4 November 2005 - 10:33am
Budget math: $35 billion in cuts minus $70 billion in tax breaks equals deficit reduction?
The math is even more screwy when you consider that those tax cuts are targeted for the super-rich elite -- you know, the multinational corporate executives who've donated big bucks to buy access to Congress. (Do you think your Senator would take your call?)
Of course, this is the "trickle down" theory, where huge multi-billion-dollar tax cuts for the jet-set is supposed to free the Ken Lays and Rupert Murdochs and Warren Buffets to give bigger tips to doormen and buy more luxury boats and, thus, um, help the average American.
Of course, it doesn't quite work.
And so, honoring the great Republican traditions, we get, in the name of budgetary restraint, even greater deficits, while we give the finger to the poor and lower middle-class who've been struggling the most as our country adjusts to the global economy.
Thus the billionaires and their well-to-do cronies get an early Christmas present from the Republicans:
Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said, "This bill is a reflection of the Republican Congress's commitment to pursue a path of fiscal responsibility."
It will, Mr. Gregg said, reduce the deficit and save roughly $35 billion over the next five years.
Democrats said the savings would disappear and the deficit would increase if Republicans carried out their plan to cut taxes by $70 billion later this year.
The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, called the budget "an immoral document" that "harms vulnerable Americans to provide another round of large tax breaks for the elite of this country, special interests and multimillionaires."
Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, told a Congressional committee on Thursday that lawmakers should not extend President Bush's tax cuts if they could not make up for the lost revenue.
Now I'm sure some right-wing spinmeisters will call things like what I'm saying "Class Warfare." But I ask you: Who's waging the war? When the Republicans are playing reverse Robin Hood, it seems like they're the ones lobbing shells across class lines.
Personally, I think this is the worst remake of How the Grinch Stole Christmas ever.
And especially so for the wildlife in Alaska.
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Comments
Of course, if your deficit is greater than $105 billion, then you can tell people that you have a $105 billion deficit this year and that it's better than it was last year. Of course, you don't tell people that you're increasing the deficit by $105 billion. What good would that do?