Public Backs Ending Tax Cuts for Rich, and More

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/08/27/public-backs-ending-tax-cuts-for-rich-and-more/

by Tula Connell, Aug 27, 2010

Note to lawmakers: It’s the economy, stupid.

Most Americans support ending Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. A new CBS News poll finds that a majority of Americans, 56 percent, say the tax cuts for the wealthy should expire for households earning more than $250,000 per year, as Democrats have proposed. Thirty-six percent of Americans say they should not be allowed to expire.



Lower GDP offers more reason for Congress to act. Jeff Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) outlines the ramifications behind today’s revisions to estimates of gross domestic product (GDP). The new data revised the GDP downward for the second quarter to 1.6 percent from an initial estimate of 2.4 percent. Bivens says this downward revision shows

without the stream of spending provided by the Recovery Act, the economy would have contracted outright. This is most troubling, as Recovery Act money is almost spent and will provide no boost to growth going forward. The case for more action from policymakers to support the recovery and return the job-market to health is now overwhelming.

And a final word (or two): Income inequality. Raghuram Rajan, professor of finance at Chicago’s Booth School, pinpoints the underlying symptom of the nation’s sputtering economic recovery:

Many causes have been suggested for both the economic collapse and mediocre recovery, but one that is hardly ever mentioned is income inequality. This is a mistake. Growing income inequality in the United States and the policy responses it has spawned have done tremendous damage to our economy. And because we continue to ignore this underlying problem, the risks of our policies leading to another calamity will not go away, no matter what we do to reform the financial sector.

[Skittles]

1. they don't give a flying fuck what the public wants

[w4rma]

2. The DLCers and the Republicans don't care. Purge them. (nt)

[raccoon]

6. You got that right. nt

[Lorien]

9. True. nt

[unblock]

3. damn straight. as the poor and middle class get trashed, the rich do business overseas

once they've sucked the rest of us dry, why would they try to do business here? the fact that we could consume was once a huge driver in business, but kill that golden goose and it becomes better for the rich to open plants in china and india because that's where the new middle class is.

off-shoring plants for american consumption is one thing -- at least businesses have the cost of shipping, so it only makes sense if the cheaper labor (and quality/pollution laws) offset it. but off-shoring plants for foreign consumption, well, that isn't really even off-shoring. that's building locally! but it cuts america out entirely, except for the ownership part, which benefits only the rich.

someone seriously need to take over a major media outlet and use it on behalf of the poor the way fauxnews serves the interests of the rich.

[sendero]

4. As testament to the level of brainwashing and stupidity.

... of the American public just look at this numbers. 56%? It should be 80% at least.

More morons voting against their own self interest. Probably 95% of Americans would be better off if these cuts expired.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Public Be Damned...They Don't Write The Checks...

As always the root of our political system is burried in money and those who have it. Candidates need large sums of cash to keep their jobs and those in that upper 1% write a lot of big checks and that's a vote that most politicians can't ignore.

Sadly years of GOOP propaganda about tax cuts and "trickle down" have not only distorted the destruction done by the boooosh tax cuts for the rich but the corporate media now frames any restoration of the old tax rates as some kind of tax hike. The rich now are moaning how they're going to bear the burden for the destroyed economy they helped create and the corporate media...many who earn incomes over 250k a year are more than happy to moan along. Meanwhile a dirty secret...my bets are many of the million and billionaires who lost big time when the market crashed are sitting on thousands of dollars of losses they'll depreciate against their taxes and still find a way to pay nothing...or even get a refund.

Unfortunately it's gonna take the shutting down of schools, police departments and other services...and even then the Democrats will get the blame. The public only matter for the couple weeks around an election...the rest of the time it's the big contributors who call the shots.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. They need to draft anyone's kids that is too wealthy to pay their

taxes.

[kentuck]

8. I guess they will have to keep taking polls until they get one in their favor?

Like they did with health care and other issues.

Now they are trying to tell us that George W Bush is more popular than Barack Obama because they took a poll.

[Javaman]

10. Since the public wants them done away with, they'll probably be reinstated. nt

[KillCapitalism]

11. Well at least people are waking up.

After the past few years more and more people are seeing the rich get richer while they grow poorer. The wealthy can only get the majority of people to buy into delusional thinking for so long.

[Hannah Bell]

12. This is a winning issue - even more so if it's talked up. If the Dems don't hit it, something's

wrong with them.

[libmom74]

13. 60% or more wanted

a public option and we all know how that turned out. The rich will keep their tax cuts, Medicare and SS will be cut to feed the Wall Street pigs and the DLC/New Democcrats will claim victory for their wonderful bipartisan accomplishments and tell all of us who aren't "fired up" to vote for them that we are whining about not getting our ponies.