I’m mad as hell, and can’t figure out why you aren’t. Let me tell you about it.

Our president ran for office on many false promises. The one that probably most directly affects many of us was that he was going to cut taxes, and primarily for the middle/lower class — the people who need a tax cut.

But putting that aside for a moment, do any of you out there work for a living? I do, as well as most of the people I know who are not retired.

Well, in case you do, let’s talk about taxes.

Now usually this is the conservatives’ mantra, there is a heated speaking out regarding “less government, less taxes, blah, blah ... “Well, our “appointed” President has given you half of your wish — almost. He has given you some tremendous tax cuts. But only if you make more than, say $200,000 annually.

The president said in February 2000 “by far the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the bottom end of the spectrum.”

Now I know “facts are stupid things” (Ronald Reagan), but … the top-20 percent of earners received 69.8 percent of President Bush’s tax cuts.

Well, you are probably saying they deserve it since they pay so much more.

Wrong answer!

In his book “Perfectly Legal,” David Cay Johnston writes

“The tax burden on the top 1 percent is nowhere near that high, although so many politicians and anti-tax advocates have made such false claims so many times that millions of Americans believe it to be true.

The top 1 percent paid 36 percent of the income taxes in 2001. But when the burden of all federal taxes is added up — corporate profits, estate, gift, Social Security, Medicare and excise taxes — they paid only 25 percent.

“When the Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2002, and 2003 are fully in place in 2010, the share of taxes paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers will rise by 3.8 percentage points, while for the top 5 percent, it will fall by the same amount. Nearly all of the tax savings will go to the top 1 percent, whose share will decline by 2.7 percentage points.

“The official government data show that the burden on the very rich is even lighter. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its annual consumer expenditures survey, looked at the burden of local and state taxes as well as federal levies.

This government survey does not break out the top 1 percent, but it does divide the populace into fifths. For 2001 the government found that all taxes at all levels of government consumed 19 percent of the income of the best-off fifth of Americans, those individuals and families whose average income was $116,666 that year.

Down at the bottom the poorest fifth, whose average income was $7,946, paid 18 percent.

“What this means is that the entire tax system at all levels amounts to a flat tax, one that is crushing the poor and one that does not extract the harsh levies so often cited by politicians who owe their allegiance to the political donor class.”

The author is not a crackpot; he is a Ph.D. economist, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and spent seven years researching this book on the U.S. tax code.

The Washington Post reported two weeks ago that “Since 2001, President Bush’s tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families, the Congressional Budget Office has found …”

Now let’s return to the other part of the conservative mantra mentioned above; less government, and spending. Along with his tax cuts for the wealthy, this president has put the nation into all-time record debt. In fact, compare your paltry tax cut with the fact that he has increased the national debt by an amount that exceeds $10,000 for every man, woman and child in this country.

Ladies and gentlemen, it does not take rocket science to understand this. It is not even math. It is the most elementary arithmetic, simple addition and subtraction; and it does not add up!

It’s not often in life where one has a chance to easily remedy bad decisions made in the past (felons, high school drop-outs, smokers, alcoholics). This time it’s easy; don’t vote for Bush!!

If you still think he’s the best choice for average, middle and lower class Americans; well, I guess you’re living proof that P.T. Barnum was correct.