According to a new poll, 61% of Americans say that the first step toward balancing the budget should be raising taxes on the richest Americans.
Only 20% thought that the first step should be to cut defense spending, while 4% wanted to start by cutting Medicare, and 3% wanted to cut Social Security (the third rail is still in place!).
Ironically, raising taxes on the wealthy was even relatively popular among the wealthy, with 46% of people making more than $100,000 a year supporting it.
So why were the Republicans so insistent on reinstating the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans, that they threatened to bring Congress to a standstill if they didn’t get their way?
7 Comments
“So why were the Republicans so insistent on reinstating the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans, that they threatened to bring Congress to a standstill if they didn’t get their way?”
Because they’re all part of that 54% making over $100K that are against raising their own taxes. They’ve just figured out that they don’t have to waste time calling their Congress critter if they are the Congress critters.
My guess is that this has something to do with with their so called pledge with america where they promise never to increase taxes.
Because taxes are evil, dontcha know?
You betcha!
Something I saw on another site was talking about the Republicans attempting to halt Social Security by testing out reduced benefits on the rich. But when they are talking about the rich, they mean anyone making over $40,000 a year.
Funny, that. If the government is taking your Social Security away, you are rich if you make over $40K/year. If the government is raising your taxes, you aren’t even rich if you make over $1,000,000 a year and can’t afford to hand over even a penny lest your small businesses go under.
Back to the original post, the power of the right wing echo chamber is unbelievable. The unpopularity of the health care bill (which was distorted) was repeated over and over and over again. It was like a broken record. Why was congress doing this if the majority of Americans hated it? What was wrong with those lawmakers?
I have yet to hear about the unpopularity of the extension of the tax cuts for the rich in the echo chamber, and suspect I never will.
I’m for raising taxes, progressively for all. But not 1 dime more in taxes until Washington shows some fiscal discipline and reigns in their budget. They are great at spending every tax penny they get plus a whole lot more. The problem IMO is not that we don’t pay enough, it’s that our politicians spend too much.
But to fix this mess, if they chop spending I’ll be glad to through in more taxes.
For me, the real question is why, given these polling results, the Dems can’t summon the spine to call the Repug’s bluff. Oh, right, as far as the people who run the party are concerned, it’s not a matter of spine, it’s a question of self-interest.
How can the government slow spending when there is the huge Bush debt on Iraq to pay off? After March 2003, I kept saying to myself, “but what about the American people? What is being done for the American people?” I heard no one else questioning this. What about our infrastructure? What about our Federal Park where Bush took the entrance fees instead of leaving it with the parks to keep the parks in good repair? We had all those years of cheating the American people. I’m a tax payer. My taxes weren’t spent on the United States and its people. My money was spent to destroy Iraq and the Christians in Iraq. That was not my choice. Now I want my country fixed from where it deteriorated, but we still have to pay for Bush’s war.
People run up credit card debt to have something now. The something is long gone but still has to be paid for. There is no going forward. That is was happened in the Bush ere.
Christian Science Monitor pointed out that Tarp brought us back a lot of money from our investment in the banks. That’s a start. And also, by the way, suggested two books: “The lies of Sarah Palin” by Geoffrey Dunn and “The Obamas: The untold story of an African Family” going back 400 years in their history.