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Can GOP Claim Some Victory in ‘Cliff’ Debate?
By Gerald F. Seib, WSJ
As Congress staggers toward the fiscal cliff, either to go over it or veer away at the last minute, here’s a question that is little discussed: Why aren’t Republicans claiming victory?
Nearly lost in the hubbub over the attempt to pass a year-end deficit-reduction deal is the broader, significant shift on taxes that forms the backdrop of the debate. The argument now is whether the top tax rate should return to the pre-Bush tax-cut level of 39.6% for families making over $250,000, or those making more than $400,000, or perhaps $450,000.
But even under those scenarios, everyone, including Democrats, agrees that the Bush tax-cut levels should stay in place for everybody else. In other words, Democrats aren’t just accepting, but embracing and extending, at least 98% of the 2001 Bush tax cuts.
Recall that the 2001 Bush tax cuts lowered rates for everybody, not just for the wealthy. Most Democrats opposed those tax cuts when they were first passed, and have regularly cited them ever since as a principal cause of the large deficits that have accumulated since.
(More here.)
As Congress staggers toward the fiscal cliff, either to go over it or veer away at the last minute, here’s a question that is little discussed: Why aren’t Republicans claiming victory?
Nearly lost in the hubbub over the attempt to pass a year-end deficit-reduction deal is the broader, significant shift on taxes that forms the backdrop of the debate. The argument now is whether the top tax rate should return to the pre-Bush tax-cut level of 39.6% for families making over $250,000, or those making more than $400,000, or perhaps $450,000.
But even under those scenarios, everyone, including Democrats, agrees that the Bush tax-cut levels should stay in place for everybody else. In other words, Democrats aren’t just accepting, but embracing and extending, at least 98% of the 2001 Bush tax cuts.
Recall that the 2001 Bush tax cuts lowered rates for everybody, not just for the wealthy. Most Democrats opposed those tax cuts when they were first passed, and have regularly cited them ever since as a principal cause of the large deficits that have accumulated since.
(More here.)
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