Real economic engine

Whose economy is the president’s plan stimulating? Certainly not ours. His proposal to eliminate the tax on dividends benefits 95 percent of the top 5 percent of taxpayers. According to the Bloomberg Financial News Service, as reported in The New Yorker, George Bush will get a tax benefit of about $45,000. How many people in Maine even make that much in a year? If that’s not disgusting enough, how about a $327,000 tax benefit for Dick Cheney?

Giving more money to the wealthy will not stimulate our economy. The economic engine of this country is the money the other 95 percent of us have to spend. A tax cut in the payroll tax would be a real stimulus. It could be paid for by removing the upper limit on the remainder of the payroll tax.

Julian H. Orr

Bangor