In my new book Hostile Takeover, I have an entire section on how when you hear a politician these days talk about "tax cuts," they are really only talking about tax cuts for the wealthy - not tax cuts for regular folks. The new "tax cut" bill moving through Congress shows exactly what I'm talking about. Here we have leading Republican politicians waxing poetic about supposedly providing new tax cuts to ordinary folks, when what's really going on is the elimination of tax cuts for ordinary folks as a way to pay for new tax cuts for the super-rich.
Here's the key excerpt from the Associated Press story:
"Top Finance Committee Democrat Max Baucus of Montana said is was wrongheaded to pass capital gains and dividend tax cuts -- 'a provision that doesn't take effect until 2009 for the most wealthy' -- while letting languish tax breaks on college tuition and state and local sales taxes, as well as a research and development tax credit for businesses, all of which expired in December...A joint study by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution shows taxpayers with incomes greater than $1 million per year winning tax cuts of $42,000 under the bill, while families with incomes of $50,000 a year would average a $46 tax cut."
There you have it folks - a Republican "tax cut" bill that extends new tax cuts for the wealthy while letting tax cuts for ordinary citizens expire. That is your Congress at work. That is the hostile takeover of America's government by Big Money interests in all its glory, for all to see.