Pelosi To Boehner: Let’s Vote To Extend Middle Class Tax Cuts

[ProSense]

Pelosi To Boehner: Let’s Vote To Extend Middle Class Tax Cuts

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wrote Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) a letter Wednesday calling on him to permit a vote on the expiring middle-class tax cuts enacted by President Bush and extended by President Obama in 2010.

Her full letter:

Dear Speaker Boehner:

Without further delay, the Majority Leadership should schedule a vote on extension of the middle-income tax cuts, as early as next week, to increase certainty for millions of American taxpayers and for the economy. We should not delay passing this legislation that will help afford all Americans the opportunity to reach their goals and realize the promise of the American Dream.

We must ask the very wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. Democrats believe that tax cuts for those earning over a million dollars a year should expire and that we should use the resulting revenues to pay down the deficit.

By ensuring that the middle-income tax cuts do not expire, we will put money into the pockets of American consumers, saving the typical middle-income family thousands of dollars per year. Extension of this middle-income tax cut will inject demand into our markets and strengthen small businesses. By investing in both the short-term growth of our economy and the long-term prosperity of our nation, it will empower the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. We cannot afford another manufactured crisis that unnecessarily threatens the full faith and credit of the United States and jeopardizes our economic recovery.

Extending middle-income tax cuts that benefit nearly all Americans is not controversial. Congressional leaders across the ideological spectrum agree that we should not be raising taxes on middle-income people at this delicate time in our recovery from the worst recession in 70 years. It is unacceptable to hold tax cuts for the middle class hostage to extending multi-billion dollar tax breaks for millionaires, Big Oil, special interests, and corporations that ship jobs overseas.

I urge you to allow the House to vote on the permanent extension of middle-income tax cuts now and for Democrats and Republicans to work together to strengthen our middle class, create jobs, and grow our economy in a balanced and fiscally responsible way.

Thank you for your consideration.

best regards,

NANCY PELOSI

Democratic Leader

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/pelosi-to-boehner-lets-vote-to-extend-middle

[Lionessa]

1. I know she ain't perfect, but she's purty darn guud.

K n R

[dkf]

2. We need to get rid of them all.

[boxman15]

3. He won't bring it up for a vote until the last minute so that it's more likely they're all extended.

The GOP is always fine with putting livelihoods on the line for the sake of playing a game and protecting their rich buddies.

[freshwest]

4. Causing desperation is good for their business model. It allows them to bully workers, then

Cut social services from their needy family members. The more chaos in those people's lives, the cheaper the labor will be.

They have no morals in that area or any other. The rest of the talk is just to divert attention from the real money and assets that change hands every time they pull this stunt.

[hfojvt]

5. so now somebody making $800,000 a year is middle income?

Gotta agree with dkf, I'd rather see tham all expire than just have them expire for people with incomes over $1,000,000

Just look (again) at the distribution of Obama's original plan (letting them expire for incomes over $250,000.

http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxcompromise2010.pdf

According to CTJ that plan gives 13.3% of its benefits to the top 1% and only 13.9% of its benefits to the bottom 40%. Only 26.4% of it's benefits to the bottom 60% but a whopping 54.2% of its benefits to the richest 20%.

Keeping them in place for all incomes below $1,000,000 would be even more skewed towards the top.

According to CTJ, 60% of households make less than $53,000 a year. So my own preference would be for letting the tax cuts expire for all incomes over $60,000. Sure that would mean that the upper middle class would only get to keep $1,348 of their Bush tax cuts instead of $2,074 (or put another way, their taxes would go up by an average of $726 over what they pay now) but I think they can survive. They can certainly afford a small increase more than I can, and my taxes were increased in the last Obama/Democrat surrender of 2010, as the $400 making work pay credit was traded for a $240 payroll tax cut.

[ProSense]

6. You're right

It should be based on "the distribution of Obama's original plan (letting them expire for incomes over $250,000."

[hfojvt]

8. Huh? Based on?

No, my point was that Obama's original plan was already highly skewed towards the wealthy.

This Pelosi request (althoug CTJ has perhaps not crunched the numbers) would be even more skewed towards the wealthy. Far, far more.

Obama's original plan was already a very, very bad compromise. Pelosi's suggestion here comes very close to unconditional surrender. Of course, Republicans being what they are these days, they will not accept 99.5% of their demands. And why should they, since past experience has shown that a little fighting will get them up to 100%.

[ProSense]

9. Clearly,

"No, my point was that Obama's original plan was already highly skewed towards the wealthy."

...not everyone agrees: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002722174

My point: I agree that moving to a higher income is not a good compromise.

[hfojvt]

10. clearly

not everyone has crunched the numbers, nor seen how the numbers fall in Obama's plan.

The numbers are right at that link, that it gives about the same percentage of its benefits to the top 1% as it does to the bottom 40%, but I guess if a Democrat proposes tax cuts for the rich, that makes it okay.

Nor did you include an option for "let them expire for incomes over $60,000".

It doesn't have to be "over $250,000" or "nothing".

[bluestateguy]

7. I would frame it this way

"You say you're for keeping the middle class and the poor's taxes low, and we agree, so let's just go ahead and do that now, and get it out of the way."

"If you guys win the whole thing in November (president and Congress) then you will have nothing stopping you from giving the rich their tax cuts back on January 20."

[hfojvt]

11. I would not frame "the middle class" as

"anybody making less than $1,000,000 a year"

especially not when those making over $177,000 a year are in the top 5% and those making over $458,000 are in the top 1%.

[Thinkingabout]

12. As one of low means, I think it is time to let the tax cuts go and get the debt paid down.

The tax loopholes needs to go also, our nation is very important to our citizens and we need to step up to the plate and get us on the right track. To heck with Grover Norquist, what is he going to do but threat and the result is failure of our nation. He is only one vote, stop supporting him and he will die on the vine.