The War on Poverty, Republican Style

Christopher Brauchli on George Bush’s America:

“In 2003 this column observed that in 2001, the IRS began increasing its audits of the working poor while reducing its audits of the wealthy. In 2002 one out of every 64 people claiming the [earned income tax] credit was audited whereas only one out of 120 persons with income of more than $100,000 was audited. Fifty-five percent of all audits conducted in 2001 were audits of the working poor. The amount the government was then losing because of the cheating poor was between $6.5 billion and $10 billion.

Although those amounts didn’t seem like much when contrasted with the $72 billion lost because of individual off-shore accounts (few of which were owned by the poor), $46 billion then being evaded by corporations and $30 billion evaded by partnership investors, there was, in fact, a significant difference. The poor are a drag on society whereas wealthy individuals and corporations are what make a George Bush kind of society run smoothly. When the wealthy cheat on taxes they take the money they save by cheating and reinvest it in our economy thus providing new employment opportunities for the poor. The poor, by contrast, use the money saved by cheating to buy food, clothing or pay rent which does no one but them any good.”