Yes the headline is harsh, but so are the actions of the GOP. Tonight President Obama is to ask for an extension of the payroll tax cuts and even increase them. Hasn’t the right been telling us that tax cuts are what keeps the economy rolling? Well apparently not now:
Congressional Republicans over the past year have threatened to both shut down the government and default on U.S. debt in order to prevent tax hikes. But in January, without congressional action, payroll taxes are set to increase by 50 percent on millions of American workers. The GOP response? A resounding meh.
When President Obama travels to Congress on Thursday to deliver a major jobs speech, he’ll be encountering a species previously considered mythical on Capitol Hill: Republicans who don’t support tax cuts.
The one-year payroll tax cut was passed as part of the deal that extended Bush-era tax rates through 2012, and Republicans routinely described the potential expiration of that cut as a “tax hike.” While the payroll tax cut applies to no more than the first $106,000 in income, the Bush tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy. But the key difference between the two is the author: The payroll tax is Obama’s and his alone.
And if you continue reading the article you’ll find quotes from tons of Republicans in Congress, like this one:
“My personal view is that the debt is already impacting the economy,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) “If your debt is this large, I think you’ve gotta be very careful about adding debt.” HuffPost asked whether that view put the GOP in the unusual position of advocating that taxes go up on millions of people in January, when the one-year cut expires.
And yet Sessions was one of those who pushed hard to extend the Bush tax cuts for the top 2%. These are the very same tax cuts that were in affect when the economy tanked and unemployment skyrocketed. These are the very same tax cuts that turned the surplus George Bush inherited into a deficit.
After reading this, if you believe that the GOP gives one damn about you or me then you are living in an alternate reality. They don’t give one DAMN about the United States or the struggling people out here. Instead they just want to oppose everything the black, Democrat in the White House proposes.
So now the big question. If tax cuts are no longer the way to fix our economy, what is? What plan does the GOP have? I’ll tell you – NOTHING! The only thing they care about is winning next year and nothing will stand in the way of that, including American’s losing their houses or children starving. They really are terrorists.