Worse, there is a mood of anger in this country which your allies on Fox and Talk Radio have stoked to a level I have never seen in my 43 years. It may be good politics to have your base spun up to the point where some of them are talking about political violence if they don't get their way at the ballot box, but anger is a fire and fire is not always controllable. If you put the nation in to bankruptcy, that anger is going to spread in unpredictable ways. Riots and violence in the streets of Kentucky or California or ever Washington D.C. is entirely possible. That anger would be directed at the government you are part of. Desperate people don't always think rationally and when someone lights a match in a powder room, the explosion affects everyone near by.
What you are asking for is to extend tax cuts to those who are not really affected by the economic downturn. When you have millions of dollars (and lets be clear most of the folks in the top 2% are not just living pay check to paycheck) a temporary reduction in the amount they earn from investments is not going to be that important. Likewise when the majority of your earnings comes from investments, an increase in the tax paid on that money is not going to be missed, except on a balance sheet.
This is very different from the experience of the vast majority of Americans. I don't know how often you get to talk to some of the 8 million people who have lost their jobs during this recession but things are dire for them. Applying for job after job after job, even for work they did when they were starting their careers or when they were in college, and not getting hired is hard in a way that you can not imagine.
It is easy to say that there will be more jobs if we keep the tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and borrow another 3.2 trillion dollars, but there is no evidence that this will happen. In the ten years these tax cuts have been in place there is a net loss of jobs. Even at the height of job creation in the Bush Administration there were only 3 million new jobs. Compare this to the 22 million new jobs created by the Clinton Administration, while raising taxes. The level of taxes in the Clinton administration is what the we are talking about for the ultra-wealthy, not the Regan level or the first Bush administration level, but merely a return to what we had when President Clinton presided over the largest economic expansion in history and balanced the Federal Budget.
Maybe it is an issue of large numbers that is the problem. 3.2 trillion dollars is 3,200 billion. Three thousand two hundred billion dollars which you and your fellow Republicans want to add to our debt to give the comfortable more comfort. The cuts that will expire at the end of this year have already added 2.7 trillion dollars to our debt. That is money we barrowed and have to pay interest on. Right now that interest is low, but it still consumes all the taxes paid to the Federal Government for the months of January and February. One sixth of the federal revenue is consumed by the interest on the tax cuts you put in place a decade ago. Isn't that enough?
I have to say Sen. McConnell, talking like this money generates jobs or does not have to be paid for in massive and punitive cuts in the budget makes you look like a fool. The times when this nation has prospered the most are the times when we have had relatively high tax rates. You know it and yet you have continued to preach that there will be better times if we let the rich be richer and everyone else takes the scraps from their table.
By allowing the tax breaks to expire, as yourself voted to do in 2001 we will bring much needed revenue to the government. It will allow us to spend more to stimulate the economy directly instead of relying on business. This will promote job growth and put millions of Americans back to work. This has to be goal of any lawmaker who actually supports the people of this country.
Senator McConnell, it is time to stop being a partisan hack and start being a patriot. You have had all the advantages that this nation can provide. You live a life of privilege and comfort because of the policies that allow people to get a good education, to work a good job and aspire to something more. Keeping tax rates artificially low for the ultra-wealthy undermines these policies and results in less opportunity for those not as privileged as you and your family are now.
Mitch, it is time to be the man you dreamed of being as a boy. You know the man that stands up for the weak and unfortunate. You remember those dreams, the ones where your actions make things better for many and you are not vilified as a moron who can't add or understand that money which is not collected is the same as money spent.
It seems unlikely to me that you or Minority Leader Boehner will take these steps. You have lost your way. You have been seduced by the power. It has corrupted your ability to actually judge if a policy is going to work or not, even given the ample evidence of the last 8 years.
Still, you might want to think about what an America where citizens starve to death or turn to crime or violence will be like. This is where your policies will take us. Is it really worth it to be in charge of a nation that is no longer a shining city on the hill but instead just another place where the wealthy thrive and everyone else suffers? Is that really the America you want?
The floor is yours. |
