I'm like a dog. I have my highs and my lows, but when I have my highs, I'm really high, and when I have my lows, I might as well be in hell. When I'm happy, I end up chasing cars, chewing endlessly on a bone, or watching the same video over and over and over again. When I'm sad, I dwell on it, and soon I end up writing something no man was meant to write.
And when I'm mad, I dwell on it, and pretty soon I start hatching a plan to rid the world of this menace known as Republicans (whether through legal means, or through a coup. Le coup de grâce.).
You might remember some time before Christmas when the Republicans chose to stall a bill meant to aid 9/11 workers suffering from 9/11-related injuries in a desperate and monstrous political ploy to pass the Bush tax cuts. I mean, it's one thing to argue in favor of...well, anything "Bush"-related. But more than forty Senators--really, anything more than "zero" Senators is unbelievable--actively decided to keep much-needed medical care from some of our nation's finest heroes. That takes some balls.
Some issues become apparent in the analysis of the tax issue, though. The first issue is that nobody really knows what the Bush tax cuts are supposed to accomplish. I don't know what they're supposed to do. The Republicans probably don't know what they're supposed to do. I'm not sure the President knows what the tax cuts are supposed to do.
The former President (and former Texas rodeo clown) probably doesn't know what the tax cuts were supposed to do either, only commenting if "they woulda called it something other than the Bush tax cuts [...] there'd probably be less angst among some to pass it." After all, it's not like the Bush tax cuts were actually passed during the Bush administration (unless anywhere between 2000 and 2009 counts).
The main point of contention is the compromise reached between Democrats and Republicans last month, in which the cuts were extended for two more years. Obama was pushing to extend the cuts for income levels below $200,000 ($250,000 for couples), while Republicans wanted all the cuts to be extended, including everyone above those income levels. So really, everyone wins!
According to the WhiteHouse.gov, working families experienced $3,000 in revenue which would have otherwise been paid out in income taxes. (Assuming you can call that "revenue.") These cuts include a 2% decrease in payroll taxes. So for a worker earning $60,000 a year, this means an additional $1,200 in "revenue." And for a worker earning $120,000 a year, this adds up to $2,400 in "revenue"! And for someone earning a million dollars a year, that spells $20,000 in additional "revenue" dollars! Just imagine! Twenty thousand dollars a year (for millionaires)!
The agreement reached on the tax cuts also include breaks on the estate tax. So, for those of you out there who have stumbled on an inheritance, you'll be seeing more money come in. The Making Work Pay tax credit, meant to aid families with students enrolled in college, was also lost in the tax legislation during the lame duck session.
The second issue surrounding this whole debacle is, apparently our country has this little thing (if billions of dollars can be considered "little") called a "deficit," which we've wracked up over the years--specifically, the years from 2000 to 2009, when a certain former Texas rodeo clown was running the country. It's either the Democrats increasing spending, or the Republicans cutting taxes...and increasing spending. Or, on the ground level, it's either tax breaks for the middle class, or tax breaks for corporations and high-income families.
It's like having your cake, and eating it too. Except you can't physically do that. So instead, we're trying to take what cake we can get while spending cake we don't actually have (usually it's someone else's cake). And also, we don't get to eat any of it.
The third issue to point out is a matter of logistics--specifically, the logistics of trying to get the approved $4.3 billion enclosed in the James Zadroga bill to the 9/11 workers who need it the most. Word on the blogosphere--and by "blogosphere" I mean some random commenter I caught the other day, possibly a troll but still not something I want to discount simply because of my political leaning--is that the local level of New York is bogged with corrupt and incompetent officials. And where corruption and incompetence go, money such as the funds approved for 9/11 workers also magically disappears. (Unfortunately, Batman is not around to make such corrupt, incompetent officials disappear as well.)
Plus, as more cynical observers might point out, some of that money might also go to faking fakers who are faking being our nation's heroes in order to get that money. And immigrants. After all, if they're sick, they should be able to pull themselves up by their own boot straps.
But you know wage earners like them don't do that. They just pull other people up by their boot straps. And out of burning buildings.
If you'll excuse me, I need some Prozac in the worst way.
Note: Consult your doctor before taking any sort of antidepressant. You should not take Prozac if you are pregnant, over sixty-five, and have a low blood-to-alcohol ratio like The Brewsky does. Side effects include deck rot, A.D.H.Dead, low tires, and onamonepaeia.
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