Republicans: unanimously against the largest middle class tax cut ever

(8 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

For years, the republican Party mantra was that Democrats will raise your taxes and raise them again, and once they are done, they will raise them one more time.

Well, it looks like the foot’s on the other hand now, as the estimated $282 billion in tax cuts over two years is more than either of the 2001-2002 or the 2004-2005 Bush tax cuts or the Kennedy or Reagan tax cuts.

And with most of these cuts going to the middle class and upper middle class, every single House republican and nearly every Senate republican will be voting against these cuts.

Now personally, I think that the tax cuts are nice, but don’t provide nearly the bang for the buck that programs that focus on job creation would have provided.  And while a $70 billion AMT patch is nice, it doesn’t change the fact that the AMT is still royally unfair (I own a house and have a job, and with basically the same income base for AMT and regular tax purposes, I owe another $5,000 in AMT, which unfairly puts me in a much higher tax bracket).  While I wouldn’t mind paying more in tax if it was based on real progressive tax rate schedules, and this bogus reason to kick me into paying more while people making more than me don’t pay it is another issue altogether – I’ll avoid my personal thoughts on the merits of different tax policies or whether tax cuts are at all meaningful in the short, medium or long term.

So far, nearly every single roll call vote on the compromise jobs bill – the bill that provides American families with the largest tax cut ever – including the votes as to whether the bill should even come to the floor for a vote, has been unanimously opposed by House republicans.  And of course, this continued for the final vote on passage.

Whether tax cuts for the middle class or AMT relief should be part of this bill is debatable – tax cuts for the middle class and fixing the AMT are things that certainly should be looked at – probably not as part of this bill but in general.  And whether the tax cuts that are put into this bill would provide any stimulus to the economy or meaningful relief to American families is pretty irrelevant at this point, since they are part of this bill.

What is important right now is that the hypocrisy of the republican party on the biggest “signature” fiscal issue for decades has been laid bare.  What is important right now is that every American family should know that the House republicans are unanimously voting against cutting their taxes, and Senate republicans will be doing the same in a near-unanimous fashion.

Republicans love them some tax cuts – they just don’t want hardworking and struggling American families to have them too.