President Bush, in arguing to revoke the dividend tax, said “it’s unfair to tax money twice.”

The government, he told Time magazine, “ought to be content with taxing revenue streams or profits one time, not twice.”

If it’s so unfair, his economic-stimulus plan must then also revoke other double and triple taxes on income and estates.

As Time correctly points out, our paychecks are triple taxed. We are levied an income tax on our total earings. Social Security tax is also levied on our total earnings, as is the tax for Medicare. Paychecks are tripled taxed, which Bush must recognize as unfair. Equally as unfair as the dividend tax.

If Bush really is determined to eliminate double taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes ought to be levied only on the income remaining after federal, state and, in some states, local income tax is deducted.

Then there’s the estate tax, a tax on holdings that were taxed when earned.

What about taxing Social Security income?

This money, because paychecks are triple taxed, has already been subjected to income and Medicare taxes and we tax it again once it’s paid out to retirees.

Time did what Bush’s advisers must do. The magazine calculated the tax break a Tennessee couple earning $70,000 a year might get under the Bush plan and what they might get if the Social Security-Medicare double-tax were eliminated. Under the Bush plan they’d save $3. Eliminating the double tax? $1,600.

While Bush’s plan will return millions of dollars to millionaires, a decidedly select group of Americans, doesn’t it make more sense to return hundreds of dollars to ordinary folks? The people who could use $1,000 to buy a new car, take a college course or reduce their debt?

If Bush is pushing fairness, it must extend to Americans making less than six figures.


Safe crossing
In July we pointed out that, even though Maine’s public health advocates push for road construction projects to be designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind, thought for pedestrians and cyclists seemed to lack in planning the flyovers on the Auburn and Lewiston sides of the Veterans Memorial Bridge.

MDOT has since addressed that oversight.

According to John Balicki, the bicycle-pedestrian coordinator for MDOT, the agency will install signs in the spring that will recommend, but not require, cyclists who travel across the bridge to ride down the exit ramps to Center Street on the Auburn side and Main Street on the Lewiston side, dismount, cross those streets as pedestrians and remount to continue up Mt. Auburn Avenue on the Auburn side and Russell Street on the Lewiston side.

While this may slow cyclists down, it will spare them the hazard of crossing high speed traffic lanes, especially since most motorists who travel the bridge are oblivious to the speed limit there.

The solution was developed with average riders in mind. More experienced cyclists who feel they can safely cross traffic lanes will be permitted to do so without penalty.

“While this is not an ideal solution, we feel it is the safest solution given the volume of traffic and constraints of the existing design,” Balicki said.

There are a fair number of cyclist who cross the veterans bridge and we applaud MDOT for tending to their safety.
[email protected]