(10/26/2004) Yesterday Steve Forbes was in Dallas selling the same phony idea that "tax cuts for rich people" is the most important issue facing America. He completely ignores the facts that America is in a very costly war ($225 billion), that the federal government is running the largest deficit budgets in it's history ($420 billion), that the Social Security trust fund is being looted to pay for other things ($200 billion), and that his tax proposal does not add up to balanced budgets, a stronger economy, or a better democracy. 

Not surprisingly his speech included a promise that his plan would increase revenues to the federal government, and that it will cause our economy to grow. But he does not bother to explain how his tax cuts are paid for, or where the economic growth will come from. Therefore, you have to assume that they are paid for by huge cuts in government programs, like Social Security, Medicare, roads, schools, veterans, Homeland Security, the coast guard, border patrol, defense, etc. Or that the middle class Americans will get stuck paying more taxes so that inheritance rich spoiled brats, like Steve Forbes, won't have to.

The ironic part of Steve's tax cut plan, which happens to be the same plan Bush and his Republican pals in Congress are constantly pushing, is that the tax he wants to cut the most is the estate tax, or the "death tax" as he likes to call it. I find this highly ironic because it was an inheritance from his father's estate that made him super wealthy in the first place.

If hearing a inheritance rich billionaire asking the American people for a big tax cut, for him and his rich friends, was not so pathetic and un-American it would be laughable.

The ugliest part of Steve Forbes is not his face, but it is his greedy selfish fascist ideology.

Forbes, Bush, and the GOP are selling the American people a lemon and calling it an orange. They will use any excuse and tell any lie to justify giving big tax cuts to the richest people in our society. For Bush, he started by saying that tax cuts were necessary to keep the economy from over-heating, then they were necessary to give the economy a boost, and now they are necessary to keep the economy on track. He also continues to claim that his tax cuts give the most benefit to the middle class when the facts show that the top 1% get the vast majority. For Forbes, he claims the tax code is to complex, that small businesses are hurt, that the IRS is robbing the dead, and that tax cuts will grow the economy. Both of these men are using half truths to sell a lie, and they appear to believe that if they keep repeating the same propaganda over and over again the American people will start believing it and will accept their highly regressive "flat tax" or "national sales tax" scams.

The fact that history has proven both of these man wrong does not seem to bother them, and it appears to have little effect on most of the American people. In 1993 President Clinton raised taxes on the top 1% of income earners and the economy, stock market, and middle class boomed to record levels of prosperity. Not one Republican voted for this legislation and many Republicans warned of dire consequences if it passed. But we can now look back and see who was right and who was wrong. Our forefathers stopped the unquenchable greed of the Robber Barons by creating a highly progressive tax system. History shows us time and time again that taxing rich people is great for our economy, it is good for the middle class, and it is also very healthy for our democracy; therefore we should do more of it.

Steve Forbes and George W. Bush are both a couple of sycophant two-faced lying con-men who are pushing legislation that will undermine our democracy and concentrate our country's wealth. If the American people fall for their "tax cuts for the rich" con job and allow these man to further shift the tax burden off the rich and onto the middle class they will wish they had a second chance to vote. However, based on recent history most people will probably believe the right-wing's spin and blame the Democrats for their economic demise as they mumble profanities from their new cardboard box homes under a bridge.