[mountaineer]

an end to taxes that shareholders pay on dividends -- a move denounced by Democrats as a politically motivated windfall for the rich.

The Democrats are idiots if they think only the rich own equities. I am firmly, inextricably entrenched in the middle class, and the owner of some stocks. Every year, I have to pay income taxes on the few hundred dollars in dividends earned. This is ridiculous. It's time for all of us "not rich" to let the Dems know that we welcome even the slightest of reductions in the monstrous burden that is the federal income tax.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Not only that well over 50 percent of seasoned citizens invest. The response should be that the Dems want seniors to choose between paying taxes and buying medicine.

[hunter112]

Why not just put a cap on the amount of dividends to be excluded? Every other tax break has some sort of cap, why should this one be unlimited?

Even a limit of $20,000 still protects the dividends on a million dollars worth of stock (I'm assuming a 5% return on investment, here). It would protect Bush from charges that most all of the benefit from this goes to the very rich.

If you have a problem with caps, then just abolish the corporate income tax altogether. The tax dodges that corporations use to avoid the tax distort our economy more than anything else I can think of.

[Darnright]

"The Democrats are idiots if they think only the rich own equities. I am firmly, inextricably entrenched in the middle class, and the owner of some stocks. Every year, I have to pay income taxes on the few hundred dollars in dividends earned. This is ridiculous. It's time for all of us "not rich" to let the Dems know that we welcome even the slightest of reductions in the monstrous burden that is the federal income tax."

This is a huge boon for small business owners, who are incorporated. It will allow them to increase the money they can take home, by allowing them the ability to declare stockholders' (in some cases, the husband and wife) tax-free dividends.

Some of these small business owners are far from "rich". Bush has helped them immensely.