America's Economy Held Hostage — To Save A Private Jet Tax Break
To start your weekend on a boiling mad note, read what Talking Points Memo published this afternoon regarding the Thursday from the deficit-reduction talks being conducted by Vice President Joe Biden:
Democrats want to close tax loopholes that benefit oil companies, and eliminate a tax preference that gives corporate aircraft a friendlier depreciation schedule than commercial aircraft. Additionally, [Maryland Democratic Rep. Chris] Van Hollen said, Democrats were proposing to phase out tax deductions and certain credits for people making more than $500,000 a year. These would be paired with a reduction in the tax burden on lower earners, by eliminating existing limitations on their deductions.
"Folks with over $500,000, we're going to phase out your deductions and some of your tax credit," Van Hollen said.
The Republican response, as widely reported, is that there would be no discussions on raising the nation's debt limit if "tax increases" were on the table—even if those "tax increases" were actually such things as eliminating an inequity that allows someone buying a private jet to get a better tax deal than an airline buying a jet to ferry us regular folk around the country.
Keep in mind that this is happening even as some key voices that the right would normally listen to are telling Republican congressional leaders their mindless rigidity is at least inane and at worst calamitous to the economy.
David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan, was critical of both parties in the budget debate in a Bloomberg interview today, and his willingness to accept slower growth to close the budget deficit is untenable given 9 percent unemployment. On the other hand, he called Cantor's position in walking away from the talks over ending tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires "preposterous, because it defies fourth-grade math."
"Revenues are 15 percent of GDP, the lowest since 1948, so I say Eric Cantor should be sat on a dunce chair, and be told to keep his Pinocchio nose in the corner for the rest of his term. He's lying. There's no way this problem can be addressed without spending cuts, real ones, and major revenue increases."
He added later, "When they take taxes off the table, they are putting default on the table."
I've held back using the "T"-word, but let's be blunt: Being willing to precipitate a second global financial crash to protect the tax deductions of people wealthy enough to buy private jets is an intolerable form of economic and political terrorism on the part of the conservative leadership in Congress. President Obama should stand firm and say no to a deal that would condemn the middle class to more joblessness and less economic security and asks nothing of the top 2 percent.
http://institute.ourfuture.org...rivate-jet-tax-break
Republicans use deceptive terminology:
Democrats: Democrats want to close tax loopholes that benefit oil companies, and eliminate a tax preference that gives corporate aircraft a friendlier depreciation schedule than commercial aircraft. Additionally, Van Hollen said, Democrats were proposing to phase out tax deductions and certain credits for people making more than $500,000 a year. These would be paired with a reduction in the tax burden on lower earners, by eliminating existing limitations on their deductions.
"Folks with over $500,000,we're going to phase out your deductions and some of your tax credit," Van Hollen said.
Republicans: Brad Dayspring, spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor suggest this is only part of the story -- it wasn't just loopholes that blew up the talks, but broad rate hikes.
"While Congressman Van Hollen's selective memory is amusing, the bottom line is that the proposals pushed by Democrats would increase taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars on individuals, small businesses, and employersat a time when we need to focus on job growth," Dayspring said -- language Republicans often use to describe previous Dem proposals to create a new tax bracket for millionaires, or let the Bush tax cuts for high-income earners expire.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo...andon-debt-talks.php
The Rachel Maddow Show 6-24-2011 “Priorities”
The dangerous game Republicans are playing.