The New York Times ran a story today on the impact of President Bush's tax cuts on investment income. Here is the lede:

The first data to document the effect of President Bush's tax cuts for investment income show that they have significantly lowered the tax burden on the richest Americans, reducing taxes on incomes of more than $10 million by an average of about $500,000.

I just don't know how we can justify this sort of thing at a time when we are at war, when the debt burden is mounting, and when we have many unmet social needs that need to be addressed. I don't think that one has to be particularly "liberal" to feel this way. I know that solid Eisenhower Republicans like my father are appalled at this too (one of the reasons he has been voting Democratic of late). To seriously consider making these cuts permanent seems irresponsible. One wonders how Catholic thinking about the "common good" can contribute to this discussion.