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Times Watch for June 26, 2003

• See update with reaction from Times reporter

The Times’ Tax Collector

On the front page, over the fold, the Times runs this hot news: Three-year-old data on income distribution in the U.S.!

In “Very Richest’s Share of Income Grew Even Bigger, Data Show,” tax reporter David Cay Johnston writes on the Times old bugbear, income inequality: “The 400 wealthiest taxpayers accounted for more than 1 percent of all the income in the United States in the year 2000, more than double their share just eight years earlier, according to new data from the Internal Revenue Service. But their tax burden plummeted over the period. The data, in a report that the I.R.S. released last night, shows that the average income of the 400 wealthiest taxpayers was almost $174 million in 2000. That was nearly quadruple the $46.8 million average in 1992.”

One wonders why this three-year-old data is being blared on the front page. But Johnston presses on: “The rate actually paid by the top 400 in 2000 was about the same as that paid by a single person making $123,000 or a married couple with two children earning $226,000, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, a labor-backed group whose calculations are respected by a broad spectrum of tax experts. The group favors higher taxes on the wealthy, and its director, Robert S. McIntyre, said yesterday that the I.R.S. data bolsters that viewpoint.”

Compare that treatment with the ideological label Johnston pastes on an opposing group: “William W. Beach, a tax expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization that favors lowering taxes for all Americans, said that the top 400 taxpayers made ‘the significant contribution’ to government revenue.”

A Jan 17. 2002 story on Enron by Johnston featured an earlier attempt to boost the liberal group’s credibility: “The analysis of Enron's tax payments was performed by Citizens for Tax Justice, an organization that is backed by labor unions. But its calculations are widely accepted by groups with different views, like the conservative Heritage Foundation.” No word from Johnston if the Heritage Foundation is as “respected” or as “accepted” as the liberal Citizens for Tax Justice.

In fact, Johnston has always been willing to give tax collectors a boost, whether they’re in or out of government. On Feb 12, 2002, in a piece titled “White House Seeks to Ease Rules Put on IRS Workers,” he wrote about hearings held into IRS abuse of taxpayers: “The most explosive testimony at the hearings was later shown to lack merit. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, later reported that it had found no evidence of systemic abuse of taxpayers by IRS agents.”

But Johnston leaves out that the reason the GAO found no evidence was because there was no data available: "Before the IRS Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, IRS did not systematically collect information on retaliation against taxpayers. As we have previously reported, IRS information systems were designed for tracking disciplinary and investigative cases or correspondence and not for identifying, addressing, or preventing retaliation against taxpayers....Consequently, we found limited information on potential taxpayer abuse in IRS information systems."

For the rest of Johnston’s story on income distribution, click here.

• Heritage Foundation | Income Distribution | IRS | David Cay Johnston | Labeling Bias | Taxes

ON SECOND THOUGHT: The Times' Tax Collector
In our June 26 critique of Times coverage of an IRS report on the 400 highest income taxpayers we made two observations that the reporter, David Cay Johnston, recently complained to us are not supported by facts. See Update

Sucking Up To Seniors: The Times on Drugs

On the eve of an impending vote in Congress on prescription drug coverage for Medicare, Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s front-page story, “Medicare Drug Plan Far From Cure-All, Irate Retirees Find,” talks to some feisty Nashville retirees who think the government isn’t doing enough for them.

Stolberg’s story opens: “After 85 years on this earth, 36 of them as a schoolteacher, and more than 60 as a taxpayer, Vela Fox figures the government ought not forget her in her old age. Asked about efforts by Congress to give older Americans some relief from the high cost of prescription drugs, the normally mild-mannered Mrs. Fox lets loose with a tirade that could shake the magnolia blooms off the trees.”

After quoting her saying that Washington doesn’t “care a rip” about seniors, Stolberg says: “Mrs. Fox's opinion, passionate though it may be, will not become reality for her and countless other elderly people who have spent years waiting for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.…Those who already have benefits fear they will be forced into a less generous government plan. And there is a strong sense that Congress is all talk and no action, and that nothing will be passed in the end.”

It would have been nice if Stolberg had found at least one Nashville taxpayer who questioned why members of the most well-off generation want other people to pay for their drugs.

For the rest of Stolberg’s story on how seniors see the fight for Medicare drug coverage, click here.

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