It didn't take long for class

envy to rear its head again once the president's economic stimulus package

hit Congress.

I love reading columns written

over the fact that the tax cuts won't provide much direct benefit to the

poor.

I want to do something to get

these people to stop and think logically, but the public service commercials

keep warning us not to shake the baby.

Sometimes it's boring to write

in a county where most of the people are conservative. I'm preaching to

the choir. Most of you readers know better than I do that tax cuts don't

help poor people because poor people don't pay taxes.

There are already programs

in place to help poor people, and increasing the money poured down that

particular hole in the ground would do absolutely nothing to stimulate

the economy, except perhaps to provide a temporary spike in sales of Thunderbird

and MD2020.

One columnist reeled off a

list of corporations that will receive tax rebates if the president's

plan is approved, apparently expecting that upon receiving this information

we would all take up arms and storm the White House.

But that view will be a hard

sell with the people who work for those corporations and will get to keep

their jobs as a result of the rebates. And it would be a hard sell with

Joe Hashslinger, who works at the local slurp-and-burp, if he had the

intelligence to work through the equation.

Think back over the last few

sessions of the Georgia Legislature, and the chest-thumping our representatives

have been doing over the fact they were able to declare a moratorium on

unemployment insurance payments by businesses. Why? Because unemployment

has been at an all-time low, that's why. And since fewer people are receiving

unemployment insurance, those funds are just sitting there gathering interest.

Things are a bit shaky now,

and there are going to be some layoffs, but if we can reduce the effect

of those layoffs, we have that many more people earning incomes and going

down to the slurp-and-burp for a plate of french fries so old Joe gets

to keep his job.

And maybe even some of those

poor people you liberals are crying over will get some of those jobs too.

And all those people who are

working, who wouldn't have been otherwise, will be paying taxes they wouldn't

have paid otherwise, and they won't be applying for food stamps and other

government "safety nets" they would have needed otherwise, and

that frees up more safety net money for those who are still waiting in

the wings.

And let's not forget the all-too-true

maxim that corporations don't pay taxes anyway they merely collect them.

The tax checks that corporations

write are simply another element in the prices they charge for their goods

and services. You and I pay those taxes every time we buy a car or run

down to the slurp-and-burp for a plate of french fries. The only difference

between corporate income taxes and sales taxes is the way they're collected.

OK, I admit, I get a little

steamed when I learn from some of the more enterprising columnists that

there are some special targeted tax cuts and rebates that benefit businesses

that have been generous to a certain party during election years, if you

know what I mean.

Unfortunately, I don't have

the time to pick apart the information that is selectively included in

such columns to see whether the cuts are targeted or just seem so. But

here's one example: one columnist complained that eliminating the alternative

minimum tax benefits numerous companies that are fairly small, and he

interprets the fact that a lot of those companies are Republican donors

to mean that eliminating the AMT is included in the stimulus package specifically

to benefit those donors.

Or could it be that those people

donate to Republicans because they agree with Republicans that the albatross

of oppressive taxes should be lifted from the neck of the American economy,

and they understand that a rising tide floats all the boats?

If there are targeted cuts

to Bush/Cheney friends, that's going to hurt the Bush team in the next

election, so it's not too smart on their part. But the net effect of giving

tax cuts and rebates to businesses and to individuals who actually pay

taxes will benefit us all.