Bush Tax Cuts
Following the attacks on September 11, we were told that the world had changed. When President Bush signed the Patriot Act, it was pointed out that eliminating current checks and balances within the system was necessary because the world had changed.
When the push towards war in Iraq was made, one of the many arguments given for attacking was that the world had changed and thus there was an immediacy to remove Saddam Hussein to secure the weapons of mass destruction.
When the President was questioned about his pre-election stance and prior criticism of nation-building, and how he was now flip-flopping on his previous policy, he again pointed out that the world had changed since the 9-11 attacks, and nationbuilding was now necessary.
In the end, it seems that every proposal, each policy change and all necessary actions are somehow tied to how the world has changed due to the attacks of 9-11. Things are different now, so we are told. The world has changed and old policies no longer apply. But as much as we are reminded of all the changes to our world, the President’s desire for tax cuts remain.
The President’s original tax cut proposal was $726 billion. But the House has so far approved cuts of $550 billion, and the Senate has backed cuts of $350 billion. In a time where Governors are pleading to Washington for financial assistance, where teachers are being layed-off, where police claim to be underfunded and understaffed, and 500,000 individuals have been released from their jobs in the past two months alone, the President’s mantra of ‘tax cut’ just doesn’t wash.
Giving 80% of the tax cuts to the wealthiest 20% of the population is not going to solve our economic woes. Trickle-down-economics was a failure in the 80’s, strapping us with the biggest deficit in our history. To be sure, if these large tax cuts are passed, the bridge between the haves and have-nots will widen, as states will be forced to cut more services and unemployment will increase.
Now, more than ever, the funds should be used in progressive ways that will allow us to rebuild our own nation while strengthening our economy for the future. Failed economic policies of filling the pockets of the rich are policies of the past. Doesn’t the President and his administration know that the world has changed since the September 11 attacks?