Democrat Majority Leader: Middle Class Tax Hikes Not Out Of The Question
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says that the Bush tax cuts for middle class Americans (what, they weren’t just for the rich?) aren’t “sacrosanct” and may well end up getting axed.
Tax cuts that benefit the middle class should not be “totally sacrosanct” as policymakers try to plug the nation’s yawning budget gap, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Monday, acknowledging that it would be difficult to reduce long-term deficits without breaking President Obama’s pledge to protect families earning less than $250,000 a year.
Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat, said in an interview that he expects Congress to extend middle-class tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration that are set to expire at the end of this year. But he said the extension should not be permanent. Hoyer said he plans to call for a “serious discussion” about the affordability of the tax breaks.
I guess liberals will stop suggesting that the Bush tax cuts were just for “the rich” now, right? Especially when ending some of them would mean tax hikes for the people making less than $250,000/year that Obama promised not to raise taxes on.
But here’s a question: If the government is so desperate to fix budget deficits, why not just cut spending? Are we really to believe that there is no waste, no duplicative or unnecessary spending, that the government couldn’t cut in lieu of taking more from American citizens who can ill afford it right now?
Tags: Barack Obama, bush tax cuts, deficits, national debt, spending, steny hoyer
