Some of you may remember the $50 billion in cuts to vital services that passed as part a budget reconciliation bill in the House before the Thanksgiving break. (This so-called budget also allows for
the wholesale of public lands through some weird patenting, pro-mining scheme, inserted and buried by my own favorite nimrod,
Reprehensible... er... Rep. Pombo, but that's for another diary.)
The reps-that-be were savvy enough not to vote on the proposed $70 billion in tax cuts that are part of this same budget package until after the Thanksgiving break, seemingly so that the public's attention span, or lack-there-of, would let them push through the 2nd half of this bill while everybody was out decorating and shopping for the holidays. Apparently not a bad move as the other shoe started to drop yesterday when the House overwhelmingly approved $94.5 billion in tax cuts and that doesn't even include the original proposed $50 billion in tax cut extensions for the wealthiest 1%, which will be voted on TODAY.
more below the fold or jump to the Action Alert...
This morning, the front page of the WaPo web site has the headline,
House Passes 3 Tax Cuts, Plans a 4th. So now we're talking around 150 billion dollars in tax cuts while we're mired in a very costly war and there are Katrina victims still without housing or running water at the onset of winter? WTF? Why do these people hate our country so?
From the Post article, here's a break down of what passed overwhelmingly yesterday:
Under rules reserved for the least controversial bills, the House yesterday approved three tax bills in rapid succession. The first, at a cost of $31.2 billion, would slow the expansion of the alternative minimum tax*, a parallel income tax system designed to prevent the rich from dodging taxation but that increasingly has affected the middle class.
The next, at a cost of $7.1 billion over five years, would provide an array of tax breaks to create President Bush's proposed Gulf Opportunity Zone* in the region ravaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Businesses could write off much of the cost of new structures and equipment, while the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be granted tax-exempt bond authority for their own rebuilding.
Bowing to pressure from Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and other social conservatives, GOP leaders exempted casinos, country clubs, hot tub facilities, liquor stores, massage parlors, golf courses, racetracks and tanning salons from the tax breaks, exemptions the administration initially opposed.
Finally, the House passed a modest, $153 million tax break* that would extend a provision allowing members of the military to use their combat pay to claim the earned income credit.
bolds are my own
The cuts that passed yesterday could all be reasonable - I've read that the AMT is likely to really screw over middle-class home owners over the next 20 years if kept in place, and I'm all for anything that helps our military families to survive financially. I'd like to think that they are all reasonable as apparently they passed 414 to 4.
The three measures passed overwhelmingly, with virtually all Democrats voting with Republicans, and with hardly a mention of their impact on the deficit, which is projected to reach $331 billion in fiscal 2006 and remain above $300 billion a year through the end of the decade*, when most of Bush's tax cuts are set to expire. The Senate has already passed similar measures, indicating that all the measures are likely to become law.
OK, so done is done... can we please wake up now and start planning for our future? With Katrina, we've seen what a badly managed, small government nets us - that it actually costs us so much more to run this type of government is just middle class tax-payer rape. The Democrats would do well to become the party that represents fiscal responsibility and effective government - the past 30 years could be our testimonial if we could do better job tooting our own horn about lower rates of teen pregnancies, abortions, illegal immigration and infant mortality under the Democractic watch.
So where is the Action Alert? Today, the House votes on another $51 billion in tax cuts - these cuts benefit the wealthiest 1% of the population:
Some moderate Republicans have expressed misgivings about those cuts, which overwhelmingly benefit affluent investors, especially as Congress moves to cut programs for the poor in the name of deficit reduction. But House GOP leaders expressed confidence yesterday that the tax cuts will pass, saying that the cuts would add to the tax revenue by generating more economic growth.
I have no faith in this group of "reps" to do the right thing but I would at least like to snatch that shoe out of the air and beat them around the back and shoulders with it before it hits the ground since we're going to be paying for their actions for decades to come. Let them know WE ARE PAYING ATTENTION. Please call and email your representative TODAY!
Contact Information:
By phone - House switchboard - (202)-234-3121
By email - go to the House web site and enter your zip-code to be redirected to your reps contact page.
Updated: From Pelosi's office, when calling your Representative about this, refer to the Tax Reconcilliation Act HR 4297. And thank you for paying attention.