For starters, make super-rich pay more
Listening to certain politicians, one might come away with the impression that Congressional Democrats are poised to pass the largest tax increase in American history. This requires one to believe that either Democrats like losing elections or Congressional Republicans are being dishonest in their rhetoric.
Let's examine the possibility of the latter. For one, this tax increase is the expiration of the Bush tax cuts that Republicans enshrined into law in 2001. Because they couldn't garner sufficient bipartisan support, Republicans passed the bill under Reconciliation, a procedure guaranteeing the legislation would expire in 2011 and making Republicans responsible for the reversion back to the higher pre-2001 rates. Egregiously, the same Republicans who support the perpetuation of these tax cuts for the rich have been relentlessly touting the deficit as one of our existential threats.
However, the wars and tax cuts will contribute over $7 trillion to our deficit from 2009-2019 and were authorized under congressional Republicans. Recently, U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam compared Democrats in Congress to teenagers whose parents left for the weekend when it comes to spending and the deficit. This would have more credibility if Roskam wasn't demanding the continuation of the deficit-ballooning tax cuts. To Roskam, spending money to save teachers, supply community jobs and provide basic health services is too crippling, but ensuring that the rich aren't taxed at the same rates they were during the prosperity-laden Clinton administration is paramount. The rank hypocrisy is almost unbelievable.
That's why I support Ben Lowe for Congress, an independent voice refusing money from the big businesses benefiting from Roskam's economic absurdity. Ben understands that seriousness on deficits requires recognizing we face unsustainable debts that we must be proactive on. Making the super-wealthy pay a little more is a start. Irresponsibly and inaccurately framing the issue is not.
Bruce R. Norquist
Wheaton