Tax Day: Average Americans Lose Out with Bush Tax Cuts

By Cassandra Q. Butts, Christian E. Weller | April 14, 2004

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Tax Day is upon us. And staring us in the face is a reckless fiscal policy that has been marked by three consecutive years of poorly timed, regressive and irresponsible tax cuts. The essence of these tax cuts is captured in a cartoon that has been making the rounds lately. It shows a janitor, hard at work, wearing a shirt that reads, "The President enacted a bunch of tax cuts and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." Regrettably, for janitors and all Americans, the numbers support that sentiment.

The average tax cuts Americans received in the past three years were more than offset by cost increases elsewhere, especially for such priorities as housing, medical care and higher education. Moreover, the vast majority of taxpayers received less than the average tax cut. And all of this happened at a time when millions of new jobs – the promised benefits of the tax cuts – have failed to materialize. By any measure, the short and long-term costs of the tax cuts outweigh any of its purported benefits.

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