SOTU

[Peter K.]

>> Not the way the Democrats (many of them) have been talking in the past few
>> days.
>> Daschle and Pelosi set the bar high yesterday - challenging him to explain
>> clearly the rationale for war now
>> Unless he provides some
>> details the inspectors so far have not, the economic stuff will get very
>> high play.
>> You'll notice that even Bill Thomas (ways and means chairman and a tax
>> ideologue) threw cold water on the dividend taxcut.
>
>Seth

Here's Christopher Caldwell:
"The best metonym for Bush's ills is the off-the-point dividend tax cut he announced three weeks
ago. First problem: I'd be less put off by the supply-side bias of these cuts if the president
hadn't so consistently urged a demand-side remedy to the problems of running a war economy. In the
wake of Sept. 11, Bush admonished us to keep the economy rolling through visits to the mall and
vacations in our beautiful natural parks. Apparently the poor are supposed to do this on their own
nickel, because there is not a scrap of payroll tax relief in this entire unaffordable plan. The
plan's effects on corporate governance may be terrific, but an "across-the-board tax cut" it ain't.
The rich get money; the middle class gets patriotic exhortations to spend. Not the most galvanizing
wartime role."
http://slate.msn.com/id/2077594/entry/2077597/