This Morning Speaker Boehner painted a false picture, that the 2012 year-end Tax increases on the Rich, were done to "finance Obama health care program" ...
Speaker Says a Broad Budget Deal Is Possible, but Not With More Revenue
by Jonathan Weisman, thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com --March 3, 2013
Mr. Boehner, appearing on the NBC program “Meet The Press,” said President Obama has already raised taxes nearly $1 trillion to finance his health care program and in January won $650 billion in steeper taxes on high incomes.
“How much more does he want?” Mr. Boehner asked. “When is the president going to address the spending side of this?”
Aah No, Mr Speaker -- that was just the sound of the Bush Economic Legacy ending ...
Enjoy the Sunset, dude. (America does. And we want more -- like the closing of corporate Tax Loopholes; like the end of Big Oil charity, like the taxing of the money-changers down in the temples of greed, otherwise known as Wall Street.)
Let's dig up a little not-so-ancient history -- history that the Republican Speaker is purposely trying to rewrite -- something called "The Sunset Provision" of Public Law 107-16, enacted by the 107th Congress.
It was a "sweetener" tossed into the historic revenue-draining Republican Bill, that somehow made it palatable to the Democratic Leaders, who at the time, should have known better. Better than to have believed, the sunset-part of the law would actually be followed.
Promises, promises. Where is the Republican follow-through?
It's nowhere to be found was kicking and dragging their feet, all across the land ... as per usual. As the can-kicking-clock once again ran out.
sun·set n.
1. The event or time of the daily disappearance of the sun below the western horizon.
2. A decline or final phase: the sunset of an empire.
re·vert v.
1. To return to a former condition, practice, subject, or belief.
2. Law To return to the former owner or to the former owner's heirs. Used of money or property.
Sunset Provision -- wikipedia.org
One of the most notable characteristics of EGTRRA [The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001] is that its provisions were designed to sunset, or revert to the provisions that were in effect before it was passed, on January 1, 2011. These provisions were extended for two years under the 2010 Tax Act. The sunset provision allowed EGTRRA to sidestep the Byrd Rule, a Senate rule that amends the Congressional Budget Act to allow Senators to block a piece of legislation if it purports a significant increase in the federal deficit beyond ten years. The sunset allowed the bill to stay within the letter of the PAYGO law while removing nearly $700 billion from amounts that would have triggered PAYGO sequestration.[4]
Tax rebate
In addition to the tax cuts implemented by the EGTRRA, it initiated a series of rebates for all taxpayers that filed a tax return for 2000. The rebate was up to a maximum of $300 for single filers with no dependents, $500 for single parents, and $600 for married couples.
President George Bush Tax Cuts
The Facts About the Tax Cuts and Why They Were Extended
by Kimberly Amadeo, About.com Guide
Tax cuts are always an easy and quick way to stimulate the economy by putting more money directly into taxpayers' hands. President Bush gave tax cuts to families in 2001, and to businesses in 2003. These were due to expire in 2011. He mailed out a one-time tax rebate to unsuccessfully ward off the financial crisis of 2008. Instead of expiring in 2011, the Bush tax cuts were extended in 2010 for two years. Debate over whether the cuts should be extended for those making $250,000 or more is an important factor in the 2012 Presidential campaign.
[...]
Promises, promises. The GOP knows how to make them -- they just don't know how to
keep them. And they sure do want us to
FORGET them. Forget their commitments to the American People.
SO, don't bother asking them, "what good they do?" ... because they are too busy plotting and scheming, their next "bait-and-switch" talking points, to hoodwink the American People. It's what they do. It's their modern-day specialty.
The GOP's Fiscal Time Bomb
by Howard Kurtz, thedailybeast.com -- Dec 2, 2010
George W. Bush set the trap just over nine years ago, and the Democrats are still trying to extricate themselves.
[...]
But in Washington, where anything beyond last week’s news cycle is considered ancient history, the jury-rigged nature of the Bush plan -- and the fiscal sleight-of-hand involved -- have been all but forgotten.
[...]
As an added bonus, the “sunset” provision, in Beltway-speak, was a political time bomb: At some point in the way distant future, Democrats could be accused of raising taxes if they tried to undo the Bush breaks and return to Clinton-era levels of taxation.
[...]
Sunset!? What Sunset? You didn't really
believe that, did you?
Speaker John Boehner has somehow managed to FORGET this recent history. Forget the promises his party made to the America people not so very long ago --
that the Bush out-sized Tax Breaks primarily to the Rich, would SUNSET in 10 years. (Psst! THAT never-happened people.)
And now Speaker Boehner has the nerve to imply on Meet the Press that this reverting back to the previously levels of Revenue generation, that it was to pay for Obamacare!
That's what they call a lie in most parts of America, Mr Boehner. That is what is called "going back on your word, breaking your promises, GOP." And most Americans don't look too kindly on that kind of history distortion.
Here's a clue for you Republicans, most of us lived through the Bush Economic Era -- and most of us decided to Vote for Barack Obama -- TWICE!
Wake up and smell the coffee, you ongoing protectors of the ultra rich -- your day will come too. Unless you wake up and get a clue -- and actually start doing what the Majority of the American People want.
Instead of continue to lie, to block this expressed will of the People.