Posted on 12/10/2010 8:36:41 AM PST by SharpRightTurn
Dear Fellow Conservatives:
Many of you have contacted me about the bipartisan tax deal reached between President Obama and Republican leaders. I've carefully reviewed the legislation and I wanted to explain to you why I cannot support it.
First, I do not want to see anyone's taxes go up and I have been fighting for years to permanently extend all the tax rates. I disagree with the President that we cannot afford to extend these rates for everyone. It's the people's money and we should not raise taxes on hardworking American families.
But this bill does much more than simply extend tax rates.
For starters, it includes approximately $200 billion in new deficit spending and stimulus gimmicks. That's a lot of money that will have to be borrowed from China and repaid by our children and grandchildren. If we're going to increase spending on new programs, we must reduce other spending to pay for it.
The bill also only extends rates for two years. We don't have a temporary economy so we shouldn't have temporary tax rates. Individuals and businesses make decisions looking at the long-term and we're not going to create jobs without giving people certainty as to what their taxes will be in future.
The bill also fails to extend all of the tax rates. It actually increases the death tax from its current rate of zero percent all the way up to 35 percent. One economic study shows that this tax increase alone will kill over 800,000 jobs over the next ten years.
Finally, the bill now includes dozens of earmarks for special interests, including ethanol subsidies, tax breaks for film and television producers, give aways for Puerto Rican rum manufacturers, favors for auto racing track owners, and a hand out for businesses in American Samoa.
The President called Republicans "hostage takers" this week but he should be pointing his figure squarely at himself. We've known for years that these tax rates were going to expire but he did nothing about it until the last minute. Now Americans are being told they have to accept hundreds of billions in new spending and stimulus gimmicks, an increase the death tax, and a bunch of unnecessary earmarks or their taxes will go up.
I'm not going to be bullied into voting for things that will hurt our country because politicians in Washington ignored the problem until it was a crisis.
Many of you fought hard to elect new leaders to the Senate this year with the expectation that they would fight deficit spending, tax hikes, and backroom deals. I take that commitment very seriously and I'm prepared to vote against this bill even if I'm the only one in the Senate to do so.
I appreciate the efforts made by my party's leaders to negotiate this deal but I believe Americans deserve much better. This deal should be rejected and then fixed. We can easily extend these tax rates without increasing spending once the new crop of Republican senators, including Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson, are sworn in. The President has already conceded that taxes cannot go up and we'll have more Republicans in Congress in a few weeks to fight for a better deal.
Thank you for supporting the principles of freedom and for your continued encouragement. I will continue to do my very best to be your voice in the United States Senate.
Respectfully,
Jim DeMint United States Senator Chairman, Senate Conservatives Fund
I would add that since several of the weak sisters/RINOs (Maine Bobsie twins, Scott Brown, etc.) have said they will fold on other issues (repeal of DADT) once the tax deal is settled, it would be in the best interest of conservatives to see that this tax deal--and therefore repeal of DADT, Nightmare Act, etc.--all go down in flames and let the new, more conservative Congress deal with it.
I completely agree. Stretch it out to final minute. The RINOs and RINETTEs will indeed cave on the other issues.
The Republicans need to tell people that the top 10% of those EVIL RICH (”Wealthiest among us”) already pay about 90% of all the taxes
please can some one tell me where i can find the exact figures?
WE ARE STILL LETTING THE DEMOCRAPS AND THE MEDIA CONTROL THE LANGUAGE OF THIS ARGUMENT!!!!!!!!!
Sharp Right Turn is perfectly correct. I accord with SRT.
I agree. Let the new congress handle this.
Finally, the bill now includes dozens of earmarks for special interests, including ethanol subsidies, tax breaks for film and television producers, give aways for Puerto Rican rum manufacturers, favors for auto racing track owners, and a hand out for businesses in American Samoa.
Sooooo sick of this crap.
“The bill...increases the death tax...One economic study shows that this tax increase alone will kill over 800,000 jobs over the next ten years.”
—Just great- a job killing bill loaded with pork that raises taxes and gives Obama a chance to look “bi-partisan”. Is there any other way the Establishment GOP could bungle this?
Thanks for speaking out against this, Senator DeMint.
This is a cogent analysis. That said, it seems that even if this deal goes through, the same process of fixing it quickly once the new Congress is seated can occur. IOW, I'm not sure DeMint's tactics are exactly necessary to end up with his preferred result.
The other point that occurs to me is that maybe this was a deal made with the strong intuition that it was going to fall apart of its own accord anyway. Mitch McConnell and Boehner can count votes as well as anyone, and I seriously doubt the blowback Obama is (and, for that matter, they themselves are) receiving is a big surprise to them.
Looking at it this way,
(1) the GOP has put the Rats in the position of raising taxes (if they scuttle the deal);
(2) obtained the President's many and clear statements that he agrees with the principle that tax increases HURT the economy and tax cuts HELP the economy;
(3) revealed in graphic terms the Rats' absolute bloodlust for RAISING TAXES at all costs, even at the cost of tearing down The One; and
(4) invited the Tea Party movement to pay attention and stay engaged in holding the GOP accountable (from the other end of the stick, providing congresscritters with continuing high-profile infusions of political capital).
Film at 11:00.
Which is mostly what were are now getting for both sides.
This ‘negotiation’ just proves that the Republicans in leadership positions have learned nothing. I expected no less.
Agreed.
I agree it would be best to let this die and let the new congress deal with it, when they have a stronger hand to play with.
McConnel cut a secret backroom deal with his socialist friends in the WH and now wants Americans to follow his own socialist agenda.
He needs to be marked with defeat his next election cycle.
There are at least two good reasons for speaking out like this.
1. It uses up more time and leaves less time to pass lame duck monstrosities.
2. You don’t have a two-party fight over a bill by letting one party demand more while the other party just demands what is already in the bill. That will inevitably lead to the party demanding more getting more. If the Dems demand more, then the Republicans must match them, demand for demand, until they settle on a compromise. In recent times, the Republicans have been very bad at that, with the Dems making all the demands and the Republicans giving in to them.
3. I too am worried by the two-year extension. If we cannot make it permanent, which should certainly be our bargaining position, then we need to make it at least THREE YEARS, or else we’ll end up, at best, with another lame duck session in 2012 with Obama on the way out and having nothing to lose. In that position, why on earth would he do anything to help the Republicans or the country?
I can remember when people were up in arms over a deficit of about ten billion dollars (which, at the time, did seem like an incredible amount of money). Today, we talk in terms of hundreds of billions like it was nothing. The new vocabulary is about trillions. Who can actually even fathom what a trillion dollars is?
David Freddoso writes:
“Remember all of those special interest tax breaks in the 2008 TARP bill?
- Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
- Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
- Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
- American Samoa (Sec. 309)
- Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
- Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)
- Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
- Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
- Railroads (Sec. 316)
- Auto Racing Tracks (317)
- District of Columbia (Sec. 322)
- Wool Research (Sec. 325)
Many of them are back. Although I’m not sure yet whether the “research credit” is for “wool research.”
-Research credit.
-Indian employment tax credit.
-New markets tax credit.
-Railroad track maintenance credit.
-Mine rescue team training credit.
-7-year recovery period for motorsports entertainment complexes.
-Accelerated depreciation for business property on an Indian reservation.
-Election to expense mine safety equipment.
-Special expensing rules for certain film and television productions.
-Expensing of environmental remediation costs.
-Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico.
-Tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia.
-Temporary increase in limit on cover over of rum excise taxes to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
-American Samoa economic development credit.”
The establishment GOP is not bungling this issue, they are also socialists and this is exactly what they wantm
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