OUR M.B.A. PRESIDENT

From Bush's gung-ho speech on the economy today:

American families have benefited from the tax cuts on dividends and capital gains. Let me repeat that. American families all across this country have benefitted from the tax cuts on dividends and capital gains. (Applause.) Half of American households -- that's more than 50 million households -- now have some investment in the stock market, either by owning shares in individual companies, or through owning mutual funds....

I'll never forget going to an automobile manufacturing plant in Mississippi. It was a very diverse group of workers. I said, how many of you own your own 401K? In other words, how many of you have a stock portfolio. Nearly 90 percent held their hands up. When you cut taxes on capital gains, and you cut taxes on dividends, you're helping the line workers in the automobile plant.

Does the M.B.A. president of the United States actually not understand that earnings on 401(k)s are tax-deferred, which means that those of us whose only stocks are in 401(k)s get absolutely no benefit from these tax cuts?