February 1, 2012--Obama's Tax Cuts
Checking up on Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity Monday night to see how they were spinning things, wondering who the Fox News team was supporting in the Republican scramble for the nomination, a ubiquitous guest was former Clinton advisor cum conservative fanatic Dick Morris.
He was fulminating about why it is essential to rid the country of Barack Obama. In a recent book he called him a socialist. Since Morris actually has a good education, he should know better. He should know what socialism is and isn't; and, if he could manage to calm down, he would notice that Obama has done more than I feel he should have to prop up the worst of American crony capitalism. Think bailing out Goldman Sachs.
Top of Morris' list of evidence that Obama is waging class warfare was the accusation that he has increased taxes and wants to do even more. While it is true that Obama wants to raise taxes for those earning over $250,000, during his three years in office he has cut taxes, including for the wealthy, even more than George W. Bush.
First, in an effort to secure Republican support for his stimulus bill, he agreed to include $237 billion in tax cuts for the middle class and affluent. This amounted to almost 40 percent of the full cost of the bill. Incidentally, in spite of Obama's willingness to include these cuts, not one Republican voted for the bill.
Then, back in December 2010, needing Republican votes to extend unemployment benefits, he agreed to a two-year extension of the full spectrum of the Bush tax cuts. Tax cuts that disproportionately favored the highest earners. For this reason, some Republicans gleefully joined the majority.
And finally, he made a series of deals with the GOP to institute a costly payroll tax holiday.
There have been no new taxes whatsoever to offset any of the costs associated with these cuts. In fact, embedded in various other pieces of Obama-sponsored legislation are additional tax cuts and credits for small businesses who hire the unemployed and returning veterans, invest in new forms of energy generation, return jobs to the United States, and for people who purchase new cars (remember cash-for-clunkers?), first-time home buyers, and for those who retrofit their houses to make them more energy efficient.
The progressive in me wants to ask--what's going on here? Why have there been so many regressive tax cuts under Obama and why are Republicans lying about his record?
About the former, I do not have a good answer; about the latter the answer is obvious.
What's that Jack Nicholson line about "handling the truth"?
He was fulminating about why it is essential to rid the country of Barack Obama. In a recent book he called him a socialist. Since Morris actually has a good education, he should know better. He should know what socialism is and isn't; and, if he could manage to calm down, he would notice that Obama has done more than I feel he should have to prop up the worst of American crony capitalism. Think bailing out Goldman Sachs.
Top of Morris' list of evidence that Obama is waging class warfare was the accusation that he has increased taxes and wants to do even more. While it is true that Obama wants to raise taxes for those earning over $250,000, during his three years in office he has cut taxes, including for the wealthy, even more than George W. Bush.
First, in an effort to secure Republican support for his stimulus bill, he agreed to include $237 billion in tax cuts for the middle class and affluent. This amounted to almost 40 percent of the full cost of the bill. Incidentally, in spite of Obama's willingness to include these cuts, not one Republican voted for the bill.
Then, back in December 2010, needing Republican votes to extend unemployment benefits, he agreed to a two-year extension of the full spectrum of the Bush tax cuts. Tax cuts that disproportionately favored the highest earners. For this reason, some Republicans gleefully joined the majority.
And finally, he made a series of deals with the GOP to institute a costly payroll tax holiday.
There have been no new taxes whatsoever to offset any of the costs associated with these cuts. In fact, embedded in various other pieces of Obama-sponsored legislation are additional tax cuts and credits for small businesses who hire the unemployed and returning veterans, invest in new forms of energy generation, return jobs to the United States, and for people who purchase new cars (remember cash-for-clunkers?), first-time home buyers, and for those who retrofit their houses to make them more energy efficient.
The progressive in me wants to ask--what's going on here? Why have there been so many regressive tax cuts under Obama and why are Republicans lying about his record?
About the former, I do not have a good answer; about the latter the answer is obvious.
What's that Jack Nicholson line about "handling the truth"?
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:09 AM
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