Lumber Baron Bush

He was in his prime, pandering to the anti-intellectual wing of his constituency with his smug snickering, "Yuh mean ah own a timer cumpny? ...snick-snick ...News tuh me. ...Enybudy wanna buy sum wood? ...heh-heh."



John Kerry had just driven home his point that there are too many loopholes in tax law, pointing out that both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney qualify as "small businesses" under the Republican definition. "President Bush owns a timber business, made $84," Kerry said. And then Bush blew it. "I own a timber business? You want some wood, Charlie?" he clucked.



Actually, he does own part of a timber company, and on his 2001 taxes he did report $84 from it.



And, according to the tortured math used by the Republicans, that makes him one of the much vaunted "small business owners" who are going to fire the economic recovery if only we can get the "gummint off their backs."



According to the web site factcheck.org (which Cheney himself cited as a resource in his own debate), "President Bush himself would have qualified as a "small business owner" under the Republican definition, based on his 2001 federal income tax returns. He reported $84 of business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. However, 99.99% of Bush's total income came from other sources that year. (Bush also qualified as a "small business owner" in 2000 based on $314 of "business income," but not in 2002 and 2003 when he reported his timber income as "royalties" on a different tax schedule.)"*



And, according to the same source, "Vice President Cheney and his wife Lynne qualify as "small business owners" for 2003 because 3.5% of the total income reported on their tax returns was business income from Mrs. Cheney's consulting business. She reported $44,580 in business income on Schedule C, nearly all of it from fees paid to her as a director of the Reader's Digest . But giving the Cheneys a tax cut didn't stimulate any hiring; she reported zero employees."



Come to think of it, according to the republican definition even my wife, who works as an "independent contractor" (in a position that used to be filled by a salaried employee with full medical insurance) qualifies as a "small business owner" because she files a Schedule C.



Rediff (India) - Kerry looks good in second debate too



factcheck.org - A Bush-Cheney ad says Kerry would raise taxes for 900,000 "small businesses" and "hurt jobs." It's a big exaggeration.



* Confirming the lengths to which Bush and his cronies are willing to go in order to disguise their activities, factcheck.org issued this clarification: "What we originally reported as a "timber-growing" enterprise is actually described on Bush's tax return as an "oil and gas production" concern, the Lone Star Trust. We were confused because The Lone Star Trust currently owns 50% of another company, "LSTF, LLC", described on Bush’s 2003 financial disclosure forms as a limited-liability company organized "for the purpose of the production of trees for commercial sales." So, Bush does own part interest in a tree-growing company, but the $84 came from an oil and gas company and we should have reported it as such."