vice president's $198,600 salary as well as $178,437 in compensation from Halliburton Corp., the oil services giant the vice president once headed. Mindful of the billions of dollars in contracts Halliburton has in Iraq, Cheney's office said that his deferred compensation was set in 1998 and that it "is fixed and is not affected by Halliburton's current economic performance or earnings in any way."

The Bushes' salaries totaled $397,264.

The tax cut also slashed the tax rate paid on dividends from 38.6 percent for the Cheneys and Bushes to 15 percent, and cut tax rates on most capital gains from 20 percent to 15 percent. Bush reported dividends subject to the new rate totaling $10,959. Cheney's qualified dividends were valued at $84,132.

Spokesmen for Bush and Cheney did not dispute the benefit the tax cut accorded the two. O'Donnell cited two other factors driving the vice president's plunging tax burden: charitable contributions that jumped from $121,983 in 2002 to $321,141 in 2004 -- 39 percent of taxable income -- and tax-exempt interest payments totaling more than $627,000 last year. But, he said, the lower income tax rate was another significant factor, worth $16,800.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan also noted the president's tax cut.

"Like every American who pays income taxes, the president received tax relief, and in keeping with the progressive nature of tax cuts, his percentage cut was less than the average reduction that American taxpayers will see in their returns."

Bush's $31,000 tax cut equaled 11.5 percent of his 2002 tax payments, a considerably smaller income tax cut in percentage terms than lower-income taxpayers, according to the Treasury Department. But measured against all federal taxes, including payroll taxes, Bush's cut was slightly higher than most taxpayers' 10 percent and 11 percent cuts, according to Citizens for Tax Justice.

Americans with taxable income of $14,000 or less and no children did not receive a tax cut last year, since their 10 percent tax bracket did not change.

Both the president and vice president are earning considerable amounts of money outside their day jobs. Bush's taxable interest totaled nearly $402,000 last year, most of it from a blind trust in the oil industry called the Lone Star Trust. He also received oil royalties of nearly $4,000.

The Cheneys' finances are more complicated, with interest and dividends coming from 10 sources. Royalty income, especially from Lynne Cheney's books, totaled $338,518. Income from foreign sources topped $27,000