AS IF scraping by at a minimum-wage job weren't humiliation enough, the working poor get treated to added punishment at tax time. Reports from the Internal Revenue Service show that poor workers are more than three times as likely to be audited than the rich.

The IRS audits one in 47 taxpayers who are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit because they made less than $10,710 in the year if they were single and had no dependents. But for people who made more than $100,000, the chance of being audited is one in 145. And only one in every 400 taxpayers claiming income from business partnerships was audited.

Meanwhile, the real tax cheats--an estimated 1 million rich individuals and corporations--get away scot-free because they've moved their assets overseas to avoid paying any taxes.

And it's these corporate tax cheats that George W. Bush wants to reward with hefty tax rebates!

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