Say Anything Blog

Here’s Ted Kennedy whining about the amount of tax cuts Republicans want to give American business owners.

During an impassioned floor speech last week, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy lashed out at Republicans for insisting on tax cuts targeted for small businesses to offset the cost of raising the minimum wage.
 
“How many more billions of dollars do we have to give you, Mr. Republican?” the Massachusetts Democrat shouted. “How many more dollars do we have to give you to get an increase in the minimum wage? It is shocking. It is disgraceful.”

The amount of tax relief being proposed by Republicans now is about $8.3 billion, targeted at the small businesses that hire the most low-wage workers.  What Republicans are saying, in essence, is that these small businesses shouldn’t have to shoulder the full burden of the minimum wage hike Democrats want to institute.  Tax relief lets those businesses defray some of that additional expense by lowering the amount of money they pay into the federal government.  Which makes sense.  If we have to raise the minimum wage (and Democrats are going to make sure it happens) we may as well try to cushion the impact it has on our economy.

But what’s hilarious about Teddy K.‘s hooting and hollering over the amount of the tax relief is the fact that it’s total isn’t even as much as Teddy helped get appropriated to fund the Big Dig project in his home state:

Senate Republicans were quick to note that the $8.3 billion in tax cuts for small businesses nationwide is less than the $8.5 billion federal funding cap placed on Boston’s Big Dig highway project. Mr. Kennedy has been the principal sponsor of the project, which has been riddled with corruption, cost overruns, delays and safety woes.
 
“Senator Kennedy complains about $8.3 billion in tax relief out of one side of his mouth, while asking for $8.5 billion in pork-barrel spending out of the other,” said Wesley Denton, spokesman for Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican.

Ted Kennedy is the consummate liberal.  He loves spending our money, and he hates giving any of it back to us.