Senate Republican: Unemployment insurance a ‘necessary evil’

The argument that tax cuts shouldn’t have to be “paid for” is plausible because a tax cut is simply giving people their own money back or allowing them to keep more of their own money, money the government wouldn’t have had if the taxpayer hadn’t first earned it.

It’s not like a subsidy where other people are providing new money to that taxpayer.

Whereas an insurance program, even one where you pay in premiums, typically pays out far more than the insured ever paid in – which makes it necessary, but “evil” in that the money for the payout has to now come from the general fund and not the bankrupt UI fund, adding new debt.

I don’t understand why Kyl’s comments are considered “controversial.”

I note how all this blarney is but an attempt to distract us from how tax cuts for the wealthy must be preserved and extended at all costs.

As for the bankrupt UI fund, the problem is due not only to the massive numbers of the unemployed who are not finding jobs as quickly as in the past but also due to its funding mechanism not actuarily up-to-date. I understand that efforts are now underway to try to address this.

Lane, George Bush also dropped the lowest tax rate from 15% to 10%, a thirty percent tax reduction for those at the bottom of the income ladder.

Should those be “paid for” too? Are you ready to explain to the working poor why their withholding jumped by 30% on their already meager paycheck because the democrats thought it was important to let their tax cut expire?

$604
The average tax cut the working poor got in 2009 under President Obama.

$22
The average tax cut the working poor got under President Bush’s tax cuts.

http://www.ourfuture.org/fact-sheets-briefs/2010041513/taxes-myths-and-realities

That $604 isn’t a tax cut. It was a rebate check that everybody got, paid for by someone else. You have to pay taxes to get a “tax cut.”

The $22 figure is bogus given the rate reduction from 15% to 10%, which isn’t even mentioned in that article or the $1000 per child tax credit, up from $500. So if a family had a child, they got at least $500 from that alone which by itself is 23 times the bogus “$22″ figure.

The article “Taxes: Myths and Realities” at the above link provides a high-level reality check on taxes and tax politics. It even lists credible sources to back up many of its details including the $604 versus $22.

As many of us who visit this website regularly knows, Dennis has a proven history of ideologically-driven revisions of history and facts.

HA ha. Projection is thy middle name.

>> Should those be “paid for” too? Are you ready to explain to the working poor why their withholding jumped by 30% on their already meager paycheck because the democrats thought it was important to let their tax cut expire?

I chose not to answer this because as far as I know, Congress has not passed new legislation affecting Bush’s tax cuts, that it has until the end of 2011 to make these cuts permanent or not. Anything can happen between now and then.

Dennis implied in his question that the Democrats already repealed Bush’s tax cuts. Not only that, but I do recall Obama and Congress passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which included federal tax cuts. These are but more examples of the revisionism that Dennis is prone to.

As for the $604 and $22, here is the paragraph verbatim from the mentioned article:

“Families in the bottom 20 percent of income (up to $19,792 in 2009) received an average tax cut of $604 under the 2009 tax cuts [Citizens for Tax Justice]. The 2001 and 2006 tax cuts under President Bush resulted in an average tax cut for the bottom 20 percent of income earners of just $22 [Tax Policy Center]. The next 20 percent of earners (making up to $38,000 in 2009) got an average tax cut of $628 under the 2009 tax cut. The same group only got an average reduction of $360 under the Bush tax cuts.”

Finally, I am quite certain that many working poor do pay taxes, and not all have children. I do not find Dennis’ approach, such as it is, useful or helpful when it comes to tax policy.

Let’s see now… We have a Country that’s turned it’s back on the American people since Ronny Reagan. Ron decided to lift tariff base taxes on JUNK coming into this country and ATTACK Labor Unions .. Senior Bush was a “New World Order” Cheerleader.. Clinton thought that NAFTA and GATT was the best thing since internet porn.. Then Dumbass Jr.. Get this>>>> GAVE TAX INCENTIVES FOR COMPANIES TO SHIP JOBS TO F*CKING CHINA!!!! Of course there are no jobs out there.. Rebulinomics DESTROYED this country.. It’s no surprise that cowards like Jon Kyl think unemployment is “EVIL”!! DipSh1ts like him are the ones that created this mess..It would be great to see the people of AZ give Jon Kyl his pink slip..

Hey Denise,did anyone ever tell you that you are full of shit?