Republicans And Democrats Dicker While The Deficit Yawns And Rome Burns

 

As a CPA, I am disgusted by the financial games being played in Washington by our elected officials, and their habitual lying to the American people.

Republicans lie about temporary Bush tax cuts

Republicans and their tax-pledge protector Grover Norquist are incorrect in saying ending the Bush tax cuts is a tax hike in the middle of a recession. Or maybe upon their 2001 enactment, Republicans were lying about the cuts being �temporary.�

The truth is, these tax cuts are a temporary 12-year tax stimulus program expiring in the middle of a slow recovery.
Since the 2008 presidential election, Republicans have been campaigning and negotiating hard to make the Bush tax cuts permanent for all tax brackets, in spite of the deficit climbing out of control.

Is it part of Norquist�s tax-protection pledge to trick Congress, the president and taxpayers into temporary tax cuts and later insist they be made permanent, otherwise Congress will break their tax pledge? If that�s the case, Congress can never again pass a temporary tax cut as part of stimulus or otherwise.

Perhaps that�s why the Republicans appear to be blocking President Obama�s efforts to extend temporary payroll tax cuts set to expire soon. Republicans have said temporary tax cuts don�t work and are a waste of money. Blocking the president on all fronts may be part of their campaign playbook, too.

Somehow, the Bush tax cuts feel like more like a political hot potato and campaign issue than tax policy.

Democrats lie about temporary stimulus spending, and real cuts to spending

On the spending side of the ledger, the debt talks are a charade. Both parties are not even talking about real cuts to spending, but rather reductions in the growth rates of spending. That�s not a spending cut but a smaller spending increase. Why the deception?

This reminds me of Democrats using the verbiage �cutting tax expenditures� to mask what they really mean: raising taxes by eliminating tax deductions and credits. When they target a tax break for closure, they call it a �tax loophole,� giving the impression it was always inappropriate.