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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Carl Hiaasen
Just in time for the holidays,
It's somewhat revealing, then, to follow another big battle on
Democrats want to keep the lower rates for all Americans except individuals making more than
The problem with the
Now, prodded by the renegade tea party, guys like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are born-again penny-pinchers. They've rediscovered the deficit, and declared war.
Well, sort of.
A few hundred billion here, a few hundred billion there -- no biggie, right?
Listen to this, from a recent column in The
Stockman says Republicans have abandoned their fiscal principles to embrace a policy that "has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit spending." He also chides McConnell for asserting that the richest taxpayers shouldn't be burdened with a relatively modest 3 percent rate hike to reduce the nation's public debt, which is approaching
To some people who are suffering in the current economy -- with the worst continuing unemployment in three decades -- axing jobless benefits while prolonging a fat tax cut for the rich seems not only wrong, but cruel. Even some who aren't suffering feel the same way.
More than 40 wealthy Americans -- including some
Not all millionaires share such a big-hearted view, but it's refreshing to hear from some who do.
Throughout the mid-term campaigns, many Republican candidates were eager to spread the fiction that taxes had gone up under Obama and the Democrats, when the opposite was true. A sizeable chunk of the Big Bad Stimulus program was a tax refund in middle-class paychecks, which many people haven't noticed because it has been spread out over time. Another boilerplate lie was that Obama was scheming to do away with all the Bush tax cuts. In truth, under the Democratic proposal, 98 percent of taxpayers would continue paying at the lower rates. Only the wealthiest 2 percent would see their tax scale revert to pre-Bush levels, but that particular 2 percent is near and dear to the
The result, playing out now in Washington, is that Republicans are threatening to smother all legislation -- from the nuclear arms control to food-safety precautions -- until the Obama administration caves in on the tax cuts for the rich. Although the president is willing to compromise -- raising the minimum annual income threshold from
In the interest of disclosure, I'm one of the fortunate taxpayers who will benefit nicely if the Bush rates are kept in place for those in the higher brackets. I don't donate to political parties or candidates, though it doesn't seem to matter. McConnell and his troops are fighting tirelessly to get me more money. I suppose I should be grateful, but something doesn't smell right.
This month alone, 2 million Americans will see their unemployment paychecks stop, all in the name of cost cutting for the good of the federal budget. Meanwhile, the so-called deficit hawks want to give away a total of
Available at Amazon.com:
Jimmy Carter: The American Presidents Series: The 39th President, 1977-81
The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House
Renegade: The Making of a President
Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War
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In a Giving Mood But Only Toward Rich | Politics
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