Karl Rove hurls a Time Bomb of Deceit into the Town Square

(2PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

As if we didn’t have enough volatile “wedge issues” to put the Nation on Perpetual Pause — Karl Rove has decided to stink up the place, with yet another outrageous Word Bomb …

GOPers Revise History: Say Dems Have Tax Hike Ticking Time ‘Bomb’

Christina Bellantoni, TPMDC — August 19, 2010

Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS this week detailed the “seven public policy initiatives” that will be most important for Congress next year. The group runs ads against Democrats across the country.

On the list at No. 1: “Stop the Obama tax hike time bomb scheduled to detonate on January 1, 2011.”

That’s not a typo. Rove’s group is claiming that Obama set the timer on that so-called “bomb.”

Talk about Revisionist History — of course consider the source — wasn’t it Rove, who claim to have the “Real Numbers” a few years back …

Yet when have the GOPhers ever let a few unfounded Facts, get in the way of a mindless talking point?

It seems that a lot of Right Wing sympathizers, will pick up the Rove Banner, and jump into the parade …

Action needed by Dec. 31 to avert largest increase in U.S. history; Grayson stays the course

A Tax Time Bomb Ticks Away Under Democrats

Kenric Ward, SunshineStateNews — July 28, 2010

Heading into the fall elections, congressional Democrats appear ready to let the Bush tax cuts expire at year end.

That’s going to be a tough sell on the campaign trail, even as populist Democrats try to fashion themselves as newborn deficit hawks.

A one-year extension of the cuts would “cost” the federal government $115 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

[…]

Turning supply-side economics on its head, the Democratic majority, as of now anyway, insists that higher taxes will right the fiscal ship.

Toeing the party line, Rep. Alan Grayson, a freshman Democrat facing a tough re-election fight in Florida’s 8th Congressional District, stridently maintains that the Bush-era reductions were “tax cuts for the rich.” He opposes any extension.

Apparently “supply-side” true believers, are alive and well in the Sunshine state — good luck Rep Grayson, turning back that red-tide.

Maybe a little blunt honesty from the Wall Street Journal, can defuse the latest Right Wing canard?

Defusing the Tax Time Bomb

By David Wessel, Wall Street Journal — July 29, 2010

President George W. Bush left behind a ticking time bomb that is set for Dec. 31, 2010. If Congress does nothing, taxes on wages, capital gains and dividends will leap, the estate tax will be resurrected at a 55% rate and the pesky alternative minimum tax will hit an additional 21 million taxpayers on 2010 returns.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans have an interest in letting that happen.

[…]

Republicans are happily staking out the no-new-taxes turf, playing to their traditional constituency. Pew says 52% of Republicans favor extending all the Bush tax cuts. Republicans are convinced they can win votes by simultaneously blaming Democrats for the deficit and accusing of them of being tax raisers.

House Democrats are torn between taking a vote before the elections (so members can boast of having stopped a middle-class tax increase) and waiting for the Senate (so Democrats from rich suburban districts don’t get stuck voting to raise taxes on over-$250,000 voters only to find the Senate will extend them for everyone.) Senate Democratic leaders promise a September vote, but it’s far from clear they have the needed 60 votes.

The smart money in Washington says nothing gets done before a postelection lame-duck session.

[…]

The administration argues that symbolism matters as much as dollars. It’ll be hard for the U.S. government to persuade anyone that it takes the long-term deficit seriously if it won’t even let a tax cut on the best-off Americans expire on schedule. Though he doesn’t say so explicitly, Mr. Obama knows he is unlikely to wrestle down the deficit without also raising taxes on folks making less than $250,000 at some point.

So what happens? Political gridlock, wavering Senate Democrats, deficit angst and a gnawing sense that the tax code is due for an overhaul could combine to make a one- or two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts–perhaps all of them, perhaps only those Mr. Obama like–likely.

This could tee up a massive tax and deficit package after the 2012 presidential elections. But one problem with that politically expedient solution: It would exacerbate the already overwhelming uncertainty hanging over the economy and discouraging business hiring and investment.

Is “politically expediency” once again, being weighed in the balances?

Well, is “Climate Change”, really just a problem for “future generations”?

(ie.  Do bears, sleep in the woods?)

Where is the Non-partisan analysis on this Ticking “Tax Cut” dilemma?

Extending Tax Cuts for Rich Would Add $36 Billion to Deficit, Study Finds

Christopher Weber, PoliticsDaily — August 12, 2010

Extending Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would pad the federal deficit by up to $36 billion next year, with most of that money going to millionaires, according to a congressional analysis released Wednesday.

The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that households earning more than $1 million annually would receive nearly $31 billion in tax breaks under the Republican plan to keep the tax cuts going, The Washington Post reported. The average millionaire would see taxes reduced by about $100,000 in 2011.

So there you go, NOT letting the Tax Cuts expire on the Rich, would increase the federal deficit by $36 billion.

and a one-year extension of the BUSH Tax Cuts for everyone — would continue to GROW the federal deficit by $115 billion. (per the earlier link)

Yet the CBO just announced today extending the Tax Cuts, could boost the Economy in the short run, and wreck it in the long run:

Keeping tax cuts beneficial in short term, harmful over long term, CBO says

Brady Dennis, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, August 20, 2010

The director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday that permanently extending tax cuts put in place under President George W. Bush would provide a “considerable” economic boost over the next several years but would result in substantial increases in the federal deficit, placing the country in a precarious fiscal situation by 2020.  […]

Decisions, decisions.  Who will be in charge by 2020 … Hmmm?

Perhaps it’s a good thing Congress IS in Perpetual Gridlock —

How in the world would they ever find a “happy compromise” on this one?

In any event, the Dems need to counter the Karl Rove “Time Bomb” —

Before yet another one of these Bush Legacy problems, ends up exploding on OUR Watch …

Enough — of smiling and turning the other cheek —

The Tax Cut “Expiration Date” — BELONGS TO Karl Rove and George W. Bush, Alone —

They are the ones who sold that “Bill of Goods” to the American People — in the first place!

Enough of the Rewriting History!