] The Treasury Department (news - web sites) directed
] career employees to analyze tax ideas proposed by
] presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) and
] other Democrats after a request from House Majority
] Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, officials said Wednesday.

[ I'm sure it was because the Republicans are just doing their best to take all good ideas and apply them to their own activities. I'm *positive* that none of this data will end up in Bush's campaign activities. Just like Bush's visits to NH, Florida, etc during the Democratic primary season were in no way planned to coincide with the actual primaries and debates -- he just happened to have those places on his schedule, and it's ok to use government resources, because it wasn't at all campaign related. Uh-huh.

Give me a fucking break. Why doesn't the fucking TREASURY DEPARTMENT analyze the tax ideas PUT IN PLACE by the PRESIDENT? This seems like a gross misuse of public (i.e. your and my) resources. Bush can afford to use some of that $170 MILLION to buy private analyses of Kerry's proposals if he wants that.

The analysis concluded that "hardworking individuals and married couples could have their taxes raised" by amounts that ranged from $201 billion to $477 billion.

Way to go with the neutral wording. "Hardworking individuals"! For fucks sake. -k]