When I pointed out that this was blackmail, the man on the phone agreed and said that Kerry was trying to make the compromise “better”. When I pointed out that you can’t make the compromise “better” unless you take away the tax breaks for people making over $250,000 per year and maintain the FICA tax that supports Social Security, they agreed with me and said that Kerry was going to vote for it anyway!
This is unbelievable. George Bush himself couldn’t have done better. This legislation increases the already unconscionable income gap by giving $700,000,000,000 to people making more than $250,000 per year. This is enough money to rebuild every school in America about six times over. But, even worse, by cutting the FICA tax this legislation starts to defund Social Security. Social Security is now fiscally sound, but with this cut it will not be. It will just be a matter of time, and not very much time, before Social Security will really be broke and will be gone. Even George Bush could not accomplish this.
I further pointed out that if nothing happens and everyone’s taxes go up, you could pin this on the Republicans for being intransigent and refusing to compromise. It would be awful, but politically it could easily be a victory for Democrats and a defeat for Republicans.
When I pointed all this out, they agreed with me and said that Kerry was going to vote for this anyway. Please, CALL KERRY’S OFFICE and give him a piece of your mind. The phone number is 617-565-8519. And report your results on Blue Mass Group, MADems and other forums.
action is what I would like to see out of my Sendators. His day long speech which is still continuing:
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p>http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-…
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p>he has not only outlined the problems with tax cuts for the wealthy, but other hidden problems in this bill and very clearly articulated the war on the middleclass.
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p>Its about time. Where are the Democrats. This is our issue!
John Kerry is a disappointment. I wrote and called today. If we keep up the pressure…perhaps he will change.
was he ever anything else?
will be one this voter will never forget. There is no good excuse. I agree with all soffner’s points.
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p>There appears to be no reason to have a tax cut extension in the same bill as an unemployment extension. Why not just bring up a simple unemployment extension bill? Unless, of course, you want cover for extending all the tax cuts and chopping away at Social Security.
which means 1 of 2 things happens (quite likely a little bit of both):
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p>1. In a few more months, when we need to raise the debt ceiling again, the Republicans get to play hostage-takers all over again… and this time, there’s nothing that we can use as a piss-poor excuse of a “sweetener” for progressives… other than avoiding national catastrophe.
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p>Of course, you’d think the Republicans — being “real americans” and all — would want to do that for the sake of this country, but they don’t give a damn about this country. They give a damn about winning. Obama never gets that stuff when he’s “negotiating.” He’ll give up the goods before the negotiating even begins (coughfederalemployeepayfreezecough*).
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p>2. The Republicans get to force absolutely, positively draconian cuts on social spending to keep this country from crossing the debt ceiling. Anything’s up for grabs, except pork for the GOP and military spending (you know, 50% of the entire freaking budget — not even including the extra billions of war-time spending).
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p>Look, this isn’t exactly chess here. This is checkers. If we can’t even play a damn game of checkers, maybe it’s time to start recognizing these people aren’t negotiating the kind of deals they say they are…
he still wants to be Obama’s next SOS.