Thursday, July 19, 2012

Those darn retroactively-obstructionist Republicans - Hot Air: "Harry Reid has trouble explaining why Democrats didn't raise taxes when they had the chance."  The pregnant pause before "next question" and the shoe-staring is priceless.

4 comments:

Bram said...

My favorite question to Democrats. They had two years to do anything they wanted. Other than spending an unimaginable amount of money, they really did nothing.

I also think they were purposely waiting for more Republicans to show up and try to fix things - so they would take the blame.

Nigel Tufnel said...

Reid was correct in saying that the tax cuts expired in 2010, so the question was irrelevant.

The 10-year expiration date was put on Bush's tax cuts because even the most rosy economic predictions showed the country going into the red if they were passed. They were fiscally irresponsible. By limiting them to 10 years the GOP was able to skirt a Senate rule that prohibited such legislation without getting 60 votes. The GOP couldn't muster that level of support, so they put the 10-year time limit on them and passed them with a simple majority.

Supporters knew they were not fiscally rational, but they did it anyway. The traditional conservative option of using the surplus that existed at that time to pay down the debt was dismissed, along with the GOP's discarding of much of its traditional conservative ideology during Bush the Younger's term.

The GOP controlled both chambers of Congress and the White for many years after that. One can only imagine the kind of economic mess we would have got into with the Democrats in charge. Literally.

NIgel's Editor said...

Uuuhhhh...."White House" that is...

Anonymous said...

The GOP always controls the whites.