To the Editor:

Have you noticed that liberal establishment spokesmen have been calling the Bush tax cuts “tax cuts for the rich” and almost unanimously opposing them. Now, when they are about to expire, the White House is saying that the expiration of the Bush tax cuts would cause family taxes to jump an additional $2,000. If the Bush tax cuts were merely “tax cuts for the rich,” then how can their expiration hurt poor and middle-class families?

The truth is that the Bush tax cuts helped everyone, but they especially helped the poor and the middle class, according to data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. To close the budget gap solely by taxing those with incomes more than $250,000, the tax rate would have to be more than 130 percent, an impossibility.