Meeks v. Rangel

New York's congressional delegation is fracturing over Senator Baucus's idea of extending the full tax rebates in the "stimulus" plan approved by the House of Representatives to those earning more than $150,000 a year. The House plan leaves the top 5% of taxpayers, who already pay about 60% of the federal income tax, even though they account for just 36% of the income, with no tax relief. The Senate plan would give those taxpayers the same rebates as everyone else.

Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens, in an interview yesterday with our Washington correspondent, Russell Berman, praised the Senate plan. "I'd like to make sure everyone is included," Mr. Meeks said. Rep. Charles Rangel of Harlem, on the other hand, is warning, "By eliminating the income cap, we would only further grow the divide between rich and poor that has already grown so much under President Bush's tax policies."

While we have a high regard for Mr. Rangel, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee and has proposed a cut in the corporate tax rate, the logic and equity is with Mr. Meeks. If there's going to be tax relief, all taxpayers deserve it, including the ones who now pay most of the taxes. With townhouses in Harlem now trading for upwards of $2 million apiece and public school teacher salaries in New York City topping out above $100,000, even Democrats such as Messrs. Meeks and Baucus are realizing that the need for tax relief doesn't stop at couples earning $150,000 a year or even $200,000 a year.

The best stimulus of all would be not a one-year rebate but a permanent expansion of the Bush tax cuts on income, dividends, and capital gains. If the best the Democrats in Congress can muster is a one-year rebate, the only one worth approving would be one that does not leave the top earners out.