Quit Playing Games with My Income; Double-down GOP

All the talk is about some sort of deal on tax cuts, and so I point you to a post by Paul over at Powerlineblog which discusses the games that Democrats and Republicans are playing with our incomes for the next several years.

The Senate today rejected two attempts by the Democrats to raise taxes on high-income earners. The first attempt was a proposal to extend the Bush tax cuts, but only for the first $250,000 per year of income. It received 53 of the 60 votes necessary (with 36 opposed). The second proposal would have extended the Bush tax cuts, but only up to $1 million a year. It too garnered only 53 votes (with 37 opposed). All Republicans who voted opposed the tax increases.

These votes needed to be taken so that the Democrats will have the Republicans on record as holding continued tax relief for the middle class hostage to continued tax relief for higher earners. Now that the votes have occurred, Congress and the administration can get on more seriously with the business of preventing everyone's taxes from going up in a few weeks.

To accomplish this, Republicans will probably have to give President Obama something in return. A likely candidate is a lengthy extension of emergency unemployment benefits. This seems like a small price to pay; indeed, it is arguably a humanitarian action that would have merit standing alone. Presumably, the White House will ask for a few more additional goodies in the form of spending that has less merit.

Some liberal Democrats have signaled that they intend to oppose a deal that would extend the Bush tax cuts across-the-board.... Despite the determination of such leftists, a deal between Republicans and Obama would, I suspect, be likely to carry the day.

If Republicans are unwilling to accept White House demands, they could let the tax cuts expire and revisit the issue come January. But with no majority in the Senate (never mind a super majority), the Republicans still may not be holding a fully winning hand. Public outrage will have kicked in (along, perhaps, with a major decline in the stock market), but it's not clear that such outrage would be directed wholly, or even mainly, at the Democrats, now that they have voted to extend the tax cuts for the middle class....

Mostly I blame the Democrats, who are simplifying playing games- if they really opposed tax cuts because they believe something good will result by the government taking more of a certain group in societies income, they should oppose them, especially since they still run (as of today) everything and next month still will run almost everything. But the modern day Democrat party basically is playing games, since the leadership is basically communist and they know that communism failed and doesn't work so they can't openly try for communism.

But I also blame the Republicans. They're playing games too- if they really supported tax cuts because they believe something good will result in people keeping more of their own money that they labored and worked for, then they should support tax cuts, especially since they are still the minority party in government. Rather than push to simply extend tax cuts and then give Obama a bunch of other things that they oppose, they should double-down and push for extending tax cuts and increasing them, and make Obama and his Democratic Party battle that back.

This is not a game, Republicans and Democrats. This is my income. I worked hard for it. I put in my effort to produce it. The government of the United States has a questionable claim on it, especially since it is the job of the government to protect my 'pursuit of happiness' and not take it away from me to provide for other people's 'happiness.' But if they want to make it a game, make it a game by demanding more and more and more and make the Democrats defend why tax cuts are bad while you explain why tax cuts are good. It might be a winning strategy.