WALLACE: We’re running out of time, so how are you going to pay $678 billion just on the tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 a year?
KYL: You should never raise taxes in order to cut taxes. Surely congress has the authority and it would be right, if we decide we want to cut taxes to spur the economy, not to have to raise taxes in order to offset those costs. You do need to offset the cost of increased spending. And that’s what republicans object to. But you should never have to offset cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.
Wow…it appears that today’s “WTF??” moment comes to us courtesy of Jon Kyl. To call Kyl hpocritical, uninformed, and wrong simply wouldn’t begin to do justice to his intellectual malaise, but it will have to suffice for now. This is one of those moments of sheer, unambiguous intellectual dishonesty that it literally leaves me slack-jawed. I mean, how does one respond to a statement so inaccurate, so mind-numbingly stupid, and so blindly obedient to Conservative Republican orthodoxy? Yes, that’s right…money really DOES grow on trees, and providing tax cuts for the rich means never having offset the lost revenue with spending cuts. This is how George W. Bush managed to take us from a budget surplus (thanks, Bill Clinton!) to a record surplus. Republicans like Kyl know that, no matter how bad they manage to screw the pooch, in the end they can blame it on Democrats…and the American Sheeple are just stupid enough to buy it.
To paraphrase Kyl, tax cuts don’t need to be paid for…but going by what he’s previously said, extended unemployment benefits do. Ergo, it’s wonderful to cut taxes, a move that will primarily benefit the rich (and White…and Republican), but not so wonderful to extend the safety net for unemployed Americans. Why? Because for Republicans, the worth of an American is measured by the contents of their walet…and those with the fattest wallets are far more likely to vote (and donate) Republican. It’s just the way of the world, eh?
If you need any further evidence of the damage done by the eight-year-long Reign of Error © …well, here’s your sign. For a deficit hawk like Kyl to be making such a patent absurd and indefensible argument almost defies belief. Then again, the reason our deficit is so large is that Republicans spend their time in power providing tax cuts for their rich and powerful friends. No, tax cuts don’t have to be paid for…not when you can balance them on the backs of the poor and middle class.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
