President Barack Obama suggested Monday that congressional Republicans were acting hypocritically by opposing an extension and expansion of a payroll tax cut set to expire at the end of this year.
The president assailed the GOP in a statement at the White House, accusing them of reneging on a pledge to not raise taxes by voting against a Democratic proposal that would cut extend the tax cut in 2012, and pay for it by a surtax on the wealthy.
"Now, some Republicans who have pushed back against the idea of extending this payroll tax cut have said you’ve got to pay for this tax cut. I'd just like to point out they haven't always felt that way," Obama said.
"Over the last decade, they didn't feel the need to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans ... Indeed, when the Republicans took over the House at the beginning of this year, they explicitly changed the rules to say that tax cuts don't have to be paid for. So forgive me a little bit of confusion when I hear folks insisting on tax cuts being paid for."
Obama has proposed a 3.25 percent surtax on incomes over $1 million to pay for the middleclass tax cut extensions, and extending unemployment benefits. the Republicans refused to even entertain such an idea as millionaires and billionaires, paying more in taxes – so just what have the Republicans been willing offer as a compromise? A three-year pay freeze for federal workers, and the cutting of 200,000 government jobs. This counter offer was made by Mitch McConnell – the same Mitch McConnell who stated back in 2010: “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President.” The Speaker of the Republican controlled House, the orange prick, John Boehner, has suggested that he would support the bill with a rider attached that would accelerate the approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and many of the other Republicans, also want the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires made permanent as a part of the deal.
Make no mistake about it, this is not about the Republicans becoming fiscally responsible, this is simply about the Republicans obstructing anything that would maintain or improve the current state of the economy – and them believing that the Obama Administration and the Democrats will be blamed for the impending economic disaster.
I hope that Obama and the Democrats gain a lot of political mileage by showing just whose interests the Republicans represent.
