15 January, 2009

Taxcut Tango CXIV: Electric Bugaloo

Seriously, Cons seem to have a severe mental defect. Someday, I hope, cutting-edge brain research will discover exactly why it is they have this pathological fascination with tax cuts:
Setting foot on the trail blazed by the Chamber of Commerce, the Heritage Foundation and the Club for Growth, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) released its economic stimulus plan today. Dubbed The Economic Recovery and Middle-Class Tax Relief Act of 2009, the plan includes:

- Making the 15 percent capital gains tax rate permanent.

- Cutting the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent.

- A 5 percent across the board income tax cut for individuals.

- Indexing the capital gains tax for inflation.

The RSC also proposes “a 1 percent reduction in discretionary spending in the fiscal 2009 budget,” proudly touting the fact that “this legislation does not contain one penny of new spending, and rejects the idea that massive new government spending will lead to an economic recovery.”

As stimulus outlines go, this is spectacularly bad. It couples the ineffective tax cuts of previous proposals with a completely destructive spending reduction that would only exacerbate the economic crisis.

[snip]

Indeed, permanently cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations — who are less apt to immediately spend any tax break they receive — while forcing the federal government, in Neo-Hoover fashion, to cut its budget is a counterintuitive response that is not really a stimulus at all. What the economy needs is a boost, not a permanent break for businesses and the rich.

These fuckwits are amazing. John Boehner can't find a single, solitary economist to take him up on his plea for someone, anyone, to tell him it's okay in an economic climate like this to slash taxes for the rich and just say no to a stimulus package, and yet here come more Cons claiming that everything will be hunky-dory if the government just stops spending money while cutting the rich people's already ridiculously low taxes.

I've said before and I'll say again:

PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT TAX CUTS.

Thank you.

No comments: