I don’t want to hand the rich a golden shovel in the form of a tax cut, so they can dig a deficit so deep we can see Ireland. Why haven’t we been able to get it across that this is a bad idea?
It has been exasperating to watch the Democrats bite their own hooves nervously and snort and bray over the very prospect of getting anything done in the lame donkey session of Congress. There are still great things to achieve before Darrell Issa turns the House of Representatives into the Little Shop of Investigative Horrors. I believe we can achieve these things with just a little marketing.
Yes, marketing. As we’ve learned, it is not enough to simply govern well. You have to convince others that you are governing well. And you have to do this in less time than it takes to take a pee break from Dancing with Republican Politicians or Their Offspring. To do that, you need a little marketing. You remember marketing – the Republicans excel at it. They give snappy names to things –even to things that don’t exist like "Death Panels"—and have people repeating them in supermarket checkout lines in 3 days or less. If they have a "Contract" with or on America, they assemble en masse on the Capitol steps and the press dutifully covers the spectacle. That’s what we need to do with these deficit-hiking tax cuts the rich have enjoyed since Bush turned the White House into a supply-side Animal House.
Now I am no marketing genius, or else I would have a boyfriend. But it shouldn’t take a marketing genius to convince Americans that continuing a tax cut for the richest 2% of Americans is crazy and not in their best interests. So far, Pelosi is struggling with this as are other Democrats.
Here’s my plan. Assemble the Democrats on the Capital steps with a golden shovel. And tell the American people that we aren’t going to hand the rich a golden shovel just so they can dig a deeper deficit.
After taking the Clinton surplus and turning it into an almost insurmountable deficit, the Republicans are lecturing us – us!-- on spending. Well, I propose we turn it around on them in classic Rovian fashion and emphasize that this is going to INCREASE THE DEFICIT. And it will. Estimates are that it will increase the deficit by 700 billion over ten years. As to other arguments:
- The economy is too fragile! You’ll hurt it! Answer: It’s not fragile. You broke it. Now step aside and let us glue it back together, nimrod.
- Rich people need this to create jobs. Answer: No they don’t. This tax cut is in place RIGHT NOW and has been since 2001 and 2003. If they were going to help us, they would have by now. Instead, corporations are sitting on billions.
- Small business! Omigod! You are going to hurt small business!Answer: Oh, yeah -- you guys are the small business champs. But you really sob when British Petroleum gets hurt. Just shut up. By the way [props to Timbuk3], this won't affect small business, but small business owners who draw more than $250,000 in income from the business.
- We want tax cuts for ALL Americans. Answer: That’s very generous of you, but something tells me you aren’t looking out for ALL Americans.
Anyway, let’s focus on the deficit-increasing aspects of this tax cut and turn their arguments around on them. No golden shovels for the rich to dig a deeper deficit.
UPDATE: No way! I wake up and see my diary on the rec list??!! No flaming way! We get by with a little help from our friends. Thank you for the thoughtful and creative comments. All of us are in service to a better democracy.
UPDATE 2: OK. Still can't believe I'm here. Anyway, I am now leaning toward the approach advocated by Leap Year and Dharmafarmer below, which is to advocate for "Tax Cuts for All". Please see their discussion below. It's all good though. We need to pass this bill.
UPDATE 3: Thanks to Flitedocnm and then coffeetalk for numbers correction.