When it was released earlier this week that President Obama and the Republican leadership had negotiated a compromise that would allow the Bush tax cuts to be extended, I thought it was good news. In exchange for this extension, they promised to support extending unemployment benefits. We all know too well how the Democrats have responded to the compromise, as they have made their displeasure very clear. I’m not sure if it was the compromise itself that got them all stirred up or the fact that the President left them out of the loop. In any case, they are very much back in the loop and they seem determined to either thwart the compromise or change it completely. Let’s look at what the legislation in the Senate looks like. From The Washington Post:
As President Obama, his deficit commission and a bevy of lawmakers urge a concerted push to streamline the federal tax system, Senate leaders have rolled out a sprawling $858 billion tax bill stuffed with dozens of narrow credits and special-interest perks – the very breaks that much of Washington agrees should be banished from the code.
The final package, released late Thursday, would extend tax credits for producing ethanol and for hiring American Indians. It would maintain deductions for teachers who buy their own supplies and businesses that donate books to charity.
It has tax breaks for restaurants, movie producers and NASCAR track owners. It has a special “economic development credit” for investors in American Samoa.
The provisions – long-standing tax breaks that are renewed by Congress year after year – are layered on top of a two-year extension of the larger, Bush administration income tax cuts that Republicans and Democrats have been fighting about for months. Overall, analysts said, the package would sharply increase budget deficits while perpetuating the worst aspects of a tax system that is widely viewed as inefficient and unfair.
“This tax bill is not in line with fundamental tax reform,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a reform advocate who has yet to decide whether to support the package in a critical vote set for Monday. “It’s essentially propping up this broken system that we’ve got today.”
The final package – which contains $801 billion in tax cuts paired with a $57 billion extension of emergency jobless benefits – was drafted by the White House and lawmakers in both parties and is intended to boost the economy. But its final shape emphasizes the lingering disconnect between high-flown concerns about the mounting national debt and the ground-level reluctance to raise taxes or demand other public sacrifices necessary to reduce government borrowing.
I was hoping that something good would come from this compromise, but I think I can safely say, the other shoe has dropped. In typical Washington fashion, they couldn’t leave well enough alone and it seems like they are trying to stuff the compromise bill, which was supposed to contain the extension for the Bush tax cuts and the unemployment benefits, with something for everyone. So, I wrote and copied and pasted all of this to say this one thing. I was in favor of the tax cut compromise, but if it stays in it’s current form, I have changed my mind. I understand that we all have to make compromises from time to time, but this takes the cake. Once again, the practice of attaching pieces of legislation that are completely unrelated to each other has reared it’s ugly head and the lobbyists are making out like bandits. Even at the risk of seeing taxes going up after the end of the year, I hope this legislation fails. In my opinion, it’s a complete travesty.
This is exactly the type of thing that the American people are sick and tired of–this is why we voted them out. It is disheartening to see that they still haven’t learned their lesson. I hope when the new Congress convenes this type of behavior will come to an end–I am getting more and more doubtful that anything will change.
I hope something changes after the Republicans take over in the House, but I am beginning to have serious doubts as well. Like I said in the post, I was willing to see this compromise take place, but you can’t even recognize the original deal any more. The tax bill they are working on now needs to be trashed, even if it means allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire.
This is a bad deal for all of us. Think about it, the tax rates we have had for the last 10 years will remain the same, and once again spending is increased without finding a way to pay for it. Sounds like a heck of deal for the Democrats. Or maybe it’s just the same old crap we have been dealing with the past four years; spend, spend, spend.
The Republicans were too quick to cut a bad deal and now in order to keep that bad deal the Senate is adding all these earmarks to keep it afloat. Did they not learn anything from this past election? Mike Church; a conservative talk show radio host, stated that changing the deck chairs out on the Titanic was not going to stop it from sinking. He said the only way to fix this is that the states are going to need to unplug from it and take matters into their own hands. I very much agree with him. The Founders knew that the current runaway government we have was a real possibility, this is why they crafted the constitution so that the states had indefinite powers while the federal government had limited powers. They knew that eventually the states would have to be the grownups in the room and remind the federal government just who was in charge. I’m still waiting for the states to start speaking up.
And when you really think about it, how good can this deal be if a far left President is in support of it? I personally hope the Democrats sink this. I also encourage everyone to write the new incoming Speaker of the House and let them know that this looks like the same old game being played in Washington and this is exactly what the American people voted against. Great post Larry.
I have come to the same opinion, John. I was originally glad to hear of the compromise, but as it works it’s way through Congress, more and more stuff is being added to it. To say I am sick of this process, perpetrated by the Democrats and the Republicans, is putting it mildly.
One of the best components of the Bowles-Simpson Deficit Commission proposal was the plan to reduce/eliminate tax exemptions (aka “tax expenditures”). It looks like they’re going the wrong way and piling on more.
Unless Republicans get the White House and a filibuster-proof Senate majority in 2012 – not to mention a serious dose of commitment to sane governance – I see no chance that we’ll avert a serious debt crisis soon. Dems seem to only agree to more spending and higher taxes and scream bloody murder when they don’t get 100% of what they ask for. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve had your way for the better part of a century.
That’s the understatement of the year, Ted. As for your thought that the Republicans need to get a commitment to sane governance, I don’t see how we can avert the crisis unless they do. Oh for a conservative leader who will put their foot down and say enough is enough.