but only available if the lame duck Democratic congress lets the insane, unaffordable, unsustainable, fundamentally evil B**h tax cuts expire on December 31, 2010.
Here's how it works:
Congress does the right thing and takes no action on the expiration of the B**h tax cuts. Ergo, they expire - as the law that created them specifically said they would - on December 31.
Now, first, let's look at the one- and two-year ramifications of this move: the US treasury by the end of 2011 has almost $400 billion more as a result of the expiration of these cuts. There will be almost one trillion additional dollars by the end of 2012.
Now, let's make a few things clear here:
- The portion of the tax cuts that went to millionaires and billionaires hasn't created significant jobs over the past decade, so it is even less likely to create jobs now.
- The portion of the tax cuts that went to the middle classes - actually a much larger portion - didn't create jobs, and really wasn't all that much anyway. For the real working classes, they were less than $1,000 per year: $20 per week.
So, no jobs and little benefit to the middle class, right?
Now, while that $20 per week may sound like a nice little "bonus": maybe an extra dinner out (at a pretty cheap place), maybe the UnderArmour brand sports T for one of the kids rather than the WalMart brand (both garments, of course, made in China or Singapore)...not much, frankly.
But what did $20 per week cost that middle-class family?
Well...a whole helluva lot more than $20 per week. First, it cost them the interest on the several trillion dollars in national debt that those cuts caused. That share of interest alone is probably more than $20 per week...but they're paying it, and paying it, and their children will be paying it...
Second, as state and local governments have seen their federal support dry up as a result of those cuts, they've seen their local services slashed to the bone. They've watched as the best teachers were cut from their children's schools as the class sizes increased. They've watched as their local libraries and parks have cut, first, hours, and then actual branches. They've watched their towns' police departments cut personnel, cut vehicle replacement, cut protective gear, cut patrols.
They've watched as their neighbors were first laid off, then outright terminated as their jobs evaporated. They've watched those neighbors' houses around them go slowly downhill, as they couldn't afford to patch that cracked driveway, couldn't afford to fix that gutter drooping off the eaves. Tax cuts aren't worth a damn if you don't have a job, you know. They've watched the battered trucks carry away those neighbors' meager possessions after the foreclosure notices appeared stapled to the front doors of their neighbors houses. They've watched the lights blink off for the last time in houses up and down their street, at the same time they've watched the streetlights blink off one by one as the city could no longer afford to replace them on a regular schedule.
They've watched their neighborhood turn into a blighted zone, where their home's value has dropped through the floor and they couldn't sell it even if they could find a buyer.
Yep...all for thet eatra $20 per week "in their pockets", they've watched as the lives they've painstakingly built for themselves and their families crumble around them.
For $20 per week in tax cuts.
So...about those 2012 campaign commercials: how does that work?
Well. Here's how.
After doing the right thing and letting all the destructive B**h tax cuts expire, the Democrats in the Republican-dominated House start proposing legislation. Leader Pelosi presents bill after bill to help the suffering middle class of this nation. She presents a standalone bill seeking reduction in taxes for middle class taxpayers. She does it over and over.
Republicans kill the bills over and over.
There's one set of commercials.
(menacing voiceover):
Democrats in Congress have worked for an entire year to help American families through this economic crisis. Leader Pelosi has introduced bill after bill to provide this help. What has the Republican majority had to say about this?
(clips of:)
Speaker Boner: "NO!"
Cantor: "NO!"
Bachmann: "NO!"
At the same time, Democrats in the House introduce bill after bill - again, all standalone bills - to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed: not just the newly-long-term, but also the "99ers" who were left out of Obama's idiotic "deal". Again, if the Republicans block those bills and don't let them out of committee, there are more commercials:
NO!
NO!
NO!
This works with every initiative that is important to the vast majority of Americans. How about Democratic proposals to create millions of WPA-type jobs: better to provide real work for the unemployed than to simply pay unemployed workers to look for jobs that aren't there, right? The inventory of "NO!" clips would provide enough 2012 campaign commercials to whup the ass of any Republican candidate.
Meanwhile, as federal tax revenues increase as long as the Clinton-era tax rates remain in force, the services that people need will be gradually restored...and those commercials write themselves, too, because the Democrats will own the revenue increases. And if Republicans block needed spending? Well, I'm just drooling about how those commercials will play.
And what if the Republicans, under pressure from the tens - nay, hundreds - of millions of Americans who are suffering?
Well, those commercials would write themselves, too, if the Democratic bills pass.
(Sweet, pleasant voiceover:) Democratic Congressman _______ introduced the bill that brought tax relief to millions of working American families...
See, the way it works is that Democrats back Republicans into the same sort of trap they've backed us into year after year...and we leave those scumbag Republicans no choice but "cave or lose".
Wouldn't it be nice to see the shoe on the other foot this time?
It's in the Democrats' hands. If they blow it this time, our party will be banished to the wilderness for at least a generation.
LET ALL THE B**H TAX CUTS EXPIRE...NOW!