Heritage Foundation doesn't think
much of the tax deal.
Yeah, that's kind of a DUH moment, but anyway.
David
ORourke54.htm
"There is
no virtue in compulsory government charity, and
there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who
portrays himself as
"caring" and "sensitive" because he wants to expand the
government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's
willing to try to
do good with other people's money. Well, who isn't? And a
voter who takes pride
in supporting such programs is telling us that he'll do good
with his own money
-- if a gun is held to his head."--P.
J.
O'Rourke
-------- Original Message --------
To ensure email delivery
directly to your
inbox, please add
[email protected]
to
your address book now.
If you're having trouble
viewing this message,
please view it online.
![Morning Bell]() |
| 12/10/2010 |
|
There
is No Tax Deal
On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden
reportedly told House Democrats that the tax
deal cut with
Republicans was a “take
it or leave it†proposition that
could not
be changed. But by last night, after fierce
opposition from his leftist base, President
Barack Obama was singing a different tune,
telling NPR:
“My sense is there are going to be
discussions between both House
and Senate leadership about all the final
elements of the package. Keep in mind we
didn’t actually write a bill.â€
Well now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D–NV) has submitted a bill, and it is
clear that negotiations are still very much
open … at least for
the left. Politico reports that in order to
buy the votes of Senators
Maria Cantwell (D–WA) and Barbara Boxer
(D–CA), Reid added cash subsidies
for wind and solar corporations that
were originally part of Obama’s first
failed stimulus. And
Senator Tom Harkin (D–IA) was also able to
trade his vote for more ethanol subsidies.
Other “sweeteners†added to buy leftist
Senate votes
include subsidies for energy-efficient
appliances and mass-transit benefits for
employees.
And the legislation can only get worse.
Yesterday House Democrats voted to oppose
the Obama tax deal, with Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D–CA) telling Politico:
“In the caucus today, House Democrats
supported a
resolution to reject the Senate Republican
tax provisions as currently written. We will
continue discussions with the president and
our Democratic and
Republican colleagues in the days ahead to
improve the proposal before it comes to the
House floor for a vote.†And by “improve
the proposal,â€
Speaker Pelosi can only mean higher taxes
and higher spending.
The deal originally cut by Republicans had
some good economic policy in it, but it also
had a lot of harmful provisions. The
temporary two-year nature
of the arrangement did not provide the
long-term certainty that businesses need to
make long-term investment plans that create
substantial economic
growth and jobs. Allowing the death tax to
return, even at a lower rate, did not give
small businesses the relief that a permanent
repeal would
provide. Finally, the original deal provided
a costly $57 billion 13-month extension of
unemployment benefits that was not paid for.
This extraneous
spending should have been stripped out of
what should be a clean tax bill; instead,
the left is only adding more spending and
subsidies into it.
This fall, President Obama campaigned around
the country promising to raise taxes on
America’s job creators. By contrast,
conservatives across the
country campaigned on promises not to allow
the left to raise taxes on anyone on January
1st. The American people chose the
conservative position in
what even President Obama himself described
as a “shellacking.†The tax bill
introduced by Reid is not what conservatives
promised they would
fight for during the elections. And the
legislation will only get worse as more and
more liberal votes are bought off with more
and more deficit
spending. Taxes should not be raised on the
American people. Congress and the President
would do well by the American people to
jettison all the other
side issues from this debate and focus first
and foremost on preventing tax hikes.
Print
| Comments | Forward
|
|
|
|
|
Connect
with Heritage
|
| Support our work by becoming a
member with your gift of $25
or more. |
| The
Heritage
Foundation |
| 214
Massachusetts
Avenue, NE |
| Washington,
DC
20002-4999 |
| Call
us at (202)
546-4400 |
Add [email protected]
to your address book
to ensure that you receive emails from us.
|
|
|
You are subscribed to
this newsletter as [email protected].
If you want to receive other Heritage Foundation
newsletters
or opt out of this newsletter please click
here to
update your subscription preferences.
|
![]()
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
|
