POLITICS - GOP X-Dressed Tax Cuts for the Rich

"Don’t let GOP dress tax cuts for rich in populist clothing" by Margaret Krome, Capital Times 7/21/2010

I haven’t a clue how the Republican leadership would describe the responsibility of a minority party. Pure opposition to anything? It certainly looks that way. To offer an alternative to the majority party’s agenda is fine. But this party, at this time, is leaving a trail of destruction that will be felt for many years.

Republicans criticize President Obama for the bad economy, overlooking their strong role in the deregulation that brought about much of the mortgage meltdown. Their spokespeople seem to celebrate the sorrow of unemployment, criticizing the stimulus package, which was inadequate in scope only because they relentlessly whittled it down. They fought health care reform at every turn. They have threatened filibusters on judicial and other administration appointments. Some even have tried to blame the Gulf oil spill on the president, rather than using the disaster as a catalyst to have a serious discussion of our nation’s energy needs.

The financial regulation bill was a product of extensive compromise with Republicans, yet when it passed, only three Republicans voted for it, prompting Vice President Biden to say that he knows what Republicans oppose, but not what they support.

The remainder of the year is certain to get no better. One of the most hypocritical issues of this sorry partisanship will be the Bush tax cuts. Although the Congressional Budget Office and virtually all credible analysts agree that the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 were principally responsible for reversing the surpluses of the Clinton administration and bringing about a massive deficit, there was no outcry by Republicans criticizing those cuts as they bemoan today’s deficit. The tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2010. Instead of supporting this as healthy for our economy, Republicans are misrepresenting the nature of the tax cut beneficiaries.

The CBO says that of all the scenarios it considered to stimulate the economy, retaining the tax cuts is the very last one it would recommend. This is largely because these tax cuts were targeted to benefit the wealthiest Americans, who tend to save rather than spend those dollars. In fact, allowing tax cuts to expire for the top 2 percent of taxpayers (married taxpayers with incomes above $250,000 and single taxpayers making more than $200,000) would reduce the nation’s debt by $826 billion over the next 10 years.

But don’t count on Republicans to say so. Instead, they are representing expiration of these cuts as an assault on the middle class and small businesses. The Bush tax cuts overwhelmingly benefited wealthy taxpayers, and Republican leaders are pressing for their resumption at the expense of the middle class and the unemployed. Indeed, Republicans insisted this spring that to extend unemployment payments should require making budget cuts to pay for them, but to extend the Bush tax cuts they make no such demand. Rarely has more regressive policy been cast in such populist clothing.

As the nation moves slowly through the most difficult economic crisis of my lifetime, it becomes clear to me, as to Biden, what the Republicans oppose: everything. But unlike him, I think I know what they support: doing anything to ensure Republican winners in this November’s election, no matter the cost of bad policy on the public.