Millionaires to be blissfully unaffected.
During last week’s debate on the Buffett Rule, the GOP complained again and again that the rule was a political ploy because it would only raise a few billion dollars every year. Also it would hurt the economy and possibly turn Grover Norquist into Grover Norquist HULK who bashes Republican brains with primary challengers made of pure Rubio.
This week the GOP is set let Stafford student loans interest rates double to 6.4% on July 1.
Why?
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., and chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce said:
“We must now choose between allowing interest rates to rise or piling billions of dollars on the backs of taxpayers.”
The logic is simple. We can pile billions on the backs of taxpayers to help millionaires pay tax rates lower than firefighters and nurses but college graduates need to pay more now.
We are now in the midst of a highly symbolic battle. Who will we ask to sacrifice first? Those who can afford to do so, or the 99% of us who can’t afford lobbyists to negotiate our special tax breaks. And whom do we trust to make these decisions? Mitt Romney, who merely had to sell stock to pay for college. Or Barack Obama who just in the last decade finished paying his student loans.
(I don’t think hardship is a qualification, BTW. Yet empathy is. And shared experiences are the most expedient path to empathy.)
This is a truly brave political statement for the GOP. They’re saying, “We stand on the side of the millionaires versus the millions who have student loans.”
This indicates that they either think Americans buy into the supply side economics that created zero net jobs in the first decade of the 21st century. Or they assume we’re just not paying attention.
Make a Republican miserable, encourage a non-millionaire under 65 to vote today.
UPDATE: Here’s President Obama speaking on this issue today in his Weekly Address:
[CC image by DonkeyHotey.]
