George Bush's tax return - distortions in Donald Barlett's and James Steele's book 'America: What Went Wrong' about the inequality of tax laws as exemplified by George and Barbara Bush's 1991 tax returns

National Review, May 30, 1994 by John H. Hinderaker

It didn't take much investigation to find out that it isn't. The Bushes' 1991 tax return was made public when it was filed, and a number of news stories were written about it at the time. That return was newsworthy because the couple's income that year was three times as high as in any other year of Bush's Presidency.

Why? Because Barbara Bush earned $889,176 in royalties on Millie's Book, a humorous look at White House life written from the point of view of the family dog. And why were the Bushes' taxes relatively low, compared to their income? Because Barbara Bush donated substantially all of the proceeds of Millie's Book to charity--$818,803, or 62 per cent of the couple's income that year. They contributed to 49 different charities, everything from Ducks Unlimited to the United Negro College Fund, but the main beneficiary was the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, which received $789,176. After giving away more than 60 per cent of their income to charity, George and Barbara Bush had $505,653 left, of which they paid $239,063--47 per cent--in taxes.

Barlett and Steele must have known these facts, yet chose to mislead their readers by portraying George Bush as a greedy, tax-dodging rich person. We wondered why. In fact, we tried to find out why. We left numerous messages for Barlett and Steele, but they declined to return our calls. We faxed a letter to them asking a number of questions, including why they failed to disclose the Millie's Book income and the Bushes' extraordinarily generous charitable contributions. But they declined to respond. We also asked them for copies of their 1991 tax returns. Needless to say, we did not get them. But we think it highly unlikely that these tireless campaigners against greed have ever donated 62 per cent of their very large incomes to charity.