BASTARDS!! House Extends Bush Tax Cuts, 12 Dems Join Reps

I watched it on c-span, getting more pissed by the moment. From the NYTimes' more measured coverage:

WASHINGTON, May 10 — The House of Representatives approved a $69 billion bill to extend President Bush's tax cuts for two more years this afternoon, sending the measure to the Senate, where passage is expected by Thursday.

The House vote was 244 to 185, with nearly all Republicans voting in favor. Although most Democrats voted no, more than a dozen voted in favor.

Including Harold Ford. So, we all benefit anyway, right? Here's what the Times has to say about that:

Opponents of the tax cut for investors, which reduced the rate on dividends and capital gains to 15 percent, said the new tax bill would overwhelmingly benefit the very wealthiest taxpayers.

The Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, recently estimated that the top 10 percent of income-earners would get 81.8 percent of the benefit from lower taxes on investment profits and 73 percent of the benefit from freezing the alternative minimum tax.

In the last Senate Debate, Bob Casey Jr. said he'd keep most of the Bush tax cuts in place, except for the top 1% of income in the country. Chuck promised to roll back the Bush cuts for the top 2% and to restore a progressive tax structure, rasing the maximum tax on the higest income earners to 50% -- less than it was during the robust economy of the Eisenhower and Kennedy years. Here's how Chuck's campaign describes Chuck's view that the Bush tax cut gifts to the wealthy harms the middle class:

The irresponsible and selfish fiscal policy espoused by the Bush Administration and Rick Santorum (R-PA) have put our government into debt; their recklessness has created a birth tax of $36,000 on every child born in the United States. The regressive and irresponsible tax cuts for their elite friends have turned the record surplus left by Bill Clinton into a record deficit that Bush and Santorum intend to pass on to our children and grandchildren. The results of greed and mismanagement are not the legacy Americans want to leave for the future of this country.

Chuck will be a voice of responsibility in the Senate. He will oppose the Bush-Santorum’s war on working people and work to bring our budget back into balance. By spending more wisely and following a prudent, common-sense corporate and individual taxation policy, we can grow the economy and cut the deficit. Leaving this debt hanging over the heads of our children would be a rejection of the values that we Americans hold sacred.

Let's turn this around!

On May 16th

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