There is a popular misconception in this country that the rich do not deserve a tax cut.

Al Gore repeatedly preaches this myth in an attempt to scare the middle class into a vote for him.

First of all, each and every American is equal under the law. A strict interpretation of this would mean that if the poorest citizen pays $1 of tax, Bill Gates should also pay $1 of tax. Obviously, a strict interpretation of the law is not feasible.

However, a flat tax rate applied to everyone, no matter what his or her income, would come closer to passing Constitutional scrutiny (under a Supreme Court without a liberal, activist bias) than the tax code we have today.

Our progressive tax code is blatantly unconstitutional be-cause it does not treat the rich as equal to the poor.

That being said, let’s look at the definition of “rich” in terms of the current tax code.

The following analysis uses figures based on 1997 tax return data as reported by the Tax Foundation.

In 1997, if your adjusted gross income was greater than $24,393, you were in the top 50 percent of taxpayers.

If your 1997 adjusted gross income was greater than $48,173, congratulations, be-cause you were in the top 25 percent of taxpayers.

If your 1997 adjusted gross income was greater than $79,212, you were in the elite 10 percent of taxpayers.

Finally, if your 1997 adjusted gross income was greater than $108,048, you were a member of the “super-rich” 5 percent of all taxpayers.

These numbers mean that what Al Gore is saying is partly true – the richest taxpayers in the county will receive the lion’s share of a Bush/Cheney tax cut.

However, this only makes sense considering that the top 50 percent of taxpayers make 86.2 percent of all income, but pay 95.7 percent of all taxes.

By the time you reach the top 5 percent, your share of income is only 31.8 percent, but your share of the taxes collected is 51.9 percent. Where is the equality under the law?

The reason Al Gore continues to focus on the “top 1 percent of all taxpayers” is because he doesn’t want you to know who the rich in this country really are.

The middle class he supposedly will go to battle for are really the rich that he doesn’t believe deserve a tax cut.

One other misconception Al Gore continues to allude to is that Bush’s tax cut is a risky scheme which will break our economy tomorrow. This is false because in reality the tax cut will be phased in and will not happen overnight.

This is contrary to the Clinton/Gore tax hike in 1993, which for the first time in history raised taxes RETROACTIVELY!

While I’m not a member of the “top 1 percent,” I wish I was.

Until then, I’m a proud member of the middle class, and I want my tax cut “retroactively!”

W. Alan Williams

Alumnus

Miami