steve cooley presents

President Bush himself would have qualified as a “small business owner” under the Republican definition, based on his 2001 federal income tax returns. He reported $84 of business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. However, 99.99% of Bush’s total income came from other sources that year. (Bush also qualified as a “small business owner” in 2000 based on $314 of “business income,” but not in 2002 and 2003 when he reported his timber income as “royalties” on a different tax schedule.)

(Oct 9; CORRECTION: What we originally reported as a “timber-growing” enterprise is actually described on Bush’s tax return as an “oil and gas production” concern, the Lone Star Trust. We were confused because The Lone Star Trust currently owns 50% of another company, “LSTF, LLC”, described on Bush’s 2003 financial disclosure forms as a limited-liability company organized “for the purpose of the production of trees for commercial sales.” So, Bush does own part interest in a tree-growing company, but the $84 came from an oil and gas company and we should have reported it as such.)

Vice President Cheney and his wife Lynne qualify as “small business owners” for 2003 because 3.5% of the total income reported on their tax returns was business income from Mrs. Cheney’s consulting business. She reported $44,580 in business income on Schedule C, nearly all of it from fees paid to her as a director of the Reader’s Digest . But giving the Cheneys a tax cut didn’t stimulate any hiring; she reported zero employees.