Iraq funding shows how rich are spared
By Dave Zweifel
January 7, 2004
Last fall when Congress was voting to appropriate another $87 billion for the war in Iraq, Wisconsin Rep. Dave Obey offered a simple proposal: Rather than dig the federal budget $87 billion deeper in the hole, let's pay for it by returning the top income tax bracket to 39.6 percent, where it had been until the Bush administration's tax cuts earlier in the year.
That, the Wausau Democrat pointed out, would affect only taxpayers with incomes of about $350,000 or more. Besides, the folks in that lofty income tax bracket would still benefit from the cuts in the brackets on their income below $350,000.
Not surprisingly, Obey's plea to stop the budget bleeding went unheeded, proof positive that last year's tax cuts were really to "unburden" the rich who are bankrolling the conservative juggernaut that now controls Washington, D.C.
Had it been anything other than that, there would have been no reason not to accept Obey's proposal and at least lighten the national debt load that this generation is passing on to its children and grandchildren. That 39.6 percent bracket, after all, had been enacted by Bill Clinton and the Democrats in 1993 to reduce the federal budget deficit at the time. (The top bracket had been 36 percent.)
Contrary to the howls of the Republicans in Congress at the time, the higher bracket on the wealthiest Americans did not hurt the economy, nor did it prevent people from getting rich. What followed was the roaring '90s, a period of unprecedented growth, untold entrepreneurial ventures and significant new wealth throughout the economy.
As important, the federal budget deficits were eliminated and there was talk of even having enough money to take care of some long-delayed social needs - shoring up Social Security and Medicare, giving seniors true prescription drug coverage, to name a couple.
And, yes, the bubble did burst as dot-com extravagance tripped up many of those entrepreneurs, and the greedy crooks and other lofty business bankrollers of the 2000 Bush campaign were exposed along with their auditors and, of course, terrorists hit New York.
All of this, unfortunately for millions of Americans, played into the hands of those - including our president - who want to undo government and the many programs enacted over the years to level the playing field for working families in this country.
That $87 billion in pure red ink to supplement the hundreds of billions already being spent on Iraq says it all. To pay for it now would upset their long-range plans to dismantle programs for the truly needy to reduce the "burden" on the rich.
Published: 7:03 AM 1/07/04 |
