The latest round of political bullshit going around is what to do about the expiring Bush II-era tax cuts. Personally, I say let them all expire. Not just the top 2%...EVERYBODY. This country is deep as fuck in debt and there's clearly a vacuum of political will to make the hard decisions necessary to put this country's financial house in order (which would be a collection of both tax increases AND spending cuts affecting all areas of the budget including each side's sacred cows like Social Security benefits and the military). Now is not the time to extend those even-at-the-time inadvisable tax cuts...we can't afford it both financially and politically. But for now, fuck the financially part, it's the political part that's actually pissing me off...a lot.
President Obama's proposal of extending the tax cuts another year or so for those making less than $250K a year and allowing those cuts to expire on those making more already WAS a compromise bill but the Republicans will have none of this. They want the tax cuts for everybody while not simultaneously proposing which programs would be cut to plug up the massive deficit which would result if this were to be done. The Republicans aren't offering a counterproposal...they aren't offering ANYTHING. It's their original position...period. They're like children throwing a tantrum. Either President Obama and the Democratic party does it the Republican way or no way at all. That's not compromise: That's a bullying tactic and it's sickening and the fact that President Obama is urging the Democrats to give in to this atrocious behavior provided they get an extension of unemployment benefits is just fucking sad. The President was quoted as saying (and I'm paraphrasing here) that the American people need to know that their taxes won't be going up next year.
How about you play politics with this one? How about you point out the hypocrisy of the Republicans by going on record as saying you will veto any spending bill that isn't Pay-Go which is every new expenditure must be paid for either through a tax increase or a spending cut elsewhere1. That way you force the Republicans to talk about how they would plug up the nearly trillion dollar deficit that would be created by extending these cuts. How about you point out that the Republicans are fighting awful hard for 2% of the country and are willing to sacrifice the other 98% to do so. I dunno. Anything, ANYTHING other than giving in.
Personally, I say let them all expire. Our taxes and I say "our" because I cannot believe I will ever have a reader in that elusive 2% bracket will not rise that much. The news points out about $1000 a year for the "average" American. I don't make "average" wages but if I did, that's $20 a week. For me, it'd likely be $10 a week. I can swing that and I already live pretty close to the razor's edge. I hate both the Democrats and the Republicans but seriously, fuck the Republicans. I can only hope these newbie Tea Partiers recently elected will muck up the system with their misplaced idealism. I'm waiting desperately for this party to pay for its propaganda.
President Obama really needs to call their bluff and simply refuse to go along with the Republican strategy which seems to be "fuck everyone". He really needs to grow a pair of balls. I've lost all my respect for him. Sometimes I really wonder why the Republicans hate him so much when he so readily goes along with their ideas in the name of "bipartisanship" which these days really just seems to be defined as "whatever the Republicans are doing". The President seems like the most Republican President we've ever had.
I'm already convinced the pussy solution of "give the Republicans what they want" strategy will ultimately prevail. It's just so frustrating and depressing to endure...
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1 not actually my idea. I read it in a comment on Gawker.com here specifically this one but I'm going with it.
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