Bush, Capito helped the rich: Millionaires benefit; seniors go without drugs

RECENTLY Congresswoman Shelly Moore Capito wrote in a guest columnto the Daily Mail that "Bush's tax cuts are working."

The real question, however, is "just who are these tax cutsworking for?"

To characterize these tax cuts as beneficial to West Virginia'sworking families is like calling Col. Sanders a friend of thechicken.

When this legislation passed last year, Capito called it "goodnews for West Virginians." Sen. Robert Byrd, however, stronglydisagreed with that assessment, saying it helped only "thoseindividuals who earn six-figure salaries."

West Virginia's senior senator characterized it as doing "zero,zip, zilch" for working people, and stated that the bill wouldbenefit only "the jet set." (See Daily Mail, May 11).

In fact, every member of the West Virginia delegation except forCapito voted against this measure because it didn't do enough forWest Virginia and for working families.

In a study released just this month by Citizens for Tax Justiceand the Children's Defense Fund, West Virginia ranked 51st (includingthe District of Columbia) in the amount of tax reductions offeredcitizens under the plan supported by Congresswoman Capito.

They stated in their analysis that the "tax cuts are targetedtoward upper-income taxpayers (and that) citizens of wealthier statesgenerally get larger average tax reductions, while residents ofpoorer states get smaller average tax reductions."

West Virginia, the study goes on to note, is more than 25 percentbelow the national average. (The Bush Tax Plan, State-by-State, June13, 2001)

Citizens for Tax Justice also found that by 2010, when the Capito-supported plan is fully in place, "an astonishing 52 percent of thetotal tax cuts will go to the richest 1 percent" of taxpayers. Thosetaxpayers will average a tax cut windfall of $85,000 in that yearalone.

By way of contrast, "for the four out of five families andindividuals making less than $73,000 . . . three-quarters of the taxcuts - averaging about $350 this year - are already in place."

Put another way, the wealthiest 1 percent can get a Mercedes-Benzwith their rebate, while the rest of West Virginia's working familiesare lucky if they can afford a new muffler. (See Citizens for TaxJustice, June 12).

The reality is that the Capito-supported plan is wonderful ifyou're from Connecticut - whose residents get more back than thecitizens of any other state - and have a six-figure income.

But if you're from West Virginia the plan is, as Byrdcharacterized it, "sheer madness." (See Daily Mail, Feb. 28, 2001)

Ironically, Citizens for Tax Justice have also estimated that afully funded comprehensive Medicare prescription drug benefit forsenior citizens could be funded by eliminating the tax cuts going tothe wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers. Four hundred and thirtythousand of those seniors live in West Virginia and are still waitingon just such relief.

William McNary of USAction put it this way: "Our choices arestark. Do we want to give 39 million senior citizens the respect theydeserve with prescription drug coverage under Medicare? Or do we give$774 billion in tax giveaways to a million millionaires?"

No one disagrees about the need for tax relief. But before givingEnron-type corporations and the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayersmultibillion-dollar windfalls, shouldn't we make sure that the fourout of five families that make less than $73,000 a year - and ourparents and grandparents - get a bigger and fairer piece of the pie?

Humphreys, a Democrat, is running against Capito for the 2ndDistrict seat in Congress.