Dec 08 2010
We Got The Tax Cuts, Now Trim Back Government To Bare Essentials
Update: Of course some ideological fool on the right is prepared to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
They expect several defections from the right flank of their party. Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) have expressed concern about extending the jobless benefits without paying for them. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), as the first Republican to wage this fight earlier this year, could also go against the deal…
I cannot express how much DeMint is an albatross around the GOP’s neck. One dumb move after another. A pure minority in his private echo chamber. We don’t need to drag everything out in endless grandstanding – do we? DeMint’s unique measurement of ‘perfection’ is definitely the evil of any and all progress. Mr. Moth strikes again. – end update
Some on the left are wondering why the GOP was happy to get all forms of tax cuts out of Obama this week:
If you look at the numbers alone, the tax cut deal looks to have robbed Republicans blind. The GOP got around $95 billion in tax cuts for wealthy Americans and $30 billion in estate tax cuts. Democrats got $120 billion in payroll-tax cuts, $40 billion in refundable tax credits (Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and education tax credits), $56 billion in unemployment insurance, and, depending on how you count it, about $180 billion (two-year cost) or $30 billion (10-year cost) in new tax incentives for businesses to invest.
The only item of any issue to fiscal conservatives on this list is the unemployment extension – which is actually not bad. Instead of allowing people to sit on unemployment for three years, this extension allows those with less than 99 weeks of unemployment under their belts to attain 99 weeks. Apparently all the extensions were scheduled to sunset. So if you were just starting your extended unemployment payments you would not see the 99 weeks so many were able to take advantage of. Fair enough.
The deficit for next year is now going to balloon well beyond its current $1.3 trillion, because none of this was paid for. Which will give the new GOP run House plenty of reason to start cutting back on bloated and useless agencies and programs.
So why are liberals mad? The candy jar was taken away, and soon all the things they bought with the candy jar will be taken away as well.
Mark Levin agrees with DeMint, Coburn and Krauthammer.
http://www.therightscoop.com/mark-levin-the-tax-deal-is-a-bad-deal
Wall Street Journal Editorialists also concur – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703766704576009684148164872.html
So, Strata, where’s your analysis demonstrating what a great deal this is for the country first, and for Republicans second? How does borrowing more money to buy off Democrats when we are already virtually bankrupt make ANY sense for taxpayers?
Powerline (GOP establishment types) says:
A Washington insider told me today that he thinks the GOP should have held out for a better deal:
The serious Dems in town — including the ones at the WH — know that they’ll get a much worse deal after GOP takes over in January — with fewer D senators and a Boehner House, a retroactive extension of the cuts would pass that probably didn’t include as generous unemployment provisions. The liberals just need a little longer to vent their frustrations…
I wouldn’t say it publicly, but R’s should have held out longer — they had Obama right where they wanted him. He wouldn’t have, couldn’t have, let the middle class tax cuts expire. The negotiators gave away more than they needed to…and now the debt will be even bigger, which should be a bigger disappointment than it is.
I still stand behind the original agreement as reported, but if the legislation as written by the Dems is, in fact, a Christmas tree, then forget it. Let’s take our chances in January.
Even the AP pretty much calls this “tax cut” bill out for what it is – a pork-loaded Democrat/RINO Christmas tree.
Strata, what say you?
norisk,
I see you demonstrating the same thinned skinned whining of all right wing radicals. I am a conservative, not a robot. Good lord, learn to take criticism and NEVER put a politician on a hero’s pedestal.
I will agree with you on one thing – I would not push this in the lame duck anymore. 6 weeks of across the board tax hikes in everyone’s paychecks will refocus the debate quite nicely – against the liberals.