Democrats delay vote on middle class tax cuts

Today the Democrats punted on taking up the issue of extending the Bush tax cuts on the middle class until after the midterm elections. If no action is taken before the end of the year ALL of the Bush tax cuts will expire including those tax cuts that are not on the rich. Contrary to the claims of the left over the last several years, the Bush tax cuts did not only give tax cuts to the rich, they gave tax cuts to everybody.

The Democrats wanted to win a victory before the midterm elections on the Bush tax cuts by passing legislation that would allow the Bush tax cuts expire on all those people who make over $250,000 while granting a temporary continuance of the Bush tax cuts on the middle class. With this revelation today there will be no action on the Bush tax cuts until after the election–if at all.

Both parties were quick to point the finger at each other for this failure.

Here is what a spokesman for Harry Reid had to say:

Democrats believe we must permanently extend tax cuts for the middle class before they expire at the end of the year, and we will,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid. “Unfortunately, to this point, we have received no cooperation from Republicans to do so.…We will come back in November and stay in session as long as it takes to get this done

And here is what Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley had to say about these developments:

This delay is irresponsible and reckless. It’s no wonder the American people are fed up with the leadership of Congress. Every family in America faces a major tax increase next year because the Senate majority leader has failed to take action to prevent it

So while both parties continue to stall and point the finger at each other it is the American people who stand to be negatively affected by the inaction of the Congress.

Both parties are promising to take up this issue once the election is over, but once the Congress is back in session there will not be much time to get anything done on this issue. The clock is ticking and all Americans stand to pay the price for the Congress’ inaction on this issue.

The Democrats have long stated that the Bush tax cuts were unfair because only the rich received tax cuts, but that is–and always has been–a lie designed to turn the American people against the tax cuts. Now that the tax cuts are set to expire Democrats are forced to admit that a sun setting of the Bush tax cuts will not just affect the rich as they have been stating all of these years.

Democrats have been playing a political game with these tax cuts for years; if they hadn’t been playing this game for so long something could have been done long ago to stop the looming tax increase on ALL Americans. But the Democrats thought this was a winning issue for them during the 2008 presidential campaign, and it wasn’t until the deadline drew near that Democrats were forced to admit that by letting the Bush tax cuts sunset, ALL Americans would face a tax hike. Their political posturing has cost the Congress valuable time and now it may be too late to stop all Americans from facing the largest tax increase in history.

Democrats can blame Republicans all they want, but if it wasn’t for the gamesmanship of the Democrat party this issue would have been resolved years ago.