The teabagger (or shall we say “Teapublican”?) poo is going to really hit the fan later this year. Why? Because Barack HUSSEIN Obama is going to let the Bush tax cuts expire. Well, actually Congress is going to but let’s not quibble.
Fresh from raising taxes on upper-income Americans to help expand health insurance coverage, President Obama and Democratic lawmakers are targeting them again.When Congress takes up Obama’s proposed $3.8 trillion budget this year, it will include extending President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for middle-income families enacted in 2001 and 2003. Tax cuts for individuals with income above $200,000 and couples above $250,000 would be eliminated.
Here’s how it shakes out:
The article goes on to say that, by doing this, we can put a $969 billion dent in our $1.5 trillion budget deficit over the next decade.
But you can be sure the Teapublicans are going to blow a gasket at this. This isn’t “letting tax cuts expire”. This is RAISING TAXES!!! And, if you are to believe the Teapublican rhetoric, there’s nothing that’ll kill an economy faster than raising taxes.
Now, let’s put aside for a moment the reality that the vast majority of Teapublicans in this country have seen their personal taxes drop. That’s just an inconvenient truth, to borrow a phrase, since most of them are well below the $250,000/year threshold where the expiring tax cuts kick in. But put that aside and answer me this:
How many people has your favorite millionaire hired lately?
That’s the essential question to ask. Because this tax expiration is on INDIVIDUALS, not businesses/corporations. A little less pocket coin jangling around in the bloated bank accounts of the wealthiest Americans will have no discernible impact on our economy whatsoever. I am willing to debate whether or not raising corporate taxes kills jobs and harms the economy (despite the fact that our largest corporations actually pay no federal taxes). But I am simply not even going to lend dignity to the absurd notion that rich people’s spending has that much to do with our national economy by arguing about it. Or that letting their taxes rise by less than 5% is even going change their spending habits in the first place.
Let’s face it: the Teapublicans are manning the ramparts to fight for the tax breaks of their bosses. They’ve been so brainwashed into thinking that all taxes are bad that they don’t even realize they aren’t fighting for their own self-interest, they’re fighting for their boss’s self-interest.
Good peasant, here’s a cookie.
Here’s another inconvenient truth (which most of us know): the tax rate on the richest people in our country will still be far below what it was for most of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and certainly below what it was during all 8 years of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Remember that? When Bill Clinton was president? And we had a budget surplus? And the economy was smokin’? That was cool.
Speaking of inconvenient truths, there’s one more: plenty of rich people that think that the Bush tax cuts hurt our country and that letting them expire is A-OK. Like these guys:
A small Boston-based network of millionaires is asking other affluent folks (defined as those with net income of seven figures and up) to forgo their Bush-era tax cuts and to oppose any extension of the tax reductions, set to expire at the end of this year.“We are people who believe we should pay our fair share,” said Mike Lapham, project director of “Responsible Wealth,” part of the “United for a Fair Economy” activist group in Boston.
Or these guys:
Responsible Wealth, a non-profit organization comprised primarily of millionaires, on Tuesday called to end tax cuts benefiting the wealthy that were enacted under President George W. Bush…“This is going to be a fight,” said Jeffrey Hollender, a self-made millionaire who spoke at today’s event. “[But] there are a significant number of wealthy people that in fact support rolling back these tax cuts [for the wealthy].”
So, you go right ahead, Teapublicans. Fight like hell for your millionaire friends’ and boss’s tax cuts. But do NOT try to tell me it’s going to hurt the economy.
Teabagger, puh-LEAZE.
I’m just sayin’…
