The People lost its battle to stop the wealthy corporate families from getting their big tax cuts last week. However, the war over who controls our lawmakers is on, and it will be a long and protracted one. As important as the tax cut battle was, we’ll have to sum this one up and let our anger fuel our strategy to the next level.
I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but here goes.
With the exception of Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D), all of the Missouri congresspeople voted for making sure the richest elite don’t have to do a lick of economic suffering by extending the Bush-era tax cuts for another two years. Congresspeople Roy Blunt (R), Sam Graves (R), Wm. Lacy Clay (D), Ike Shelton (D), Todd Akin (R), Russ Carnahan (D), Jo Ann Emerson (R) and Blaine Luetkemeyer (R) were all in lockstep with passing the bill to extend the tax cuts for all.
The House passed the bill 277 to 148, with 112 Democrats and 36 Republicans voting to oppose it. That means 139 Dems voted for maintaining the omnipotence of rich folks along with 138 Republicans. Look at the Dems’ numbers – it’s a split. That doesn’t bode well for the future when the GOP will have the majority and the Dems will be ripe for the old predictable divide-and-conquer tactics.
The Democrats who held their nose and voted for the tax cuts will tell us that they got a li’l something for poor folks and the middle class. Benefits like unemployment benefits for a good year (not two years, like the rich folks received); refundable tax credits, such as earned income, child, education; and a one-year cut on payroll taxes. There’s no money to pay for the $800 billion package, so it will be borrowed (most likely from China). It will swell the national debt, which was of monumental concern for the lawmakers prior to the voting.
For four years, Barack Obama was vehemently opposed to the Bush-era tax cuts, two years as a presidential candidate and two years as president. Now, he’s okay with them, saying “every economist I have talked to or read” believes that the tax package will be the creator of jobs and economic growth.
I hope those aren’t the same economists he talked to about the magic of the stimulus package – they said the same thing about how the economy would be boosted and jobs would abound. President Obama apparently didn’t hear the cautionary concerns of Moody’s Investors Services or Fitch Ratings, who both expressed the tax cuts could result in a loss of the U.S.’ AAA rating and a reduction in the appeal of its treasury notes. In short, the global capitalists would look at the U.S. as a risky investment. And it is.
I’m no economist, but I can add and multiply. By the time you get through spreading those billions of tax cuts around to the tens of millions of eligible citizens, the impact will be miniscule. Because the wealthy represent two or three percent, their share will be divided among a few, maximizing the impact of the tax cuts. For them, it means mo’ money, mo’ money.
The expiration of the tax cuts conveniently comes around the next election time. Given that the GOP will be running things by then, they may even vote to extend the tax cuts permanently. Their hypocrisy around earmarks, the deficit, family values, support of the troops and a host of other issues is about the only transparent thing about them.
Meanwhile, it looks like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid couldn’t stomach the signing ceremony; they were conspicuously absent when President Obama penned the bill into law.
The People’s task remains the same: to wrestle control of our government from the corporate blood-suckers. We had the lawmakers going there for a minute; the local Dems received a barrage of calls from us to oppose the tax cuts. Now it’s time to step up our game and get ready for the legislative tug-of-war in 2011. Somebody needs to look like they were in a fight, and it can’t be us!