Arianna appeared on "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" to debate the deal between the White House and Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts by two years in exchange for a one-year extension of unemployment benefits.
"The main problem with the deal is that it doesn't create jobs," she said.
She went on to criticize Larry Summers for his comments that failing to reach a compromise would send us into a double-dip recession, saying, "Today he fear-mongered...it reminds me of the fear-mongering that went on before the Iraq War."
Watch the full segment:
We need more people like Alan Grayson in politics, not less.
¹Some currently not paying taxes could see their tax burden increase if the current tax rates revert back but determining the actual net increase is well beyond the ability of this writer. The assumption that someone with no taxable income would not be impacted by an increase in their tax rates, however, is a perfectly valid and reasonable assumption.
²2008 tax year figures provide by the National Taxpayers' Union
Even worse the blithe way O'Donnell shifts the blame of threatened unemployment extensions and safety nets from Republican responsibility to Democratic dissenters such as Alan Grayson is the reason for the mass abandonment of the Democratic Party this past mid-election. We, the rational and educated, should stand with Congressman Grayson and vehemently repudiate the offensive Republican practice of holding our social safety net to ransom. We don't give in to criminal or terrorist demands and neither should we cave to Republican extortion on the same principles. (Cont'd)
But in my opinion O'Donnell's most egregious failure is not his deliberately distorted math but the absence of any sort of basic principals or ethics contained in his position. His argument rests on nothing but expediency, self-gratification, and a misdirection of his viewers' anger. Take, for instance, his seeming insistence that the American middle class shouldn't be paying any more income tax than it already does. Of course the only alternatives today are to allow our economy to implode, pass the deficits onto coming generations, or hand our essential services over to the tender mercies of corporations. As a progressive who thinks corporations already have far too much influence in this country that leaves us with no choice at all – we have to run deficits. But is it right we pass on the entire bill to our children and grandchildren? Today the top 10% of the taxpayers pay 70% of our personal income taxes². That leaves the next 40% of taxfilers paying the remaining 30%. At the very least this 40% aren't paying their share. (Cont'd)
O'Donnell pointed out to Grayson that the five percent increase in the lowest income brackets means a 50% increase in their tax rate – a far more burdensome shift in taxes, he argued, than that which would hit the rich – and by not voting for the bill Grayson would be responsible for unfairly taxing the middle class. To those uninitiated in finance who don't look very closely this argument may sound persuasive. But to those more comfortable with numbers (and as a former tax policy advisor O'Donnell should surely be counted among them) this is pure, unadulterated bunk. An outright misrepresentation of reality used to ambush a guest with an indefensible strawman argument.
First O'Donnell mixes 'apples with oranges' when he uses the percentage increase (50%) rather than the absolute increase (5%) applicable to the lowest tax bracket. By doing so he deliberately distorts the impact of taxes reverting back to their Clinton-era levels. I'll illustrate this deceit by way of an example. A family has two expenses: every month they pile into the car and see a movie and every month they pay their mortgage. (Cont'd)
This ridiculous DC Kabuki dance about taxes will do NOTHING to create jobs. Indeed, it might make matters worse.
But a couple of the DC Kool Kids got to slap around the B@ggers' fave whipping boy, Alan Grayson, so all is right with the world and this made for "great television".
Gag me....
The Democrats could have dealt with this before the election. They didn't and in the last few days of the years, the President didn't have a choice but to work with what he had - which is a whole slew of right-wing Republicans coming into Congress in January. He is President of all the people and he got a pretty good deal (not great) but doable.
Blame the Republicans who won't budge (you know they won't) and the Democrats who didn't want to vote on this before they went back to the voters in November. Our representatives are more concerned with politics than their constituents - shame on the lot of them.
Arianna is also wrong about the jobs. Economic studies show that the best stimulus for our economy is food stamps, as that money circulates through society the most, creating the most jobs. The worst place to put money is in corporations with corporate tax cuts, as they already have loads of money they aren't spending.