Economics is not one of my strong suits (something I hope to change in the near future), but even to my simple understanding I find it very troubling that many (conservative) politicians insist that the national deficit is solely the result of excessive spending, and that huge tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and gaping corporate tax loopholes are irrelevant to this issue.
The reality here is there has been a dramatic decrease in federal revenue due to low wages which equates to a lower tax burden on American taxpayers combined with many corporations not paying their fair share of taxes due to gaping loopholes. The net effect, a significant contribution to the current federal deficit and rising national debt
What makes this Republican push for these tax provisions so idiotic is the hypocrisy behind them. Remember back in December, when Republicans wouldn’t pass long term unemployment benefits without offsets; everything must be paid for they said. Well there is nothing "backing up" these tax cuts. Nothing, nada, zilch; a big ole fat 0.
Republicans are trying to do exactly what got us into this mess in the first place, with unpaid for tax credits (ala junior Bush) and give aways, after years of taking from the poor and the vulnerable in order to "pay" their puppet masters. The total amount of these provisions, these tax cuts, is five times more than we spend on veterans. It is more than three times what we spend on education, job training and social services. And it is five times more than what we spend on medical research/public health. Something is very wrong with this scenario!!
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Rep. Dave Camp, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, will take the first step to make permanent certain business tax breaks on Tuesday, when his committee marks up legislation that would increase the deficit by $300 billion over the coming decade.
The provisions are among the “tax extenders,” the package of tax breaks that mostly benefit businesses and that Congress extends every couple of years. We have pointed out that even if Congress simply continues its practice of extending these tax breaks for another two years, it would signal that these corporate tax breaks will likely be with us forever — which the Congressional Budget Office projects would increase the deficit by $700 billion over the coming decade. Camp’s move to make certain of the tax extenders permanent would make that unfortunate outcome even more likely.
Lawmakers Will Move Tuesday to Approve Hundreds of Billions in Business Tax Breaks -- and Still No Help for the Unemployed | Tax Justice Blog
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