The House wants a tax cut averaging more than a million bucks apiece for the richest 400 taxpayers. The richest 400 taxpayers have an average annual gross income of $110 million. The House tax plan would save them $1.4 million each, according to the New York Times. The Senate plan would save them a mere $622,900.

Taxpayers in the bottom 20 percent, with incomes less than $15,000, would save a whopping $65 under the Senate plan and $51 in the House. Either way, don't count on affording dinner at the restaurants politicians and lobbyists frequent.

When politicians hand out tax breaks to the wealthy, they are not only rewarding campaign contributors, they are enriching themselves. One out of three new lawmakers in the 107th Congress is a millionaire, as are many incumbents. They're effectively giving themselves a giant raise at the country's expense.

When President Bush launched the PR campaign to sell his tax cut he surrounded himself with middle-class families. When asked why no one was there representing the top bracket, Bush laughingly replied, "Well, I beg your pardon. I'm representing ... the top tax bracket."

As the Wall Street Journal reported, Bush and his multimillionaire Cabinet would save a bundle from the tax cuts.

Tax cut defenders pretend everyone is getting their fair share. The top 1 percent of Americans has an average yearly income in excess of $1 million and 38 percent of the nation's wealth. They pay about 24 percent of all federal taxes, but would reap 35 percent of the tax cut benefits under the Senate plan and 45 percent under the House version. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, both the House and Senate would give about 70 percent of the tax cuts to the top 20 percent of taxpayers.

The top 1 percent would get an average tax cut of more than $44,000 under the Senate plan when fully phased in and $54,000 under the House version. Middle-income Americans would get just $562 under the Senate plan and $552 from the House -- and end up paying as the real cost of the tax cuts accumulated.

The tax cuts would widen our vast income and wealth disparities and make the tax system more regressive, putting more of the burden on payroll taxes and families struggling to make ends meet. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, three out of four families pay more in payroll taxes -- which consume a larger share of the income of low- and middle-income families than of high-income families -- than they pay in income taxes.

The Bush plan robs Peter to pay Paul. If you were president, would you give wealthy Americans a giant tax break while undermining Social Security and Medicare; shortchanging children's programs; and cutting the budgets of the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, Justice, Energy, and Interior, the Small Business Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency?

Would you say you had a budget surplus if your family saved money by neglecting the kids and going without health care and home repairs? Would you celebrate your "surplus" by spending your retirement savings?

Millionaires don't need a tax cut. We've got real surpluses to reduce:

The surplus of 43 million Americans without health insurance. Lack of health insurance is associated with a 25 percent higher risk of death.

The surplus of kids on waiting lists for Head Start and the surplus of kids going to school in overcrowded buildings that are falling apart.

The surplus of homeless families.

The surplus of environmental projects we supposedly can't afford.

We've been down this road before. Twenty years ago Ronald Reagan gave us big tax cuts for the wealthy and big budget deficits paid off with payroll tax hikes and painful cutbacks in housing, education, health care, and other crucial programs.

In the famous words of Reagan budget director David Stockman, "Greed came to the forefront. The hogs were really feeding."

Don't get swindled again.

Holly Sklar is co-author of the forthcoming book, "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies that Work." She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com, or by writing to her at 97 Sheridan Street, Boston, Mass. 02130. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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