Negotiating against themselves

Fact (as David Sirota points out): The Bush tax cuts will expire at the end of the year if Congress does nothing.

Fact: The tax cuts cost the U.S. Treasury about $370 billion a year total, with the portion of the tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year costing $70 billion a year.

The impact of the cuts is nothing to sneeze at, but mostly for those at the upper ends of the income ladder. For nearly 80 percent of workers, the impact will be relatively small (only a couple of cents on the dollar), especially when compared with the brutal service cuts and tax hikes that will be needed down the road to pay for this unnecessary giveaway. For the rich, well, they make out like bandits.

And yet, the Democrats and the White House insist on finding things to give to the Republicans without getting anything in return. Ridiculous.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.
Unknown's avatar

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

One thought on “Negotiating against themselves”

  1. It's beginning to look like a hefty chunk of Democrats and Obama have sold out to corporate interests and the financial oligarchs. There are still many good, progressive Democrats but they are in the minority and that minority is shrinking every year. Obama is to the right of Eisenhower; it's unbelievable but Ike was more liberal than Obama. Ike actually strengthened Social Security, while Obama appoints a Cat Food Commission to gut SS.

    Reply

Leave a comment