Why a tax cut now for the rich?

The increasing national debt had become a campaign issue for the Republicans this year. Thus it might be surprising to find the Republican senators unanimously in favor of increasing our country's debt by $700 billion over the next decade by extending the Bush-era tax cut to the very rich.

But this just shows who the Republicans really serve. When asked about this apparent contradiction, a typical response is "The money is not the government's - it is ours" (Rand Paul).

Using that logic, our government should stop collecting all taxes as it is our money. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says the government needs to cut spending, but refused to say what in particular would be the massive spending cuts. Further, this tax cut for the top 3 percent will not help our economy much.

Investigations of past tax cuts by Moody's Analytics show that rich people tend to save the money from tax cuts unlike the poor and middle class who will more likely spend it.

It makes some sense to extend the tax cuts for those under $250,000 income. However, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan argues that the entire Bush-era tax cuts should be allowed to expire as any short-term benefit from the tax cuts will be overshadowed by the huge deficit it creates.

In the meantime, the federal deficit for August is below what it was a year ago "putting the country on track to record a slightly smaller deficit for the entire year compared with last year's all-time high" (Business Week).

President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress are slowly turning around the deficit spending.

With poverty increasing, what are the moral grounds for a tax cut for the rich now, which will have to be paid back by our children and grandchildren?

Eugene Bordelon

Warrenville