Republicans Rewards The Rich for Not Creating Jobs

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota

In order to get Americans to buy into their lies, Republicans claimed that extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is the best way to create jobs in America. They even managed to somehow rename the entire tax cut debate by calling the Democratic plan, which would allow the rich to be taxed at 39% instead of the present 35%, a “job killing tax hike.” Their fear was often stated as, if the extension is only given to the middle class, then the wealthy would not be able to create the jobs Americans so desperately need.

But the question begs to be asked. If taxing the rich at 35% for the last 10 years created jobs, then where are these jobs?

A Very Brief History

At the end of the Clinton administration, the rich were being taxed at 39.6%. During that time, 23 million jobs were created in his 8 years in office, and unemployment was at 4.4%.

Then George Bush came into power and decided to change things up a little. Bush lowered the tax rate for the richest Americans from 39.6 percent to 35 percent, and at the time when he left office in January 2009, a grand total of 4 million jobs were created in his 8 years, job loss for the month he left office was 800,000 unemployed Americans, and the unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent.

Given these two scenarios, it is hard to argue that giving billions to the rich in the form of Tax cuts is “the best way to create jobs.” But Republicans have stuck to their guns and this talking point, and demanded that President Obama see things their way.

So in the spirit of compromise, the President reluctantly went along and agreed to a deal that will extend the tax cuts to the richest Americans for another 2 years. In return, he got the Republicans to agree to a one year extension of unemployment benefits for millions of Americans.

But even after getting the political victory, some Republicans are still not happy. They want the proposed unemployment benefits stripped from the deal. Apparently, if the unemployed are going to be linked to this bill in anyway, then it’s a tainted bill!

The esteemed Teaparty-sometimes-Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, Mrs. Michelle Bachmann, appeared in an interview on one of the soft-ball infomercial shows on Fox - The Hannity Show. Mrs. Bachmann told the impartially partial Republican fund raising host;

“I don’t know that Republicans would necessarily go along with that vote. That would be a very hard vote to take.”

Republicans in both the House and Senate have unanimously voted against extending unemployment benefits in recent months, and having this provision tied to the two year tax cut extension for the richest people in America, is just a little too much for the congresswoman. She continues;

“I think we’re back in a conundrum. I think the compromise would be extending the rates for two years and not permanently, but not tying it to massive spending. We cannot add on something like a year of unemployment benefits.”

Not once in her rant did Mrs. Bachmann tell the faithful Fox viewers that providing these tax cuts to America’s richest must also be paid for and adds to the deficit. She also did not tell them that paying for these cuts will be done with borrowed money.

Republicans created the trickled down policies that are directly linked to the huge unemployment numbers in this country. But instead of helping those directly impacted by these policies, Republicans are blaming the unemployed for not finding work, while rewarding the rich with borrowed billions, for not creating any!

Related articles

• Michele Bachmann and DeMint: Not so fast on that agreement with Obama on Bush tax cuts (riehlworldview.com)
• On taxes, Obama’s last stand is no stand at all (salon.com)
• Tea Partiers gripe at the tax cut deal (salon.com)