Middle-class tax cuts pass Congress

[Clovis Sangrail]

Is Kerry trying to lose?
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13001852&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6


...
With lopsided margins in both houses, Congress gave President Bush his fourth tax cut in four years, extending three popular middle-class tax breaks and reviving some expired business tax incentives just six weeks before the election.

more...

Kerry, the junior Democratic senator from Massachusetts, and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, were on the campaign trail and did not vote on the package. But Kerry said in a statement his supported it.


I want junior out as much as the next rational voter, but Kerry isn't helping himself.

#1. Not showing up to vote on is STUPID. It WILL be used against him.

#2. Criticizing Bush's tax cuts has been a major focus of his campaign (and a major focus of _most_ people who want Bush replaced). Now he says he supports extending them?!?!?
How many minutes before Rove uses this as evidence of Kerry "flip-flopping"?


Everybody who voted for this extension should hang their head in shame, but for Kerry to NOT vote at all and then say he supports it is ASSININE.

ON EDIT:
spelling

[phantom power]

1. it's hard to champion fiscal conservatism in this climate

Frankly, most people just don't want to face up to what it's *really* going to take to get our national debt back under control.

[Deja Q]

7. Quite

This isn't good at all...

What does the future hold?

[Lefta Dissenter]

2. Yes,

"Is Kerry trying to 'loose?'" I'm sure he is... :eyes:

[Myrina]

3. This is not good. n/t

:(

[napi21]

4. Problem with this bill is that the Pubs wouldn't break it apart.

The cuts for the low and middle class were part of the cuts for the super wealthy Charlie Rengel(sp) made a good statement today. He said that the Dems have to take back the WH & the Congress so we can put some sense back into the running of the govt. We Dems have not been against the tax cuts, but against not paying for them. There are hundreds of Corp. loopholes that could have been abolished to pay for them, but the Pubs weren't willing to even let that be discussed.

[Beaverhausen]

5. read the fine print

more from the article:

Bush had rejected a deal offered by Democrats and some moderate Republicans that would have extended the tax cuts for one year and paid for them by closing various corporate tax loopholes.

snip

Sen. John Kerry , Bush's Democratic presidential opponent, said he supported extension of the middle-class tax cuts, but he criticized inclusion of corporate tax breaks in the bill and also the refusal of Republicans to agree to Democratic efforts to go further in expanding tax relief for 4 million low-income working families.

"Millions of American families are being squeezed by the weak Bush economy, falling incomes and rising health costs, and we should extend middle-class tax breaks to help them," Kerry said in a statement issued by his campaign.

snip


Democratic opponents pointed to soaring federal deficits during the Bush administration, including an expected record deficit of $422 billion this year and said that it was fiscally irresponsible to be passing further tax cuts that will push the deficits higher in future years.

[AlCzervik]

10. I watched the whole 1 hour deabte yesterday on cspan, i dont know

who was more pissed off, me or charlie Rangel. An hour of debate, that was all it got.

[Kenneth ken]

6. short of murdering someone on live tv

I am willing to let Kerry-Edwards do pretty much whatever they want until November 2.

On November 3 is when I will start vigorously trying to push them to the left, and toward sensible policy decisions.

but that's just me, I'm interested in getting them elected right now.

[Clovis Sangrail]

11. he's making this difficult

I would literally vote for ham sandwich over Bush.
Kerry was not my guy in the primaries, but he won... and as the best chance of getting Bush out of office he gets my vote.

That said, his actions here have little upside potential and lots of downside potential.
Not a wise move.

I find it amazing, and amazingly frustrating, that Kerry isn't tearing Bush apart.
It's like he's in the proverbial ass-kicking contest against a 1 legged man and can't seem to get ahead.

I'm really really hoping that he makes up ground in the debates.

[Kenneth ken]

12. he would be attacked

if he had voted against the cuts also.

The main problem isn't what Kerry-Edwards do or don't do from now to the election; it's how the major media covers/spins it.

It's up to we the people outside the media to convince voters to either ignore the major media or help them get truth regarding plans Kerry-Edwars want to implement.

The debates may help, assuming people watch them rather than read the media spin about what happened.

[Chomskyite]

8. Kerry has been for a middle class tax cut since his campaign started

I dont see what you're kvetching about.

[leesa]

9. Buying off the stupid people.

[fabius]

13. Tax cuts

This reminds me of that part in the book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" where the Kansas unions decided to stop supporting the Democrats because they signed NAFTA. There was no longer a clear difference in the parties anymore.

I believe that trying to vote for something that is clearly against what Democrats believe in, will only backfire, because later on, the Repugs will say, "If tax cuts are wrong, then why did you vote for them?" If you vote like a repuglican and the other party is fascist, what alternative are you leaving to the voters?

[kwolf68]

14. Good lord

Some people don't understand the political game. Kerry has to support this, because they are calling him tax and spend. Kerry supports tax relief on the middle-class. I'd like to hear more about support for the lower classes.

But when pressed on the tax issue (in the debates most likely) he needs to mention that bombs cost money, Bradley Fighting Vehicles cost money, VA Benefits cost money, troop deployment costs money, bundles of cash going to "nation building" cost money. Basically, he needs to ask * just what the **** is he going to use to pay for all this crap besides our childrens money.

[fabius]

16. Political gaming...

I may be wrong about this, and having canvassed my neighborhood recently I understand that some of the "swing" voters are impenetrably stupid...BUT!

If the Democrats refuse to stand up for fiscal responsibility then we will have a hard time using this issue against the Rethuglicans. Just the same as the war vote. If we vote for it it's hard to later criticize it.

Democrats in Washington are still running scared. That is going to have to change. Rethuglicans continue to act like brownshirts and Democrats continue to cave.

This is the fourth tax cut the Democratic leadership has gone along with. It looks to me like another victory for the Rove/Delay/Frist Axis of A-holes. This is one major reason I supported Howard Dean in the primaries.

LBJ could play the political game too, but he was in charge of the game, not getting hammered by the other side. We need somebody that can play the political game and make the other side squeal in agony. That'll be the day.

[Carolab]

19. And OUR social security

n/t

[sandnsea]

15. These were DEMOCRATIC TAX CUTS FOR CHRISSAKE

Go back and read the goddamned articles from 2001. Olympia Snowe, Chaffee and a couple other Republicans and ALL the Democrats fought for these goddamned tax cuts to be included in the 2001 tax cut. They aren't Bush's to begin with. Kerry has ALWAYS supported keeping these tax cuts. That was the biggest difference between him and Howard Dean. Jesus Fucking Christ, if Democrats knew what the hell was going on in DC once in a while, maybe we wouldn't have such a hard time winning.

[fabius]

17. Democratic or no...

...it was a stupid idea then and it's a worse idea now that we have two or more wars going on. Just proves that the Congressional Democrats didn't have any spine in 2001. The 2001 tax cuts were based on fictitious extrapolations of rosy-scenario budgets. Everybody now knows what happened to those.

I'm a long-suffering Democrat who voted for McGovern in 1972 so I have standing to complain about my own party.

[sandnsea]

18. Thank you so much your holiness

Complain your ass off and help run the campaign right down the toilet. Where you gonna' be then? I can't believe how selfish the people in this country are. Nothing's more important than your self indulgent opinion and complaints. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with these tax cuts in 2001 and there isn't anything wrong with keeping them now. There isn't that much there to begin with. The corporations and the wealthy aren't paying their fair share, are we going to make them or let the right spew their pity the corporation nonsense another 20 years?

[fabius]

20. Look here, I'm not that important.

I'm just a precinct committeeman. Nobody listens to me on a national scale. I'm not on TV. I'm not interviewed by Tweety. I will continue to knock on doors for Kerry, Wyden and Wu in my precinct even if they supported this thing. But I reserve the right to b**tch about it when they do things I disagree with.

If the Party membership will not ever question the leadership we will end up just like the Rethugs, someday, supporting an indefensible nonentity like Dubya with unquestioning loyalty.

Even our best Democratic leaders make mistakes. That's what got us into Vietnam, in case you don't remember. Blind loyalty is no service to the nation.

This is just DU for heaven's sake. Take a Valium. Free speech ought to reign here.

[sandnsea]

21. Oh that's great

Campaigning for Dems while you bitch about them. How helpful. BTW, do you know why Wyden voted for the Medicare bill? How do you campaign for people and not care why they voted the way they voted? Just bitch when you personally disagree.

[Scootman78]

23. A lot of us complain, so what?

Just because we vote democrat doesn't mean we can't complain about them. That's part of what being a liberal is. The problem is that not many/hardly any of us actual liberals choose to run for office. Some say you shouldn't complain if you don't get involved. I don't know if that's entirely fair because everyone should be able to complain, but we really aren't doing anything to make the whole situation any better - are we?

I'm a single male, age 26, who makes $25,000 a year. I'm not middle-class (off by a few thousand). I'm also not married and I don't have any kids. The politicians in Congress could care less about me because more and more single young people choose not to vote (apparently). I vote, but it still doesn't really matter because even though I'm voting Democrat, I'm still choosing a politician that represents special interests - nothing else.

[LSK]

25. what was the deficit in 2001????

Its a different time now.

[Child_Of_Isis]

22. Here is the way it will work.

If shrub steals the election, they will roll back the cuts to the middle class. If Kerry wins, they roll back the cuts to the ultra wealthy.


What would Kerry's vote have accomplished anyway?

[Clovis Sangrail]

26. What would his vote accomplish?!?

Regardless of HOW he voted, voting on legislation is
HIS JOB.
Ultimately, it's why he was put in office and is the reason he gets a paycheck.

By voting he would have 'accomplished' removing the possibility of his NOT VOTING AT ALL being used against him.
He could have flown in, voted, and left... and we the taxpayers would have paid the airfare.

If he skipped the vote to avoid being criticized on HOW he voted, he should have kept his mouth shut about "supporting it". If he wanted to support it he should have taken the time to vote.

Somebody in his campaign should smack him upside the head for this one.

[Child_Of_Isis]

27. The only people that would be critical

of him, doesn't know much about what is going on. Or those who believe what Rove tells them. If Kerry was afraid of criticism,(or Rove) he would have bowed out a long time ago. At this moment, his job is to win this election. If his vote would have accomplished something, then I could see taking time off from the campaign trail.

[LSK]

24. BUSH: "Deficits? Bring them on!!!!"