Tearing James Pilgrim a new one

James Pilgrim! Come on DOWN!

Mr. Pilgrim,

I didn't write a letter to the Gainesville Times on April the 2nd. However, I'm glad you invented such a letter. Now I get my turn.

You say the tax cuts "would cut their federal income taxes from $1,785 to $45. It's not the $2,000 Mr. Parker speaks of, but the $1,740 cut is real and sizeable, not mythical.

I've been to your little tax calculator at the Heritage Foundation. Even it doesn't give a family of four with an income of $40,000 a $1740 tax break. The hypothetical result shows at best a tax cut of $1133.

Can you invent some more urban legends for me to debunk? It's fun.

While looking at real world tax information from the IRS, in 2005, roughly 1.4 million taxpayers in your targeted income level got a Child Tax Credit. The average amount was $289.

Where's the thousand dollars per child you bragged about?

Did Alexander Tyler steal it?

James Pilgrim, you also said a "that the federal taxes of a couple with three children and making $50,000 were cut from $1,620 to $88."

The calculator said only $333!

What can we see from the IRS information?

Those upper middle class families got an average of $733 from the Child Tax Credit.

Again, where is the $2,000? That would be the two thousand dollars maximum for the Child Tax Credit. Middle class families don't get that money. It's a myth.

Two out of three taxpayer make less than $40,000 per year. And, the Bush Tax Cuts ignored them.

A taxpayer making an average of $150,000 got a savings of $3,400.

That's a substantiated fact verifiable with IRS data.

Up Yours, Mr. Pilgrim.