More Political Gridlock Ahead
How can we stop the bickering on Capitol Hill and work together for the future of the US? The republicans are clearly the party of solidarity here and aren’t afraid to put the country in a state of political gridlock. With the recent debt ceiling debacle they’ve shown that they are willing to threaten the entire country with economic disaster to just get their way. Until the current democratic administration took over they were willing to raise the debt ceiling every year since 1997.
President Obama recently announced a $450 billion jobs plan to stimulate the economy, which includes $150 billion for infrastructure projects. This sounds like it’s politically too much and effectually too small. Removing certain itemized deductions from individuals making over $200,000 a year (and families making more than $250,000 per year) is projected to generate $400 billion of the required funds. The rest is to be generated by closing tax loopholes for gas and oil companies, changing corporate jet depreciation rules, and altering hedge funds to be taxed as income rather than capitol gains.
Of course the republicans aren’t happy about the way the president has proposed funding the bill. Increasing taxes even marginally is sacrilege. They seem to think the answer to everything is cutting taxes. If taxes are the problem why aren’t the so called “job creators” hiring? Taxes are the lowest they’ve ever been for these corporations and yet the gap between the richest and poorest Americans is the biggest it’s been since the census started recorded household income in 1967.
“Anything that is akin to the stimulus bill I think is not going to be acceptable to the American people.” Cantor told reporters shortly after Obama’s Rose Garden speech. ”The country cannot afford more spending like the stimulus bill.”
It’s obvious that the republicans don’t want the economy to recover. They’re ready to do anything that makes it easier to get the presidency back, even if that means letting the country sink further into the current recession.
