Welcome login | signup
Language en es fr
OccupyForum

Forum Post: The Republican Party's top priority is to raise taxes on the poor. Literally.

Posted 9 years ago on Dec. 5, 2014, 5:45 a.m. EST by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Following their convincing victory in the 2014 elections, everyone is wondering what Republicans will do with their new majority in the Senate and House. Well, their policy agenda is becoming clear. It will be unrestrained class warfare against the poor.

This priority was made apparent over the last week during the negotiation of a colossal tax cut package. Senate Democrats and Republicans had been doing some low-key negotiations to renew a slew of tax cuts for corporations and lower- and middle-income Americans, according to reporting from Brian Faler and Rachel Bade at Politico.

Then President Obama announced his executive action on immigration. Enraged Republicans promptly took vengeance on all the goodies for the working poor (as well as for clean energy), cutting them out of the deal and proposing a raft of permanent tax cuts for corporations alone worth $440 billion over 10 years. Cowed Democrats, led by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), were about ready to go along, prompting a decidedly justified outcry from liberals. Obama then threatened a veto, and the negotiations broke down entirely.

A few takeaways from this. First, it's yet another reminder that Republicans don't care about the national debt. Conservative carping about the debt is 100 percent of the time a rhetorical cudgel deployed with utter cynicism against programs they dislike for other reasons. When the topic is food stamps or unemployment insurance, they demand offsets to pay for them. (Because "we're broke," as Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) put it in a similar context.) But when it comes to dropping planeloads of money on corporations and rich people, Republicans will casually blow a half-trillion hole in the 10-year budget without blinking.

We can safely assume that should Republicans win in 2016, they'll take all the reduction in the budget deficit accomplished over the Obama years (at great cost and for no benefit, but that's another story) and do the same thing that George W. Bush did: hand it immediately to the rich.

That's not all, though. Unlike Bush, who gave his eye-wateringly regressive tax cuts a patina of democratic legitimacy by cutting the non-rich in on a small fraction of the spoils, Republicans are now firmly committed to the idea that poor people don't pay enough in taxes. The Earned Income Tax Credit was originally a conservative alternative to the welfare state, but increasingly only Democrats support it. Republicans are convinced that the EITC is riddled with fraud, and that voting for it means giving welfare to unauthorized immigrants. (In reality, the EITC results in quite a lot of technically improper payments, but mostly as a result of unnecessary complexity.)

Massive transfers of money to the rich are one half of the Republican economic policy agenda; massive transfers of money away from poor are the other half. And the cuts would be cruel indeed:

For example, a single mother with two children working full time in a nursing home for the minimum wage and earning $14,500 would lose her entire [Child Tax Credit] of $1,725 if the CTC provision expires. [CBPP]

Apparently, cutting the income of a poor working single mother by 12 percent is good and proper conservative policymaking in 2014. Because immigration.

Finally, we see that Republicans are still incapable of the basics of political governance. They can't maintain any sort of agenda outside of being against what Obama is for. Once the president drives them into a frenzy — which is to say, anytime he does anything at all — any negotiations on deck will be blown up as punishment. These days, divided government means constant high-stakes conflict, as everything, including tax credits for working moms, is weaponized in a naked struggle for power.

But should Republicans ever get the run of things, we now have a very good idea of what's in store: pain for the afflicted, and benefits for the comfortable.

The Week Logo RSS

Subscribe Give a gift Digital subscription WORLD U.S. POLITICS BUSINESS TECH SCIENCE ARTS LIFESTYLE SPEED READS IDEA FACTORY CARTOONS PUZZLES STORE

The Republican Party's top priority is to raise taxes on the poor. Literally. In their first legislative deal following the 2014 midterms, Republicans tried to scuttle tax credits for those on the lower end of the income ladder

By Ryan Cooper | December 3, 2014

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.

I don't have any ideal if I can repost this like this but it's short and good and you should read it, here is the link and you should go there because everything is sourced there.

http://theweek.com/article/index/272922/the-republican-partys-top-priority-is-to-raise-taxes-on-the-poor-literally

13 Comments

13 Comments


Read the Rules
[-] 0 points by turbocharger (1756) 9 years ago

How about not renewing the payroll tax cut for workers all over the nation?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/10/21/taxes-2013-163m-workers/1647251/

[-] 2 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 9 years ago

I would not want to see social security go broke, I like raising the minimum wage, but that won't be happening now that the evil Dems have lost seats.

[-] 1 points by turbocharger (1756) 9 years ago

SS go broke? What was teh effect on the SS trust fund from the payroll tax cut during the worst economic decline since the great depression?

[-] 1 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 9 years ago

Aahh turbo you are so cute when you act stupid, not that you aren't stupid, just not that stupid.

[-] 2 points by 99time (92) 9 years ago

Some in Washington are salivating over the prospect of a current SSA deficit. Let's not renew this tax cut. It can only do harm.

[-] 1 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 9 years ago

You're boys in Washington have moved past that they are looking at the Earned Income Credit now I guess there is no limit to how rich they want the rich to be, congrats on getting them Dems out and making room for your boys.

[-] 1 points by StillModestCapitalist (343) 9 years ago

Turbocharger, just to be clear, are you for or against the payroll tax cut? Are you for or against the poor paying higher taxes?

[-] 0 points by turbocharger (1756) 9 years ago

I thought that fact he didnt renew it, while the banks were still getting monthly bailouts, summed up his presidency perfectly, along with this latest congress.

More for them, less for the rest of us.

[-] 1 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 9 years ago

What does "he" have to do with whether you support something or not? Where do you stand on payroll tax cut? Did you post about it? So is it something you actually care about or only when it suits your needs to?

and where do you stand on the earned income tax credit which the GOP are planning to cut to give the money to rich people, where do you stand on that?

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 9 years ago

good idea - i am sure obama will push it with all his might

[-] 1 points by turbocharger (1756) 9 years ago

He already tossed it years ago, like the corporatist he is.

[-] 1 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 9 years ago

How can you know what 'he' is when you don't even know what you are? I didn't see you say you were for cutting the payroll tax or how you would make up for the resulting shortfall, now me I would remove the cap entirely what do you think of that ideal?

[-] -1 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 9 years ago

looks like your boys are getting right to work, helping the rich get richer, you must be very proud