Wednesday, December 19, 2001
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Wednesday, December 19, 2001 |
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Who stands to gain if economy derails? By DAVE HAMRICK It will be interesting to see during the next election whether the American people have been paying attention. If they have, then they'll understand that Senate Democrats, spurred on by Majority Leader Tom Daschle, have deliberately prevented them from getting any tax relief. In fact, they have blocked the entire economic stimulus package, even though the president and the House have made numerous concessions to their points of view. In fact, after all the concessions, their only remaining flimsy excuse is their objection to the retroactive repeal of the alternative minimum tax for corporations. Would somebody please tell Mr. Daschle the simple fact that corporations do not pay taxes they merely collect them from customers and stockholders, all of whom are individual humans. And while you're at it, please inform him that pouring more billions into unemployment programs will not get people their jobs back. How do you get them their jobs back? Pay close attention, Mr. Daschle. I'll speak slowly. YOU HELP CORPORATIONS SURVIVE AND PROSPER! One other complaint Democrats have is also a well worn one tax cuts for the super rich. If you're super rich, apparently meaning a household income of more than $46,700, Republicans want to give you a measly 2 percent reduction, from 27 to 25 percent taxation. Daschle's willing to compromise and drop it to 26 percent. Be still my beating heart! Watching Daschle block economic stimulus is kind of like watching a football team, behind with seconds on the clock, call one running play after another and make no attempt to get out of bounds. One would almost get the impression that Daschle, Gephardt et al WANT the economy to crumble. Do they honestly think that people will then believe them when they blame the whole thing on Bush and the Republicans? I'll answer my own question. Of course they do. It's number one in their play book. The old Statue of Liberty reverse. Whether it will work as well this time, with the spin master no longer in the White House, remains to be seen. You can bet that CNN and the rest of the Clinton lap dogs will be fighting like pit bulls to get air time with Hillary during the election months, so we'll see whether she's as good an actor as her hubby. Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, many Republicans are wondering why Bush hasn't made more use of the Bully Pulpit to help them ram the stimulus package through the log jam. Well, it's not like he hasn't addressed the nation. You say you haven't seen any of these addresses? I can't imagine why not, other than the fact that none of the major networks carry them. If you watch the evening news, you might catch a 10-second snippet. Or look for the three-graph summary on page 19A of the AJC. It's possible that by the time you read this, a compromise will have been reached and the stimulus package will have been passed. It doesn't change anything. It's still been held up for far too long while the economy slowly languished. Merry Christmas.
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