Rich don't need more tax cuts

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July 12, 2012

Rich don't need more tax cuts

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Thu Jul 12, 2012, 03:25 AM EDT

President Barack Obama's proposal this week regarding the Bush era tax cuts and the Republican reaction to it would appear to put things in rather simple perspective.

The president and his Democratic Party allies want to extend for another 12 months the current tax rates for those making less than $250,000 per year but allow the tax breaks for those making more than that to expire at the end of 2012.

The Republicans, including presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney, insist that those making more than $250,000 should retain their lower tax rates.

But nothing is simple when it comes to Washington politics, particularly in an election year.

For one thing, under Obama's plan, the 2 or 3 percent of Americans making more than a quarter-million dollars a year would still pay the lower tax rates on their first $250,000 of earnings, but anything over that amount would be at roughly the rate they paid when Bill Clinton was president.

So, as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said this week after meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, "Everybody gets a tax cut."

"Doesn't it make sense for us to agree to keep taxes low for 98 percent of Americans, who are working hard and can't afford a tax hike right now?" Obama said Tuesday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "... Let's not hold the vast majority of Americans hostage while we debate the merits of a tax cut for the other 2 percent."

So, Obama and the Republicans could get busy and pass a bill right now to benefit the middle class and poor people.

Did we mention that this is an election year?

Nothing is going to get done until after Nov. 6, if then. The GOP doesn't want to give the president anything close to a legislative victory before the vote, and Democrats are more than happy to paint the Republicans as concerned more about the wealthy than the middle class.

Still, two facts remain.

The middle class and poor need the tax cut.

Rich people and corporations don't need it.

Romney spouted this nonsense Tuesday in Grand Junction, Colo.: "The very idea of raising taxes on small business and job creators at the very time we need more jobs is the sort of thing only an extreme liberal could come up with."

For one thing, only 3 or 3½ percent of small businesses would be affected by the new tax rate.

For another, "a businessperson calling (himself) a job creator is like a school claiming to have created evolution," billionaire venture capitalist Nick Hanauer told MSNBC. "It's just not true."

Two visions for the future. That is, after all, what elections are all about.