If you missed today's State of the Union with Candy Crowley on CNN you can read the transcript here. Her guest was the say-nothing-do-nothing Mitch McConnell. His attempts at justifying the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy and why they must not to be allowed to expire is just plain ridiculous. What have those tax cuts done to middle America and why do republicans think trickle down economics works when we can see clearly it does NOT.
This Donna Brazile article was in my small town paper today, she calls it "Cake for the rich and NO crumbs for the Poor". While GOP leaders like Jon Kyl and Mitch McConnell are championing extended tax breaks for big oil, big banks, and Wall St, "You never ever use taxes to offset spending" McConnell said, they were also working like crazy to obstruct Democrats from extending benefits to the unemployed. Republicans say the jobless will become dependant on the UI benefits and stop looking for work. America's jobless are the very same taxpayers whose personal paycheck taxes bailed out Wall St and the banks. Those "handouts " didn't seem to stop those guys from recovering! The GOP economic philosophy helps the rich escape paying their due and puts the burden on the vast majority of hardworking Americans. Tax-dodging is right in line with what some repubs are now demanding. They do not want to bring back the fair share of taxes on the wealthy, it's un-American they say!
Think people, think! Clinton balanced the huge deficit repubs left for him and handed a multi-million dollar surplus to GW Bush, he also taxed Wall St, big oil and big business. Bush took those taxes off and what was the result?
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities "two-thirds of the nations total income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1 percent of U.S. households and that 1 % held a larger share of income in 2007 than at any time since 1928. The taxes removed from the rich enabled the top 1% to corner two-thirds of the nations increased wealth. Ya know how the righties are always crying about redistribution of wealth? Well, during the Bush era, republicans undertook a massive redistribution of the nations wealth by robbing from the poor and giving to the rich! So now our president wants to level the playing field and the right is hysterical!
The Congressional Budget Office says the Bush era tax cuts increased the deficit by $539 billion just in 2005. Between 2011 and 2018 those tax cuts will cost the government $3.28 trillion in lost revenue. Just one-half a days worth of these taxes would likely pay for six months of jobless benefits. At the rate cited above these restored taxes would finance health reform for decades! But alas, the GOP says "no worry", these tax cuts to the wealthy won't hurt government programs. They still argue the tax breaks for the wealthy are NECESSARY for the country to recover economically! The last time they tried that ended in 2008 when the economy nearly cratered for good!
Thanks to Donna Brazile and her insight into today's GOP idiocy.
You on the right who cry and complain about taxes, why aren't you looking at the big picture and demanding the top 1% pay their fair share? It makes no sense to me. Trickle down my ass!
