The president's report tries to refute those arguments. In a lengthy section called "Distributional Consequences of Tax Reform," it contends that people move very fluidly between lower- and higher-income brackets through the normal course of their careers.
Using a "lifetime" approach to income distribution, an idea embraced by Hubbard at the Council of Economic Advisers, the report cites studies showing that more than half of people followed over 10 years had moved into a different income bracket at the end of a decade.
"Consumption taxes are generally less regressive when viewed from a lifetime perspective," the report declared. "A one-year snapshot of the distributional effects of many tax changes can be misleading."
Republican lawmakers and policy analysts generally doubt Bush will push for a radical tax overhaul anytime soon, given his already sprawling agenda which includes a likely war with Iraq and the huge tax bills he wants to push through this year.
But if Bush succeeds in pushing through his current agenda, and wins re-election in 2004, the report could turn out to be a blueprint for his goals in a second presidential term.
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