Wow,
this editorial really cuts loose.
A surprise awaits the nation's highest earners when they file their 2006 tax returns. Their taxes are going down again - whether or not Congress passes the investor tax cuts the lawmakers have been promising. On New Year's Day, two additional tax cuts will kick in, allowing people who earn upward of $200,000 a year to claim bigger write-offs for a spouse, their children and other expenses, like mortgage interest on a vacation home.
...
With the nation deep in debt, at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Congress voting last month to slash programs for health care and student loans, and with a debilitating shortfall building in Medicare - the decision by Congress to let these particular tax breaks take effect now is flabbergasting. But it is not out of character.
Read on to see what the NYT has to REALLY say about it.
The provision's effective date was set for Jan. 1, 2006, and, like other tax cuts from 2001, it is scheduled to expire at the end of 2010. Such "phase-ins" and "sunsets" are ploys to cram as many tax giveaways as possible into one law without overtly busting the budget.
Here's where the tale turns absurd: The tax cuts of 2001, followed by those of 2002 and 2003, have busted the budget. The surplus - the original rationale for the tax cuts - is long gone, replaced by a deficit projected to reach $530 billion by 2015, if the cuts are made permanent.
And yet Mr. Bush and Congress persist with tax cuts - for people who don't need the extra help and for purposes that have nothing to do with the country's obvious problems.
It's a heck of a way to begin the new year.
And just how much will these new cuts for the rich cost?
The bolstered write-offs were enacted in 2001, but with a delayed start date because of their high cost: according to Congressional estimates, the new breaks will cost $27 billion over the short term, exploding to $146 billion from 2010 through 2019. By then, most of the benefits would flow to taxpayers who make more than $1 million a year.
Yup, lets cut those food stamps and education loans some more to pay for the rich.