After months of fundraising, President Bush plunged into retail politicking for the first time this campaign season, telling a raucous crowd of several thousand Republican partisans on Saturday that the Democrats would raise taxes and retreat from Iraq if they win control of Congress next week.
The cheers were deafening inside the packed gymnasium at Silver Creek High School here when Bush emerged beaming, with his blue shirt-sleeves rolled up, alongside endangered Rep. Michael E. Sodrel (R-Ind.).
The crowd interrupted the president repeatedly with loud applause and chants of "USA! USA!" as he cast the Nov. 7 midterm elections as a decisive turning point in the affairs of the country.
"The outcome of this election will determine how much money you have in your pocket," Bush shouted...
Since Shrublet doesn't read much, especially not the New York Times, I guess he missed this.
One of President Bush’s be-very-afraid lines this campaign season is that Democrats, if elected, will raise taxes. What he doesn’t say is that if you are one of tens of millions of Americans who make between $75,000 and $500,000 a year, your taxes are already scheduled to rise starting next year — because of laws that Mr. Bush championed and other actions he failed to take.
[...]
Mr. Bush set the trap in 2001 — and in 2003, 2004 and 2006. In each of those years, he flogged for new tax cuts without requiring corresponding long-term changes in the existing rules for the alternative tax. It was well known that failure to update the alternative tax would create perverse interactions with the new tax cuts, causing filers’ tax bills to drop because of the cuts, only to shoot back up again from the alternative levy.
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