More than three-fourths of the tax relief would not take place until after the next presidential election. Well over a third of the cuts would begin after the presidential election after that. These promised tax cuts are based on the assumption that projected federal surpluses will actually appear. Bush, in fact, has called for federal spending increases that are above inflation. Congress also resorted to budgetary gimmicks and phony accounting that seem excessive even for a federal tax bill.
Tax cuts phase in and phase out in seemingly random fashion.
A tax deduction for college expenses, for example, would be phased out in 2005 after being fully in effect for only two years. A lot of things go on and off. This will create an enormous amount of confusion among taxpayers and tax experts, who already have trouble figuring out the tangled income tax laws. Even more ludicrous is that the country is scheduled to revert to the current tax laws on Dec. 31, 2010. This apparently means, for example, that the estate tax would be fully eliminated for only a single year before being fully restored.