Dems Waging 'Class Warfare' Over Tax Cuts, Republicans Complain

Several top Republicans have said recently that President Obama's plan to allow the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans is "class warfare."

"Instead of resorting to tired old class warfare rhetoric, pitting one working American against another, the president and the Democratic leadership should start working with us this week to ensure a fair and open debate to pass legislation to cut spending and freeze tax rates without any further delay," said House Republican Leader John Boehner on Sunday.

And Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) reportedly also used the term during a Tea Party rally in Washington Sunday: "We will not compromise our economy to accommodate the class warfare rhetoric of this administration."

On Monday, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate elaborated: "I don't think Americans should be pitting Americans against each other," said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on the Senate floor. "Americans agree with President Kennedy's formulation that a rising tide lifts all boats. And Americans believe -- it's our basic idea of a country -- that we want everyone here to succeed, to do well and not to pit one group of us against another group.

"We all aspire to be in the very top groups of whatever we're talking about. And because of the kind of country we have, we have that opportunity and people do move from one income tax bracket up to the next one for example, as we increase our incomes," Kyl continued. "So we don't want to punish anyone for being successful. That class warfare went out of style when the Cold War ended."

Who's been waging war against whom? Democrats might say it's the other way around. Over the summer, when Senate Republicans filibustered a bill to reauthorize unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) characterized the obstruction as a "class warfare issue," as Kyl led his caucus in suggesting that unemployment benefits actually discourage people from looking for work.

"The Social Security Act of 1935 made these entitlements, Social Security and unemployment insurance and welfare," McDermott said. "The Republicans have been after all three of those programs ever since 1935. They got welfare a few years ago, because that's poor people. They could jump on them. But unemployment and Social Security is middle-class people -- they haven't been able to get them, but it isn't because they're not willing to try."

Extended unemployment benefits lapsed for more than a month and a half, affecting 2.5 million people, as Republicans and some Democrats insisted that the cost of the benefits not be added to the deficit -- though the GOP has abonded talk of deficit discipline for the proposed tax hike, which is worth nearly $700 billion over 10 years.

"It's ironic, to say the least, that less than two months ago, Senator Kyl fought so hard to block extending a meager $300 a week in unemployment benefits to those hardest hit by the recession because it would increase the deficit by $30 billion in the short term," wrote Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the National Employment Law Project, in an email to HuffPost. "Yet today, he and other anti-deficit hawks are more than willing to increase the deficit in a long-term and structural manner that would result in $700 billion in non-offset spending... The tax cuts were set to expire for a reason -- because we might not be able to afford them any longer. We have reached that point and recognizing the reality of the situation isn't class warfare; it's just good common sense."

Comments

[grills]

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[shrinktalkingheads]

12:39 AM on 09/17/2010

"I don't think Americans should be pitting Americans against each other," said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on the Senate floor." as he:
Voted NO on $192B additional anti-recession stimulus spending. (Jul 2009)
Voted NO on additional $825 billion for economic recovery package. (Feb. 2009)
Voted NO on $60B stimulus package for jobs, infrastructure, & energy. (Sep 2008)
Voted YES on restricting rules on personal bankruptcy. (Jul 2001)
Voted NO on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects. (Oct 2007)
Voted NO on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education. (Mar 2005)
Voted NO on spending $448B of tax cut on education & debt reduction. (Apr 2001)
Voted NO on tax incentives for energy production and conservation. (Jun 2008)
Voted NO on making oil-producing and exporting cartels illegal. (Jun 2007)
Voted NO on $3.1B for emergency oil assistance for hurricane-hit areas. (Oct 2005)
Voted YES on defunding renewable and solar energy. (Jun 1999)
Voted NO on $2 billion more for Cash for Clunkers program. (Aug 2009)
Voted NO on including oil & gas smokestacks in mercury regulations. (Sep 2005)

Let us do it!

[shrinktalkingheads]

12:23 AM on 09/17/2010

Also posted this at the "Downward mobility" story because it has the same relevance:

Consider this. The United States has been exporting jobs for about 25 years. Maybe Corporate America has decided that the middle class in America is just plain obsolete. The American middle class is expensive. The American middle class is is demanding; safe working conditions, paid vacations, retirement benefits. The American middle class demands health insurance, raises, a chance at the good life.

Labor in China and Central America is much less expensive. Foreign workers make few demands on Corporate America; worker safety, health benefits, paid vacations and retirement benefits? Not!

Compare the profit margin between home labor and foreign labor, guess which one Corporate America will choose.

Maybe this scenario is the one corporate America, a.k.a. "the rich" have called their Republican friends to help not only protect, but advance.

There is only one antidote: vote for a Democrat in the November elections. We have to put a stop to this slow dismantling of America.

[Craig Lane]

04:39 PM on 09/15/2010

Kyl and his co-horts are scum. Plain and simple.

[General Public]

04:26 PM on 09/15/2010

Republicans have been waging and winning class warfare for years with their redistribution of wealth from ordinary Americans to the super-wealthy who lay people off, ship jobs overseas, break unions, and cut wages and benefits in order to make their companies more profitable so they can pay themselves enough to become multibillionaires. That's the ongoing class warfare of the wealthy against the rest of us, and this is just a tiny little strike back against the wealthy, which will not end the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, only slightly slow down the rate at which the gap between rich and poor increases. The wealthy do not create jobs, but instead they create unemployment, and the few jobs they do create pay less than the countless good jobs that used to exist before they laid everyone off. The wealthy are the ones destroying our economy, because they are the captains of the ship, the people who run the economy, and who are running it into the ground with their greed and their inability to see that we are actually all in this together and if they lay people off and eliminate all the good jobs, there won't be any consumers left to buy their products and services. They created the recession through their short-sighted greed and inability to see how destroying the working class eliminates the consumer base of the economy that funds their salaries. Everyone needs to wise up and learn from this.

[picaman]

02:43 PM on 09/15/2010

Yes, it a war between the classes. The upper class started it and largely succeeded in eliminating the middle class. Now the Dems are trying to fight back.

[shastaman]

10:16 AM on 09/15/2010

After the passage of the Sherman anti trust act The American oil industry esp. Standard Oil boo hooed about the tyranny of the federal gov't
Yet , as the global demand for oil and gas established some international competition these " FREE MARKETEERS" cried to the gov't to aid them in controlling foreign interests and closer to home as the FREE MARKET unleashed more oil than could possibly be consumed The "FREE MARKETEERS" who saw their profits dwindling whined to the gov't to set price controls and intervene against the "hot oilers"!
It's been CLASS WARFARE all along in this society
Still the "golden rule" as always
The rest of you can rely on charity! NO????

[janejoad]

01:06 AM on 09/15/2010

I stopped reading after "Instead of resorting to "TIRED OLD CLASS WARFARE RHETORIC", pitting ONE American against another".

YOU, JOHN BOEHNER, ARE OUT OF TOUCH !!! You're out of time Baby, you are BLIND to the conditions your fellow Americans are living under and you are in DENIAL if you THINK the Democratic Party, the Party of "E Pluribus Unum" is responsible for the CLASS WARFARE that indeed, is STILL ALIVE and well in this country, THANKS TO YOU and YOUR PARTY>

We're not PITTED against eachother, but there are way TOO MANY people in America (TEA PARTIERS) who don't KNOW which CLASS they BELONG TO.

I'll give you a hint, that $250k cap, is WAY OUT of REACH for the AVERAGE American.

There are MORE white collar workers, blue collar workers, service workers and even more sanitation workers than there are Professionals or RICH PEOPLE.

DON"T FORGET> ***WE****OUT****NUMBER ****YOU***

I call on ALL my WORKING CLASS SISTERS and BROTHERS> to REMIND, every day, each person you know, who DOESN'T KNOW WHERE THEY BELONG....... WHICH CLASS they are in.

You make a BIG MISTAKE when you UNDER ESTIMATE the POWER OF THE PEOPLE.

I know there are some, even on this post, who will DENY which CLASS they belong to.

Republicans are counting on the deluded masses to come through for them, when everyday they
SPIT on YOU and LAUGH at your attempts to CLIMB THE LADDER.

Remember, they are GOVERNMENT BUMS who live off US !

[pjbigss]

02:18 PM on 09/14/2010

If the top 3% get to keep their tax cuts(As if they need them and trickle down doesn't trickle down to anybody) I say the bottom 97% should refuse to pay and start our own government that really represents our interests and make the current form of lobbying illegal!

[FredNH]

03:14 PM on 09/14/2010

let's talk of revolution again!
YES!

[Brian Gilmer]

01:15 PM on 09/14/2010

The Republicans DO NOT represent wage earners in the top 3%. Otherwise how would you account for the fact that 90% or so of the income taxes are paid by the top 3% of the tax payer? If Republicans really were looking out for the top 5% then they would be calling for tax INCREASE for the bottom 95% in order to begin to shoulder their portion of the tax burden. Republicans really suck at defending rich tax payers.

[Static Fest]

11:17 AM on 09/14/2010

It's been class warfare for 30 years, and now the little guy might actually get a chance to hit back!

[keepemhonest]

10:43 AM on 09/14/2010

Class Warfare? Huh?

Um ... using that logic, class warfare, don't facts reveal that the Republicans voted FOR this class warfare when they voted to LET the W tax cuts EXPIRE at the end of this year?

[Mensch99]

10:30 AM on 09/14/2010

“…tired old class warfare rhetoric, pitting one working American against another,”
How about a reality check here. This debate pits working Americans against the robber-banksters, CEOs and corporate oligarchs.
Let’s hear it for some good old-fashoned class warfare! Let the tax cuts for the rich expire and rebuild America’s infrastructure.

[Flying Sparkz1]

11:50 AM on 09/14/2010

Eliminate the class system and class warfare will eliminate itself. Es ist gut, Sie, Mensch zu sehen.
;0)

[RevMetheus]

10:06 AM on 09/14/2010

The rich and the corporations pay billions a year to game the laws and the system but that isnt Class Warfare.

The people elect officials who, once in a blue moon, stop pampering these rich and actually vote for something that helps the ones that elect them and that is Class Warfare.

We lost. They got the guns, the money, the hearts and minds of the greedy, the media, and the government.

[LynnW49]

10:16 AM on 09/14/2010

True and truw.
But we haven't lost yet.
See what happens in November.
See what happens when Obama realizes he's nearly blown it and has just two years to get it together before November 2012.
Keep your passport up to date.

[fortressfountain]

09:51 AM on 09/14/2010

Class warfare? Now just exactly do a lot of these people make the big bucks. They are not the best or the brightest-they get in through corrupt people they know.
I think with all of the big money the banks and corporations make-there should be plenty of jobs and people would have plenty of money to spend on the goods and services.
Instead we have a system where everyone should accept minimum wage-but work a maximum amount and go on credit to afford necessities.
Tax the crape out of these people! They stole it from everyone else!