Thursday, November 15, 2012

Boehner Post-Election is Business as Usual


Response to "John Boehner: No Tax Rate Boost To Avert Fiscal Cliff"

It's not a tax hike, it is the end of a temporary tax cut. The income of the wealthy has quadrupled while wages on the middle class have gone down.

Do people even know that Democrats never had a supermajority in the Senate in 2009 and 2010 due to Al Franken (D-MN) not being able to take his seat for six months due to a contested election, along with the illness of another Senator and the death of Ted Kennedy?

Don't talk to us about Dems being able to pass whatever they wanted in 2009 and 2010. It didn't happen. Senate Republicans held up or watered down any meaningful legislation which would have sped up the recovery. They held hostage unemployment insurance, extended lower tax rates for the middle class, and raises in the debt ceiling, just so millionaires and billionaires could keep more of the money they gained by ripping off their workers.

As Robert Reich has suggested, let's raise the rates on the wealthy back to 55.2%, charge a 2% surtax on the wealth of the richest one-half of 1 percent, enact a tax of one-half of 1 percent on financial transactions, and raise the capital gains rate to match the rate on ordinary income.

No more "starving the beast." Republicans have long since abandoned fiscal responsibility in their pursuit of cuts to social programs, at the state level as well as the national level. Throw these clowns out!

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