CONDITION CRITICAL

President Signs Tax Cut Package Into Law (JENNIFER LOVEN, May 28, 2003, Associated Press)

President Bush signed the third-largest tax cuts in U.S. history on Wednesday, saying they already are "adding fuel to an economic recovery." The IRS posted new withholding tables that will add money to paychecks starting next month and began preparing refunds due in parents' mailboxes later this summer.

Democrats said the cuts will greatly increase federal deficits that will in time depress the nation's gross domestic product and drain jobs.

"This bill will give millions to those who don't need it and very little to those who do," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. "It will add a trillion dollars to our national debt; spend the Social SecurityTrust Fund, and ultimately lose more jobs." [...]

Still, as Bush thanked members of Congress Wednesday for sending him even less than that, the key word in his remarks was "quick." It won't be long before millions of Americans feel the law's impact.

The Internal Revenue Service put new tax tables on its Web site so employers can reduce the amount of federal income tax withheld from workers' paychecks as the bill prescribes. Employers were told to use the new tables by July 1, making it possible that some employees will see larger checks starting next month.

Starting in the last week of July, the government will send checks to the 25 million parents who claimed a 2002 child tax credit. The automatic refunds--no phone calls or forms required--will be advance payments on their 2003 credits, in an amount equal to the increase provided by the new law up to $400 per child.

If there's a baseline for the Democrats it has to be this: when the government is handing out money, the checks should have the Party's fingerprints all over them. How inept is their leadership that they are left criticizing the checks instead? They really do resemble the Republicans of the New Deal/Great Society era--out of power and out of touch--but they add a revolutionary new element to the mix: out of sync with their own ideology. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 29, 2003 7:39 AM