"Who the hell wants higher texes?"

Hey, look! I'm updating this again!

The looming expiration of the Bush tax credits is the hot topic right now, and I feel I should weigh in, to some degree. It's funny... much like his pledge to close the Guantanamo prison and some other things, simply letting the Bush tax cuts expire is one of those things that President Obama took for granted when he won the election, and assumed would be a political breeze (because he was naive enough to believe that, just because he won by a landslide, that the GOP would allow him to govern). And-- now faced with actual political fights over these things-- the Democrats are freaking out.

(As an aside, it is one of the more frustrating different standards between the two parties. Watching all these crazy GOP candidates surge higher this year with each progressively wingnutty utterance, one is reminded that-- among other examples-- Obama's nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department was torpedoed simply because she was non-apologetic in her opposition to the torture and civil liberty abuses of the Bush years. Etc.)

Anyway, a friend of mine posted a link on her Facebook to this video showing how Fox News purposely edited a clip from an Obama speech, making it seem as is he is desiring to raise everyone's taxes, when in fact he was discussing the facts of what the Bush tax cuts were designed to do. Someone commented to the link-

even in context this still sucks. Who the hell wants higher texes and even though it is not his fault, he is the president and should be able do do something about it. blaming it on the previous administration is just a cop-out.

Someone replied to that-

Frank, are you also outraged about the massive deficit?

He replied, in turn-

certainly. I am outraged by our government in it's entirety.

Damn you.... government!

I couldn't help myself. I had to respond. Here's what I wrote-

"blaming it on the previous administration is just a cop-out."

When Bush and the GOP Congress *wrote* the Bush tax cut law earlier this decade, the law was written *with* the 2011 expiration in it by design (because federal law does actually have certain guidelines for deficit-ballooning stuff like this). So "blaming" the previous administration for this isn't a "cop-out"... it's a fact.

Again, the Republicans designed the Bush tax cuts to expire in 2011 themselves. Now, because they want a cudgel to beat Democrats with, they are lying and making it seem as if that expiration is something the Democrats are doing. That is a lie, plain and simple.

It is also-- beyond all the lying-- hypocritical to be complaining about the deficit incessantly like the GOP is now doing, and then to also defend the Bush tax cuts, which were the single biggest contributor to the current deficit over the past decade (even more then the wars and bailouts, etc). To put it in a more current context, the GOP complains about the economic recovery package and the health insurance reform bill... well, a renewal of the Bush tax cuts will add more $$ to the deficit than those two bills *combined*. Either they care about deficits or not. Can't have it both ways.

Also, the only people who will be affected by this are those making $250,000 or above. Are they saying protecting their tax cuts is worth doubling the deficit? And the tax rate that would be reinstated with this expiration is that of the Clinton-era... an era of much greater economy than now, and a tax rate *lower* than Reagan instituted.

The other lie is pretending they want to keep these cuts to help jobs. Well, these cuts have been in place since 2003... and unemployment has steadily risen ever since.

The right-- if temporarily, politically hard-- thing to do is to let the Bush tax cuts expire, as they were designed to do. I hope, but am not optimistic, that the Democrats have the balls to let that happen.

These are the facts. And they are the only weapon that the Democrats really need to win this battle. But in an election year where the louder candidate gets to win, it seems the Democrats aren't willing to risk their fates with merely some facts on their side. Hope I'm wrong.