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COBURN: Continuing the [Bush] tax cuts isn’t a cost, if you added new taxes, new tax cuts, I would agree that’s a cost. It’s not a cost. That’s where we are today. That’s the baseline. It doesn’t score anything to continue them. It costs money if we increase, which I would be willing to do. I think we ought to cut corporate taxes.
I don’t expect Senators to be able to intelligent discuss particle physics or nuclear fission, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect Senators to grasp the concepts of basic math and accounting. After all, when the stated Republican passion is eliminating the deficit (that they created during George W. Bush’s Reign of Error ©), they should be expected to understand that less is not more. This is important because less isn’t more…less tax revenue doesn’t mean more available money. Then again, when you look at the deficit Republicans handed Barack Obama, you begin to see just how thoroughly surreal Republican accounting concepts really are.
When you add $1.6 billion (in 2001 and 2003) in unpaid-for tax cuts to a budget surplus, it shouldn’t take a Ph.D. to figure out that you’re goind to end up with a deficit. Tax cuts for the wealthy…yeah, that worked out well, didn’t it? When Republicans begin whining about the deficit, perhaps they might take a moment and reflect on who got us to where we are…and how we got here. Then again, why take responsibility for your fiscal irresponsibility when you can blame Democrats…and the American Sheeple will believe you?
In a time when this country needs intelligent, inspired, and insightful leadership, we get…Republicans like Tom Coburn. While Coburn clearly doesn’t understand basic math and accounting, he certainly is well-versed in Conservative orthodoxy, which says that while things like unemployment benefits need to be paid for, tax cuts for the wealthy and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t. I’ve tried to understand Coburn’s twisted logic…and all I was left with was a pounding headache. Why’s that? Well, try wrapping your head around this gem:
Coburn conceded that tax cuts cost money, but he claimed that extending the Bush tax cuts won’t cost anything, because, according to Coburn’s logic, they’ve already been enacted at one point in the past….
So, because tax revenue was lost in the past, it’s no longer an issue? True, the past is not the present, but past irresponsibility can (and is) impact the present. The money our government didn’t collect in taxes is no longer worthy of discussion…because it’s in the past? Hey, when you’re a Republican, all you really need to do is TALK about deficit reduction. You don’t actually have to DO anything about it, because when push comes to shove you can always blame Democrats…and the American Sheeple are just stupid and undemanding enough to accept this as Gospel.
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What’s truly interesting about Republicans devotion to placing deficit reduction (and our two never-ending wars) over the unemployed is that Americans don’t share their misplaced ardor. Though Mitch McConnell will stand in front of the cameras and state with a straight face that the American Sheeple are telling Republicans to reduce the deficit, the facts are somewhat different. Certainly, Americans are concerned about the deficit, but they understand and recognize that Congress has an obligation to help the unemployed. Americans realize that but for the grace of God…. Compassion is still something that can be found outside the Beltway, if not in the halls of Congress.
Magical thinking may work when you’re a child and waiting for the Tooth Fairy to leave a quarter under your pillow. Unfortunately, it does nothing to improve the ability to govern and maintain a grip on reality. Truth (and basic accounting principles) is not a fungible concept susceptible to the whims of ideology…unless you’re a Republican, I suppose.
Hey, when you’re a Republican, you think you can convincingly argue that there’s absolutely no credible evidence that the Bush tax cuts reduced revenue. You see, less really IS more…and, as we speak, winged pigs are violated Saudi Arabian air space.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
