Administration Distorts Facts About Tax Cut

Misleader: The Bush administration and most of the mainstream press are billing the tax package passed by Congress yesterday as a "middle class tax-cut." The reality is that the new law is more of the same: tax cuts that benefit the rich and, in many cases, exclude the neediest families. An analysis from the Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center shows that the middle 20 percent of earners "will receive an average tax cut of $162 in 2005 from this legislation." The top fifth of earners, however, "will get an average tax cut of $1,317." As a result, the top fifth will receive two-thirds of all benefits. The bill excluded a provision that would have extended the child tax credit to four million low-income families who currently don't qualify. Extending eligibility to these families would have cost $4 billion. Meanwhile, conservatives included $12 billion in tax cuts for corporations.