Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who held a leadership position in Barack Obama’s historic run for the presidency, is a very vocal critic of the Bush-era tax cuts that Obama signed off on, comparing his stance to Ronald Reagan-era politics.
“If we cut taxes for the wealthy, while maintaining massive military spending in support of two wars, then the new Republican Congress will be empowered to cut social programs in order to reduce the deficit,” Jackson said in a statement. “So it will be a choice between cutting programs for the poor, children, the unemployed, the uninsured and veterans or allowing deficits to pile up. That was President Reagan’s strategy: A ‘starve the beast’ plan of lowered taxes and increased military spending that would force Congress to make deep cuts in program for the most vulnerable.”
Jackson and liberal House Democrats went volcanic after Obama cut the tax-cut deal with congressional Republicans to extend individual income and other expiring tax rates as well as unemployment insurance benefits.
But without a compromise with the GOP, millions of America’s unemployed would be without a life raft as they would have refused to extend unemployment benefits. Republicans illustrated they were more than willing to take the nation’s unemployed hostage to get what they want after they routed Democrats in the November midterm elections.
The proposal Obama agreed to appears it will be enacted. The Senate voted 65-11 on Thursday, Dec. 9 to clear its schedule to consider the bill, and proponents of the legislation were hopeful that a basket of sweeteners would help soften opposition in the House. –terry shropshire
