Liberals Spin Economic Uncertainty Over Tax Cuts
The American Prospect has partisanship down to a science with Mark Schmitt's new article, Uncertainly Wrong. We have heard a lot in the past 18 months about uncertainty and its affects on the economy but only now did we realize that...it's all Bush's fault. In his own words, “Today's uncertainty was baked in nine years ago, by the same people who are now capitalizing on it.” Schmitt is speaking about the sunset clause on the tax cuts that cause them to expire at the end of the year. This doesn't represent George Bush not shoving policy down our throat and compromising with Democrats to pass bipartisan legislation. That is why the tax cuts expire you know. Republicans wanted them to be permanent, Democrats didn't. This doesn't explain at all why Obama, with absolute majorities in the Senate and House, didn't address the issue earlier to decrease uncertainty over the tax cuts. This is classic bash Bush. It's like the 2008 campaign all over again.
Sunset clauses go way back. The awful Sedition Act of 1798 had a sunset clause. The Patriot Act has run its course and been renewed. This isn't a new creation of Congress during the Bush years, this is good old predictable congress.
The uncertainty over the tax cuts could have easily been mitigated. I have said in previous columns that the Bush Tax Cuts should stay but there has been ample time for this administration to make a decision. For instance, last summer when we were passing expansive health care legislation that was so daunting Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to pass the bill so we can find out what's in it.” Does that sound like uncertainty to you? Do you think it sounds like uncertainty to employers who provide insurance to their workers? Yea, you betcha. Maybe some of that health care time and political capital could have been used to end uncertainty over the Bush tax cuts. Then again, that was back when some folks still believed the stimulus was working.
Whether we keep the Bush Tax Cuts in their entirety or we leave out top income earners there is a benefit to knowing what is going to happen. This administration having almost no business experience, seems lost when it comes to the effects of uncertainty, how to foster growth, and how to create jobs. At a 9.6 percent unemployment rate and growth slowing to 1.6 percent in the second quarter, the evidence is all around you. Everyone knew the Bush Tax Cuts were set to expire. Businesses in particular. This administration has failed to act decisively in that lies the root of uncertainty over the tax cuts.
Uncertainty is a bad thing, and having 7-9 years notice (2001 or 2003 tax cuts) on a tax issue isn't uncertainty. Not addressing it is. The administration and Congress need to make a decision on the Bush Tax Cuts. Are they all going? Are they all staying? Are we just letting them expire for the rich? Put the issue to rest and make a decision. Unfortunately both sides of the aisle would rather keep the uncertainty to play politics with the November elections. Even so, Mark Schmitt and The American Prospect are dead wrong to blame Bush for uncertainty over the Bush Tax Cuts.
Now just for giggles the article also has this to say. “Health-care reform, for example, if implemented well, should help reduce the spikes in premiums that made businesses reluctant to hire because they couldn't know the actual cost of a new employee.” Wouldn't it be nice if we knew how health care reform was going to affect the cost of a new employee? The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, doesn't know what “is in it.” So health care legislation, that has created nothing but uncertainty, where the major effects aren't implemented until 2014, is somehow a stabilizer for business. That makes absolutely no sense but I guess it doesn't matter to Mark Schmitt and the American Prospect. Here's a toast to all the liberals, “You can be as left as you want but the facts are always right.”
Tyson Bam
September 9th, 2010
