Cantor Admits Extending Bush Tax Cuts Would ?Dig The Hole Deeper? On The Deficit ? But He Doesn?t Care
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 3rd, 2010 4:39 am by HL
Cantor Admits Extending Bush Tax Cuts Would ?Dig The Hole Deeper? On The Deficit ? But He Doesn?t Care
In recent weeks, Republicans have been trying to create an alternate reality in which tax cuts don’t add to the U.S. deficit. Specifically, these deficit frauds have been arguing that the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 — which are scheduled to expire at the end of the year — actually increased government revenue, […]
In recent weeks, Republicans have been trying to create an alternate reality in which tax cuts don’t add to the U.S. deficit. Specifically, these deficit frauds have been arguing that the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 — which are scheduled to expire at the end of the year — actually increased government revenue, and a further extension doesn’t need to be offset. Some examples:
– “That there’s no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue. They increased revenue, because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy.” — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
– “The Bush tax cuts led to a couple of things. They led to first of all, the largest amount of revenue being received by the government. They helped encourage economic growth and grew tax revenues.” — Karl Rove
– “This is a continuation of a tax policy, so I would say you don’t have to ask for a paid-for continued tax policy. This is a tax increase if we let this happen without doing something happen about it. They have also demonstrated they increase in revenue with the capital gains as a part of that.” — Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
Today, however, MSNBC’s Savannah Guthrie pressed Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) to admit that tax cuts do indeed increase the deficit. Cantor tried to evade her question by saying the issue needs to be looked at “through the prism of the working families seeking jobs,” but when pressed, he conceded that her point was right.
GUTHRIE: [W]ill you just as simply acknowledge that passing these tax cuts worsens the budget deficit problem? I mean, you can’t deny that, right?
CANTOR: Savannah, let’s look at it through the prism of the working families seeking jobs and the small business people who are creating them. It’s not a tax cut they’re looking for. They don’t want a tax hike. And that’s –
GUTHRIE: But that wasn’t my question. … I just was wondering if you had any dispute with the notion that it does exacerbate the deficit picture?
CANTOR: Well, what I said in the beginning is, if you have less revenues coming in to the federal government, and more expenditures, what does that add up to? Certainly you are going to dig the hole deeper, but you also have to understand if the priority is to get people back to work, is to start growing this economy again, you don’t want to make it more expensive for job creators.
Watch it:
Basically, Cantor is acknowledging that raising taxes on wealthy Americans would significantly contribute to his professed desire to cut the federal deficit, but he doesn’t care; he’d rather cut programs (like unemployment benefits) that benefit the middle class.
(HT: Political Correction)
Texas mosque and educational center vandalized with offensive graffiti and fire, causing $20,000 in damage.
A mosque in Texas was heavily vandalized last weekend, coming in the wake of a national intolerance movement by the right wing against Muslim places of worship. On Friday, members of the Dar El-Eman Islamic Education Center, in South Arlington, found “graffiti depicting Uncle Sam and Allah in a sexual position spray-painted in the parking […]
A mosque in Texas was heavily vandalized last weekend, coming in the wake of a national intolerance movement by the right wing against Muslim places of worship. On Friday, members of the Dar El-Eman Islamic Education Center, in South Arlington, found “graffiti depicting Uncle Sam and Allah in a sexual position spray-painted in the parking lot.” Then, early Sunday morning, in a case of suspected arson, a fire destroyed playground equipment at the mosque, causing $20,000 worth of damage. The vandals also cut a pipe, allegedly thinking that it was a natural gas line. The playground equipment had been purchased with funds raised from “relatives, neighbors and friends” of the center’s students:
The mosque’s president told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that it is “hard” for the children to understand the incident, “because this is a house of prayer.” The vandalism “is the fruit of hate,” he said. “You keep implanting fear in people’s hearts, and it makes them evil.” An open gas canister was left inside a mosque under construction in the same town last summer, and there was a separate “attack” reported recently in nearby Rockwall. Meanwhile, in Temecula, CA, where the local Muslim community wants to build a new mosque, about 20 people protested its construction Friday, carrying signs reading, “Muslims Danced for Joy on 9/11” and “No Sharia Law.”
