The Republican Tax Hypocrisy

By Josh Sager

The recent payroll tax extension fight in Washington has demonstrated a truly astounding hypocrisy in the right wing tax ideology. The right wing of this country, through ideology and legislative proposals, holds itself to be universally anti-tax; or so they would like everybody to think. Republicans and Tea Party politicians say that they are opposed to all tax increases but, as shown by the payroll tax cut extension fight, this is not always the case.

Obama as well as the Democrats in the House and Senate have been pushing for an extension on the payroll tax holiday; pushing against the efforts of the House and Senate Republicans. It is an unbelievably ironic situation that the Republicans have finally found a tax cut that they oppose, yet it turns out to be one that actually does what they say all tax cuts do: Create jobs and help the middle class. The right wing rhetorically supports decreasing taxes upon “job creators” (Read: the rich) but apparently they are opposed to cutting the taxes of the bottom 99% of the country.

I think that it is time that the country sees the right wing for what it has become: A small group of very rich people who use deception, voter disenfranchisement and religion to get the ignorant to vote in the mental midgets and hucksters who obey the orders of the rich. The Republican Party has been corrupted to the point where it is no longer even a political party but rather an extension of the lobbyists.

It is a legitimate policy position that tax cuts, even those just for the rich, improve the economy; I disagree with it totally, but everybody is entitled for their own opinion. The real issue here is that the republicans are willing to contradict their own ideology at the drop of a hat. If you truly believe in something, it is unlikely that you are willing to take the exact opposite stance if your adversary starts agreeing with you. The right wing says that all tax cuts are good, but they are unwilling to give cuts to the poor unless the rich get far larger cuts. I only see two possible explanations to this policy stance:

1.      1)  The Republicans don’t care about tax cuts to the middle class, only to the rich. If this is the reason for their actions, they should be ashamed of themselves and voted out of office for sacrificing the good of the many for the good of the few.

2.     2) The Republicans are so against Obama that they are intentionally sabotaging the country in order to gain a political advantage; this is bordering on treasonous. Politicians exist to serve the common good, not to enrich themselves, make the rich richer, or serve their own pride.

In recent years, the level of vitriolic partisanship has reached a point where compromise is virtually impossible and there is a reflexive refusal of all legislation of the “other” party but I would hope (possibly futilely) that half of our political actors are not willing to destroy the country for their benefit. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, I would like you to simply think about the two sides of this situation:

Democrats: Continue the payroll tax holiday without raiding the social security fund; the extension would be fully paid for by taxing the rich more by several percent annually.

Republicans: Would rather the holiday end but are willing to give on this issue if the Democrats agree to one of two things; reducing the federal workforce by 200,000 jobs or cut taxes on the rich (and not pay for it, this raising the deficit)

Which side I looking out for you?