The Political Theater of the Expiring Bush Tax Cuts and the Street Mob

J.D. Foster / December 02, 2010

The House of Representatives is set to open the next act in the grand political theater, a fiscal tragedy of epic proportions surrounding the prevention of a massive tax hike set to befall the American taxpayer in a few weeks. Why? The Bush tax cuts expire.

The scene opens with the Members voting on an expanded version of the President’s original proposal to allow the tax hike to fall only on singles making more than $200,000 and married filers making more than $250,000 annually. The expansion is the addition of a number of terrible tax provisions originally enacted as part of the “temporary” stimulus.

In previous scenes, President Obama and his allies have repeatedly argued that the tax increase is necessary to begin to address the budget deficit. His admission of our disastrous fiscal path that he has made substantially worse is encouraging, but as typical of his economic policies, his prescription is largely political and entirely harmful. (more…)