Saturday, December 4, 2010

Thoughts on the Bush tax fiasco

An awful lot has been said about whether the Bush tax bill should be extended, modified or allowed to expire as it was designed.  I can only speak for myself but I would advocate for the end of the tax break for so many reasons.

First of all the tax breaks were not needed when they were jammed down our throats by President Bush and the GOP.  Sure the country was in a minor recession and the Republicans were in a hot tizzy to tear down the Clinton Budget Surplus by giving a big fat gift to the wealthy.  However, the wealthy were not all in agreement about the need of the cuts.  In fact, I recall Bill Gates being a prominent opponent to these reductions at the time.  By making these cuts Mr. Bush ingratiated himself with what he would later call "his base" - the "haves" and leave the growing national debt to our children and grandchildren to figure out.

Additionally, we have now had 10 years of experience with the Bush tax fiasco and did not see the promised growth in jobs.  We have seen the wealthy do what we would all do if we were afforded the opportunity to - bank that windfall.  The net wealth gap between the top 2% and the rest of us has grown larger and faster than ever before.  If there was any investment of these monies it went into companies that were busy off shoring as many jobs as they could and watching their bottom lines grow. 

The mismanagement continues today - our audaciously hoped for liberal renaissance has quickly come back to Earth as President Obama has sought out an extremely cautious path through our trying times - which he continues to remind us he inherited. He has failed to end the violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and anywhere else we may be in clandestine misadventures.  He has failed to end our activities in the dastardly practices of renditions, Guantanamo, black prison sites or bringing torturers to justice.  If he'd only show the world that the Nobel Committee was not wrong in awarding him an early Peace Prize we would reap benefits in our international reputation and economy.

Sorry about that hard left hand turn.  I hope you are still with me. 

The Tea Partying GOP is busy victimizing those that are already victims of this mess.  The TP/GOP engages in a campaign in which they suggest everyone that isn't wealthy already only aspires to live out their lives on the public dole.  Granted there are some people that might be taking advantage but they are a far smaller problem than the TP/GOP want us to believe.  Then when the bias of the social order is debated publicly the Progressives and Liberals are accused of "class warfare".  Our society learned long ago that we are a better people and economy when we lend a hand when it is needed.  We should not ignore those hard lessons learned - we should be putting our collective shoulder to the task of pushing through this economic quagmire!

To those that say they have been taxed enough already you do not truly understand that the "taxes" coming due will not just be collected by the dreaded IRS.  If we fail to help out our unemployed, under-employed, working poor and disadvantaged the life you have come accustomed to living may be forever lost.  Prepare yourself for the "tax man" forms that you may have never contemplated before.  We as a people and country have the work ethic and a sense of fair play to change the course we seem to be taking.

I cannot understand completely why the wealthy and ownership class are so ready to take the risk of flushing the American potential - which is what makes us exceptional - down the drain.  In terms that I'm sure everyone can appreciate, there is money to be made from those we help and employ.  There is only a limited future if the only people that have discretionary income are the wealthiest few.  Try to find someone to buy the goods or services your company may provide if they are not employed or have to spend every nickle scraped together to buy food, shelter and medicine.  Don't be so short sighted - see that eventually the market will not support your business as demand fades away - and if businesses fade away so too the jobs fade away and the potential becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy of total failure.

Let the tax rates return to their previous level.  Restore unemployment benefits to all that have been cut off.  Help those who are in need.  Get busy doing the hard work of restoring the economy and retiring our debt.  After we've got that handled you can go back to being self absorbed .

Well this being my first extended posting has been personally interesting - I'll try to be better focused in the future and provide the links to support my arguments.  Consider this a rant if you will but I've named my blog "Educate me" because I want feedback.  Please feel free to add your comments and opinions but if all you have is name calling in your bag of tricks, please don't bother.  I've been called it all before and it just doesn't get to me.

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