This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on May 23, 2003 11:57 AM.
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The official outline of the Bush tax cut that's becoming final today was released yesterday by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. You can find it over here. (Thanks for the link to my colleague Jon Forman at the University of Oklahoma law school.)
This document won't tell you the cost of the various provisions of the new law, and so on its face it doesn't show the massiveness of the tax giveaway that's coming to people who own stocks and real estate in their own names. But it is interesting to note that Congress threw a few bones to the little guys. Tax rates are cut slightly across the board, and the 10 percent bracket for very low levels of income has been widened. (Of course, both rich and poor enjoy those reductions.) The child credit has been increased by $400 as well, but not for upper-middle to high-income taxpayers, who don't get that credit at all.
There are also several provisions that lessen the "marriage penalty" -- the extra tax that a two-wage earner couple pays under current law for being married, rather than living together as single. But what the rhetorical statements don't mention is that the new law also increases the "marriage bonus" -- the tax savings that a one-wage-earner couple enjoys by being married rather than living together as single. Although from a selfish standpoint I like the latter development, as a tax theoretician I must say that it takes an existing distortion and makes it worse. With this Congress, distortions are o.k., so long as the beneficiaries are traditional Leave it to Beaver married couples.
On the whole, of course, we can't afford any of this. Most middle-class folks had better take the meager tax cuts they get and invest them wisely. Their kids are going to need all that and more when it's time to pay the piper for the drunken Bush tax cut party.
Bush's transparency cracks me up. He's sitting there with a scrapbook of Poppy's career, and running the country based on it. What was the most popular thing George Sr. ever did? Beat up on Saddam Hussein. What cost George Sr. his job? Signing a tax increase.
Here we are more than a decade later, and Junior has decided to redo the Saddam-whacking, and undo the taxing. Screw the consequences, he's going to get himself re-elected.
And sadly, given the sorry state of the Democratic Party, he is.
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Charamba, Douro 2008
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Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills Pinot Grigio 2011
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Lorelle, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2011
Villa Antinori, Toscana 2007
Mercedes Eguren, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Lorelle, Columbia Valley Cabernet 2011
Purple Moon, Merlot 2011
Purple Moon, Chardonnnay 2011
Abacela, Vintner's Blend No. 12
Opula Red Blend 2010
Liberte, Pinot Noir 2010
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Indian Wells Red Blend 2010
Woodbridge, Chardonnay 2011
King Estate, Pinot Noir 2011
Famille Perrin, Cotes du Rhone Villages 2010
Columbia Crest, Les Chevaux Red 2010
14 Hands, Hot to Trot White Blend
Familia Bianchi, Malbec 2009
Terrapin Cellars, Pinot Gris 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2009
Campo Viejo, Rioja, Termpranillo 2010
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Waterbrook, Reserve Merlot 2009
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Chateau Lajarre, Bordeaux 2009
La Vielle Ferme, Rose 2011
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Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir 2009
Lello, Douro Tinto 2009
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Buenas Ondas, Syrah Rose 2010
Les Fiefs d'Anglars, Malbec 2009
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Conundrum 2012
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Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2007
Penelope Sanchez, Garnacha Syrah 2010
Canoe Ridge, Merlot 2007
Atalaya do Mar, Godello 2010
Vega Montan, Mencia
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir, Marlborough 2009
Portuga, Rose 2011
Revelation, Chardonnay, Pays d'Oc 2010
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 2005
Monte Alto, Tinto Reserva 2005
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Cabernet, Indian Wells 2009
Espiral, Vinho Rose
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Abacela, Vintner's Blend #11
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Januik, Red 2009
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J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
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Deborah Eisenberg - Transactions in a Foreign Currency
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Jack London - The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii
Jack Walker - The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria
Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
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Justin Halpern - S#*t My Dad Says
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Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
Phil Stanford - The Peyton-Allan Files
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Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith
C.S. Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
Grace Lin - The Year of the Rat
Oscar Hijuelos - Mr. Ives' Christmas
Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
Steven Hart - The Last Three Miles
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Karen Armstrong - The Spiral Staircase
Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony
William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt
Road Work
Miles run year to date: 29
At this date last year: 66
Total run in 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
This document won't tell you the cost of the various provisions of the new law, and so on its face it doesn't show the massiveness of the tax giveaway that's coming to people who own stocks and real estate in their own names. But it is interesting to note that Congress threw a few bones to the little guys. Tax rates are cut slightly across the board, and the 10 percent bracket for very low levels of income has been widened. (Of course, both rich and poor enjoy those reductions.) The child credit has been increased by $400 as well, but not for upper-middle to high-income taxpayers, who don't get that credit at all.
