WASHINGTON — Did my ears deceive me? Did I hear House
Minority Leader John Boehner say on CBS’s Face the Nation
Sunday that “If the only option I have is to vote for those at 250
or below, of course I’m going to do that.” He was referring to
voting for extending the Bush tax cuts to those making less than
$250,000 a year. And he was referring to the issue when there is a
building momentum to keep the tax cuts for everyone in an era of
fragile economic growth and 9.6% unemployment. Even some Democrats
are willing to keep the tax cuts, but Boehner just made it
difficult for them.
There is a growing awareness that we are not getting out
of this slowdown anytime soon. Independents and the Tea Party
movement are siding with conservatives in favor of extending the
tax cuts. There is a sense that economic growth is part of the
answer to our economic problems. And there is a realization
spreading across the country that official Washington is
clueless.
President Barack Obama in his first 19 months in office
increased the national debt by more than all presidential
administrations from George Washington to Ronald Reagan combined.
Obama’s extravagance follows the huge amount of red ink splashed
around by the Republicans when they were in office. It led to the
Republicans relinquishing the presidency in 2008. Now Boehner just
indicated that if his party gets back in power the spending might
very well continue. The very rich will have paid more in taxes and
that not being enough to pay for Washington’s extravagance, there
will be a value added tax for all of us. Yes, there will be a VAT.
There just is not that much to be taken from the rich.
After all, those who make $250,000 are in the top ten
percent of economic earners who pay 70% of all income taxes. Given
our enormous budget deficits, the expropriation of the rich would
not be enough. We could send them to reeducation camps and still
there would be deficits. We are facing budget shortfalls in the
area of a trillion plus dollars for the next few years. Long term
the deficit will be in the neighborhood of over one hundred
trillion dollars! On the other hand, if we whack the rich our
troubles worsen, for they account for most of our investment and
job growth. Better it is to have their money working for us on
behalf of economic growth. Official Washington would penalize the
rich so we can all suffer together rather than let us all prosper
in a growing economy. Boehner blew it.
Of course, he rushed on to say to say that he would “fight
to make sure that we extend the current tax rates for all
Americans.” But the damage had been done. What possessed him? Is it
that President Obama has decided to make him his contemporary
embodiment of George W. Bush, or is it that Boehner really has
lived in Washington too long? Whatever the case, if he cannot stand
the heat, he knows where to go.
Elsewhere in the country, the citizenry is rising up out
of grave concern about the huge government deficits, local, state,
and federal. That is the one issue that is getting out the vote,
and many of the voters are new voters. They have come to the
realization that these are not normal times. We face the recently
acquired budget deficits and the cost of entitlements that were
already scheduled to kick in when the baby boomer retired. No one
paid it much attention, but now the Tea Party movement
has.
The Republicans can claim the Tea Partiers’ vote, but only
if they work for it. Boehner just made that more difficult.
Fortunately Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is sensitive to his
party’s fragile connection with the Tea Party movement and with
multitudes of other alarmed citizens. He promises to block the
Democrats’ tax increase in the Senate with his 41 Republicans
holding fast and four Democrats on his side plus the Independent
Joe Lieberman. As Lieberman said this week, “The more money we
leave in private hands, the quicker our economic recovery will be.”
Lieberman is for extending the tax cuts a year. Then the citizenry
will have spoken and we can get serious about long term growth and
economies in government.
