Did the Bush tax cuts work?

According to renowned tax analyst David Cay Johnston, author of "Nine Things the Rich Don't Want You to Know," the 2001 tax cuts made the economy worse. The total income in the next eight years was $2.73 trillion less than it would have been if it had stayed at the 2000 level. The top 1 percent of the population, who owned 22 percent of the wealth, now own 40 percent.

Billionaire Warren Buffett wrote, "I should be paying a lot more. The mega rich have been cuddled long enough by billionaire friendly Congress." Bill Collins, a millionaire, wrote, "Those of us who have the greatest ability to pay are not being asked to. I am not proud of being part of the freeloader class." Billionaire Bill Gates had an income of $3 billion and paid 16 percent tax on it.

Tax cuts, and especially the capital gains tax, have given the wealthy (investors and hedgers) little choice but to become richer and richer. John Paulson, successful hedge funder, made $9 billion in less than two years, and his current tax bill is zero.

Here are some of the problems: (1) The tax on hedge fund managers' income is considered "carried interest" and can be deferred indefinitely. (2) The 2004 American Jobs Creation Act allowed 800 companies' untaxed profits back from overseas to the U.S. at a 5.25 percent rate. Pfizer brought home $37 billion, saved $11 billion in taxes and laid off 40,000 workers in the U.S.

JACK H. KNOWLAN SR., Jackson