Steve Benen caught something most people missed. Senate Minority Whip, Jon Kyl of Arizona, went on Fox News yesterday and made an alarming declaration.
“You should never raise taxes in order to cut taxes. Surely Congress has the authority, and it would be right to, if we decide we want to cut taxes to spur the economy, not to have to raise taxes in order to offset those costs. You do need to offset the cost of increased spending, and that’s what Republicans object to. But you should never have to offset cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.”
He was responding to a question about how to pay the $678 billion price tag of maintaining the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy over the next ten years, and his response was that Congress shouldn’t have to pay for them at all. Benen’s response was spot-on.
It’s quite a message to Americans: Republicans believe $30 billion for unemployment benefits don’t even deserve a vote because the money would be added to the deficit, but Republicans also believe that adding the cost of $678 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy to the deficit is just fine.
The lesson couldn’t be any more obvious: the GOP’s economic agenda is a pathetic charade.
Of course, writing this is redundant because you already knew that the GOP’s economic agenda is a charade. All this talk about balancing the budget is nothing more than an argument about who benefits from government spending. The GOP runs up deficits when they are in power and the Democrats try to clean up their mess. Republicans only object to raising revenue, not spending it. That will never change.
I don’t think it’s alarming. It’s status quo for conservative fiscal theory. Remember this one?
These idiots hear one of the leaders of their movement say something and take it as gospel, regardless of factual veracity, and then they regurgitate it without blinking an eye.
it’s good folks point this stuff out, but they never change their lies. and, the MSM is not interested in telling the truth about these clowns.
Boo, you say something deeply true here:
“All this talk about balancing the budget is nothing more than an argument about who benefits from government spending.”
As the old saying goes, “it all comes down to whose ox is gored.” Democrats want to give the resources to the poor and middle class (well, at least some of the time they do). Republicans want to give the resources to the wealthy and corporations. They can’t come right out and say that, because it would sound pretty bad, so they hide behind all this balanced budget/individual freedom/it’s your money B.S.
I wish we could shout this very obvious point to the rooftops.
The inability/unwillingness of the Dems/liberals to take on this bullshit head on is the most maddening thing in American political life.
I repeat this point over and over to people. I usually just call Republicans, fiscal frauds because their record over the purse strings never matches their talking points. Ever. The same goes for Blue Dogs because tax cuts and war funding are magic. They just pay for themselves.
Well, they’ll change on revenue if they get their flat tax so most of the revenue comes from the poor and middle and less comes from the rich and corporate.
It’s all about money and power and the Republicans never change in their avowed task of protecting and preserving the wealthy. They are a constant danger to the welfare of all of us and will probably cause the decline and downfall of these united states. I agree with the numbing effects of TV. It seems to have darkened the national intellect and paralyzed the collective will.