Out-of-Touch Congressional Republicans Back Deficit-Busting Bush-Era Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest Few

After a fewdaysofconfusion, House Republicans are in lock-step again defending GOP support for extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest few that will blow a $700 billion hole in the deficit – $36 billion of which will come next year – even if it means holding tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses hostage. They are out-of-touch with the American people.

Americans continue to strongly support rolling back the tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent:

CNN: By a 20-point margin, 51 percent to 31 percent, a majority of Americans said that they support ending Bush-era tax cuts for families making more than $250,000 a year.

CBS: By a 20-point margin, 56 percent to 36 percent, a majority of Americans say they support ending the Bush-era tax cuts for households earning more than $250,000 a year.

Democrats are committed to tax relief for American workers, their families and small businesses. Congressional Democrats and President Obama will permanently cut taxes for 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses – and help get the Bush-Republican deficit under control.

Here are a few editorials from across the country underscoring just how out-of-touch Congressional Republicans are on this critical issue.

Louisville Courier-Journal Editorial – Reliving the Past

As the country struggles to emerge from the most severe economic crisis since the 1930s, the Republicans are all in a tizzy about … what? They're pulling out every stop to prevent restoring tax rates for couples making more than $250,000 a year to the higher levels that preceded the Bush tax cuts.

What is it about the recent past that they have already forgotten? Is it that the tax cuts — driven far more by ideology and politics than by sound economics —were enacted in 2001 to replace a progressive tax table that had not impaired a robust economy in the preceding decade? Do they recall that rare federal budget surpluses soon became ominous deficits? Do they grasp that while the tax cuts made the rich richer (probably by unspoken design), they had almost no effect on the wages or well-being of most of the population?...

…If the Republicans drag the country back to the crony capitalism and failed economic policies of the Bush administration, that will be too bad for us.

Newark Star-Ledger Editorial – On tax policy, Republicans have lost their way

In 2001, when Republicans passed the Bush income tax cuts, budget rules forced them to estimate the cost over the following decade.

And they were dishonest. They set the tax cuts to expire after nine years, a gimmick to reduce the stated cost. The plan was to renew the cuts when the time came.

Now the time is here, and the gimmick has backfired. If Congress does nothing, income taxes will rise at the end of the year, even on the middle class.

President Obama wants to prevent that. He would let taxes rise only on earnings over $250,000. The wealthy would still get their share because the lower rates would apply to the first $250,000 they earn. In fact, they would still get a much larger break than the typical middle-class family.

But that's not enough for Republicans in Washington. They want to renew the original Bush tax cuts, in full. And again, they are being dishonest…

Leading the charge is Minority Leader John Boehner…

And what about the deficit? Extending these tax cuts would force the treasury to borrow an additional $700 billion over the next decade. What Republicans are suggesting is this: Let's borrow money from the Chinese and hand it over to the Americans who need it least. More than half of the money would go to those earning at least $2 million a year…

New York Times Editorial – Republicans and the Middle Class

…For months, Republican leaders have been uniform in their insistence that they would allow everyone's taxes to rise if the rich did not get to keep their Bush-era tax breaks. Mr. Obama has proposed continuing the tax cut for the 98 percent of taxpaying families earning less than $250,000 while allowing the tax rates for the top 2 percent to return to their levels prior to the Bush administration. Republicans have demanded tax cuts for all, and, so far, not a single Republican leader has lined up behind Mr. Boehner's concession…

…Holding the middle-class cuts hostage to those for the wealthy would pose both a political danger to Republicans and an economic danger to the nation.

Ultimately, the case for the top-level tax cuts is increasingly shaky. If Republicans are the least bit serious about reducing the deficit, they have to acknowledge that doing so requires additional revenues, $700 billion of which would be lost to the top 2 percent of earners in the next decade if their taxes do not rise…

Mr. Cantor and other hard-line tax-cutters like to claim that the high-end cuts would go to small businesses and other "job creators." But they should listen carefully to another of Mr. Boehner's surprising acknowledgments on Sunday. Under sharp questioning from Bob Schieffer on CBS News's "Face the Nation," Mr. Boehner admitted that only 3 percent of small businesses would pay higher taxes under Mr. Obama's proposal…

That is something that Republicans simply do not say out loud; it would add inconvenient facts to a battle that they prefer to wage at a purely emotional level. But Mr. Obama's efforts to enact a reasonable tax policy are not just good politics. They make good sense.