If you think this thread doesn't apply to you as a musician or lover of music, please think again. What happens politically and economically affects anyone whose tastes are not in lock step with the popular culture. Please see the related thread on "The New Populism" and understand that the proposed tax cut is another manifestation of a trend in America that could make it more difficult for us to make and hear the music that you and I love.

In short, I have a big problem with the Bush tax cut plan. It is not that I'm against cutting taxes – far from it. But I feel that the plan as it stands will not fix, and will in fact aggravate, the problems that exist in our economy.

Although presented as an across the board decrease, a look at the plan (details can be found by doing a simple web search ) indicates clearly that it favors the higher brackets. Even using raw numbers, a decrease from 39.6% to 33% for the highest tax bracket is greater than the reduction from 15% to 10% for the lowest bracket. If you figure in the elimination of the gift and estate taxes, the effect of the Alternative Minimum Tax and other elements of the plan, the conclusion made by the congressional Joint Tax Committee Study that the Bush cuts "disproportionately benefit the highest income groups" (Washington Times) becomes even more evident.

The Bush argument is that cutting the taxes of the wealthy helps everyone because they invest this money, create jobs, etc. They are likely to invest their tax savings, most likely in the stock market. Bush is trying to add the bulk of the tax money saved to the top of the economy; I feel it would be best to put this money in circulation at the bottom.

The economic problems we face are not problems solved by heating up the stock market again. We don't need to shore up dot com millionaires. We need more people buying washers and dryers. We need more people buying their first house or a new Ford Taurus. We need more people insulating their attics, modernizing their heating and air conditioning. We need more people starting small, niche market manufacturing or service companies. We need more people starting businesses in the non-gentrified sections of the cities.

In short, we need more money circulating at the bottom of the economy to support diversity in the economy. Money at the higher levels gravitates toward entities that are already succeeding. If supports the forces that have led to corporate mergers, job reductions as cost cutting measures and, in short, bigger businesses and fewer choices. I suggest that what Mr. Bush is presenting, and more importantly what the Congress is going to give us will do very little to address these issues and welcome your comments.

Bart