Flip-Flop: GOP FINALLY Gives Nod to Raising Taxes – But You’re Not Going to Like It
August 23, 2011
By Liberal Lamp Post

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Republicans are so anti-tax increase that they would block medical treatment for 9/11 heroes to protect the wealth of the top 1% of Americans. That’s nothing new. What is news right now is who Republicans ARE looking to tax at a higher rate – all of working Americans, even those who toil at minimum wage with no benefits.

What’s happening: The Obama administration is pushing aggressively to extend the payroll tax “holiday” that Congress enacted in December. The payroll tax holiday benefits middle and lower incomes workers by reducing the Social Security tax coming out of their paycheck from 6.2% to 4.2%.

For a household bringing in a total of $63,000/year, the current payroll tax cut means an annual savings of $1,230 – a mortgage payment in tough times.

Typically, Republicans agree that the government should not raise taxes, or end current tax breaks, during a weak economy. Speaker John Boehner said in defense of the Bush Tax Cuts:

“Listen, you can’t raise taxes in the middle of a weak economy without risking the double dip in this recession…Raising taxes at this point in the economy is a very bad idea. I am not for raising taxes on the American people in a soft economy.”

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Many Republicans, however, would like to see the payroll tax hiked back to 6.2% on Jan. 1. They are shrugging off the fact that such a stance violates their own Americans for Tax Reform pledge (started by the conservative activist Grover Norquist). The pledge disallows any type of tax increase (that is not equally off-set for its bearers), which includes moves to terminate temporary tax cut extensions such as the Bush Tax Cuts.


Republicans have this to say on the payroll cut extension (reported by AP):

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., “has never believed that this type of temporary tax relief is the best way to grow the economy,” said spokesman Brad Dayspring. (“Temporary tax relief,” like the Bush Tax Cuts, is only good enough for the rich, I suppose.)

Former Massachusetts Gov. and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney did not flatly rule out an extra year for the payroll tax cut, instead saying that he “would prefer to see the payroll tax cut on the employer side” to spur job growth, his campaign said.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) when asked about the payroll tax matter: “We don’t need short-term gestures [that benefit the working class.] We need long-term fundamental changes in our tax structure and our regulatory structure that people who create jobs [aka the rich] can rely on.”

It’s obvious the Republicans care equally about two objectives to the expense of everything and everyone else:

Protect the rich from paying a marginally higher tax rate, shifting the tax burden to people living paycheck to paycheck if necessary, and
Obstruct all progress promoted by President Obama so that even his own party deserts him.

Just PLEASE VOTE…please.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/08/23/flip-flop-gop-finally-gives-nod-to-raising-taxes-but-you-wont-like-it/

How clear does the 33% agenda have to be? A country like the old monarchies, where the royal families raise their incomes by raising taxes on the peasants. Is this really the 21st century?