Capital Gang Insta-rebuttal

The Capital Gang used to be a good half-hour show. Now, it's an interminable hour-long gabfest in serious need of a lineup change. The only segment I enjoy is the "Outrage of the Week". Last night's episode had this great exchange where Bob Novak effectively countered Mark Shields' usual paean to class warfare.

SHIELDS: Now for the Outrage of the Week.

President Bush proudly signed the final Republican tax bill, which eliminated the child tax credit for 12 million children in low- income working families that make up to $26,000 a year.

These folks do pay federal excise, payroll taxes, Social Security, and Medicare taxes. But no child tax credits for the brave young Americans who fought in Iraq, the staff sergeants, the sergeants, the corporals, the PFCs in the Marine Corps and the Army, even though they are mothers and fathers. They do not get paid enough to qualify for the Bush child tax credit.

So much for all the flag-waving and national gratitude.

Bob Novak.

NOVAK: Liberals in politics and the media had a fit when they discovered that the new tax cut does not provide extra children's tax credits for families with less than $26,000 income. These people don't pay federal income taxes. So they can't have a tax cut. The liberals want a federal handout, which is definitely not a tax cut.

What about the payroll tax that everybody pays for Social Security? Let them keep that money and invest it. But Social Security is another outrage for another time.

Got that? You can't give a tax cut to somebody that doesn't pay taxes. That's why, in the tiresome words of Democrats, that "tax cuts benefit the rich" - they pay the taxes!