Much ado about not much: Republicons in Congress are crowing today about the “massive” give-back of $13 billion in federal taxes on mobile phone calls announced yesterday. But it adds up to less than it appears, and it appears to be just another election-year gimmick intended to make conservatives seem compassionate.
CongressDaily reported that Treasury Secretary Snow said yesterday the IRS will stop collecting the 3 percent federal excise tax on long-distance telephone calls on July 31, and will refund to businesses and individual taxpayers all such taxes collected during the past three years.
A sure sign that this was a cynical election-year ploy and not serious politics was Snow’s cute press conference quip: “It’s time to ‘disconnect’ this tax and put it on the permanent ‘do not call’ list.” Urp!
Treasury estimates that taxpayers will receive refunds totaling about $13 billion. They can apply for refunds on their 2006 tax returns. The decision to discontinue the tax was taken after long-distance phone customers successfully challenged the tax in several different federal appeals courts.
So what does this give-back mean to the estimated 214 million cell phone users in the United States? About $54 each, or less than 20 gallons of gasoline. Contrast that with the $477 billion in tax breaks the Bush administration has targeted to the richest Americans, which will average $342,000 each over the next 10 years. By 2010, when Bush’s tax cuts hit their stride, of the estimated $234 billion in tax cuts scheduled for that year, $121 billion will go to just 1.4 million taxpayers.
Makes that $54 look pretty puny, don’t it. But Bushco is counting on voters not doing the math, but instead responding like mindless zombies to headlines that tout a $13 billion tax refund on their cell phone calls. That’s a lot cheaper way to buy votes than to provide real tax relief for the middle class or decent health care for all Americans.
