THERE HE GOES AGAIN: BUSH RENEWS PUSH TO MAKE TAX CUTS PERMANENT

Demonstrating once again that he is tone-deaf to the needs of the nation and priorities of the citizens, Dumbya has resumed his campaign to extend the tax cuts for the wealthy. He has, in fact, a single tone that he knows how to sound: fear. "When you hear people say that we don't need to make the tax relief permanent, what they're really saying is, they're going to raise your taxes," he said yesterday to an audience or workers at a John Deere plant. I venture to guess that the number of those workers who would benefit from a reduction in taxes on capital gains and investment dividends is close to zero.

House leaders will try again for a vote Thursday, but moderate Republicans in the House have expressed deep misgivings about approving a measure so beneficial to affluent investors so soon after they approved a budget-cutting bill that would cut people off food stamps, squeeze student lenders, impose new fees on Medicaid recipients and slash federal aid for child-support enforcement.
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Another obstacle has arisen over the Bush administration's insistence that tax breaks to induce economic investment in the Gulf Coast region apply to all businesses, including casinos that vowed to rebuild even before the incentives were proposed..."How do you go to the American people saying we're going to give out tax breaks to rebuild an industry which has already said, 'We're going in and we're going to be bigger and better than ever'?" Wolf asked. "If a tornado came in to Nevada, should we give out a tax break to help rebuild a brothel?"
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A recent Gallup poll found that more than three in five Americans rate the economy as fair or poor, while 58 percent say it is getting worse.

The disconnect between gross economic measures and public sentiments, some analysts note, is occurring partly because many economic benefits are not making their way to ordinary workers. Poverty is up in the nation, inflation outstripped wage growth during a recent 12-month period and median household income has declined for five straight years.

Also, recent surveys have shown that small businesses are deeply concerned about the cost of energy and health care, dampening their enthusiasm for the current economic climate, said Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Small Business Committee.
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As federal spending increases with the continued war in Iraq and the cost of rebuilding the Gulf Coast region, even some Republicans in Congress have been reluctant to heed the president's call to make the tax cuts permanent.

I addressed the subject of tax cuts a few days ago in this post, in which I cited recent studies disproving Bush's toolbox of justifications for his tax cuts (in particularly that they fuel job growth).

Tags: Bush, tax cuts