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I still don't believe that Kerry was attempting to insinuate that Bush is involved in some dodgy sham timber company, and think that most people watching the debate (as opposed to reading clipped quotes) would agree.
BUSH: Now, he says he's only going to tax the rich. Do you realize, 900,000 small businesses will be taxed under his plan because most small businesses are Subchapter S corps or limited partnerships, and they pay tax at the individual income tax level.
And so when you're running up the taxes like that, you're taxing job creators, and that's not how you keep jobs here.
GIBSON: Senator, I want to extend for a minute, you talk about tax cuts to stop outsourcing. But when you have IBM documents that I saw recently where you can hire a programmer for $12 in China, $56 an hour here, tax credits won't cut it.
KERRY: You can't stop all outsourcing, Charlie. I've never promised that. I'm not going to, because that would be pandering. You can't.
But what you can do is create a fair playing field, and that's what I'm talking about.
But let me just address what the president just said.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's just not true what he said. The Wall Street Journal said 96 percent of small businesses are not affected at all by my plan.
And you know why he gets that count? The president got $84 from a timber company that owns, and he's counted as a small business. Dick Cheney's counted as a small business. That's how they do things. That's just not right.
BUSH: I own a timber company?
(LAUGHTER)
That's news to me.
(LAUGHTER)
Need some wood?
You're removing a soundbite from the context of the discussion and then picking insinuations' out of it. Bush claimed that 900,000 small businesses would be affected and that these very same small businesses are job creators. Kerry refuted by referencing WSJ findings that 96% of small businesses are not affected and making the case that not all of those taxed are potential 'job creators' by putting forth the examples of Bush & Cheney. The insinuation is that the administration's count of 900,000 is bs and thats about it.
I have no idea who's bs-ing & who's not regarding these numbers. If 900,000 are affected that could still mean that 96% are not affected (if there are ~ 20 million small businesses in the country). They could both be pulling the big plank out of their a$$es.
There was no insinuation that Bush is involved in illegal woody business. Hell, $84 profit is probably better than the past performances of most of his other companies!
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