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I'm having this debate on the Kerry forum in a thread about $200,000 not being very much money. I just posted this in response, which I think fits generally. If I were the Kerry campaign, I'd just say YES, we're going to put in health care programs to help take the burden off business and the wealthiest are going to pay for it. But that's just me. Anyway, here's my argument:

First of all, again, we're talking about 2% of the population. That the Republicans have already got so many people thinking that they have to be concerned about a tax increase on such a small number of people means they've already made great headway in framing the debate. I can't think of any other issue that only concerns 2% of the population that we'd be seriously discussing. They've even got people thinking mom/pop businesses fall in that category. Mom/pop businesses are my clients, my friends, my neighbors. They do not make $200,000 a year, most of them don't even make $100,000 a year. Alot of the wives take second jobs in order to supplement the income from their mom/pop business. The small businesses that employ over 15 people or so are generally set up as full corporations and are going to get both corporate tax cuts and new hire tax cuts, so they would be pleased with Kerry's tax plan. So you see, Americans have already been duped by the Republican rhetoric.

It's about power. The Bushies will say anything to stay in power. They refuse to spend money on social programs, but it's clear to me that it's not the money because they're spending it, as the saying goes, like drunken sailors. Most of the very wealthy can move their money around and avoid paying taxes no matter what the tax law, so again, they don't particularly care about the tax rates. Enron and Microsoft didn't pay taxes at all in something like 4 of the last 5 years. All their rhetoric about Kerry and taxes is just political rhetoric. It doesn't matter to them one way or the other what the U.S. tax code is or whether we even have very much economic growth. They know how to make money whether the economy is good or bad, whether it's in the U.S. or somewhere else. The tax cut nonsense appeals to a simplistic mind that doesn't want to spend too much time thinking, or to those who have dreams of being wealthy and think if they think like the rich people that will make it happen. They're voting against their own best interest on the off chance that they manage to join 2% of the U.S. population. Without thinking that if they do get there, they'll have all the same accounting benefits that those people already enjoy to hide their income and pay less taxes. Manipulation of the masses, that's all it is.