Democrats Completely Out of Line on Tax Relief

The American people need tax relief, and they need it now. We are thirty days away from a hike in taxes unless Congress acts. On January 1st, 2011, every American will see their income taxes increase. The hardest hit will be Americans with the lowest incomes, where those earning under $8,000 a year would see their income taxes go up fifty percent. In the middle class, income tax hikes of over 21% are coming in 30 days. With the United States still feeling the effects of recession, and more unemployment over 9%, the #1 priority of Congress must be tax relief for the American people.

By increasing taxes, the federal government will be taking away money from Americans. This will limit the American people's spending power, and when the American people spend less, American businesses suffer. Businesses then look to reduce production and/or cut costs, including labor costs. This leads to a vicious cycle where more Americans become unemployed and the loss of income leads to less spending, leading to even more Americans becoming unemployed.

Ideally, Congress would act to provide the American people with tax cuts, giving every American more money to use as they see fit. Unfortunately, instead of supporting job creation, Democrats have continually supported the concept of greater income redistribution where the American people are forced to pay the government and the government then spends their hard-earned money. Some of this hard-earned money goes towards useful efforts, such as defense or infrastructure-building. A large portion, however, is wasted on pet projects and earmarks. The Democrats rejected a ban on earmarks this week, despite the American people expressing their opposition to earmarks and wasteful government spending.

The Democrats who oppose job creation and tax relief are so out of line that they are an embarrassment to the constituents who made the mistake of electing them.  On November 2nd, the Democrats were sent a strong message by voters when many in their party lost their seats in Congress. Yet, some Democrats still continue to ignore the will of the American people by refusing to abolish earmarks and refusing to pass tax relief. Today, the situation got so bad that following negotiations at the White House Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly issued a letter to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid informing him that, basically, if the Democrats are going to pass any legislation it either needs to be tax relief or fund the government. "We cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job killing tax-hike," read the letter. Essentially, Republicans by banding together in the Senate are able to prevent the Democrats from calling a vote (cloture) on legislation. 60 votes are needed for cloture, the Republicans can limit the Democrats to only 58.

So out of line are Democrats in Congress, including Senator Reid himself, that the Republicans cited President Obama in their letter as a voice of reason:

President Obama in his first speech after the November election said "we owe" it to the American people to "focus on those issues that affect their jobs." He [Obama] went on to say that Americans "want jobs to come back faster." 

Now, I'm not one to always agree with President Obama. In fact, it seems that most of the time, I disagree with him. But this is one time when President Barack Hussein Obama has it right. The American people want jobs, and they want Congress to act in a manner consistent with job creation. One thing Americans certainly do not want is a tax hike. If the Republicans have to stop everything but tax relief in order to get tax relief, then so be it. Their tactics may seem like childish shenanigans, but the ends justify the means -- the American people want results.

The ball is in Congress' court, and for the time being, a majority of players on the court are Democrats. I hope they wise up ann follow the will of the people by working with Republicans who want to bring immediate tax relief and create conditions that will lead to a reduction in unemployment in the United States through the creation of jobs. If the Democrats thought they lost a lot of seats last month, they'll be in for a shock when they lose even more in 2012 should they continue to defy the American people by getting nothing positive done.