Friday, December 09, 2005
Bait and switch....
While Sue is busy taking credit for the House extending middle class exemptions from the Alternative Minimum Tax, even though she was one of 33 co-sponsors and the bill passed by the lopsided vote count of 414 to 4, she's not exactly spending a lot of time talking about some of her other votes, particularly those that passed by much tighter margins.
Among those was her vote yesterday to extend $56 billion worth of tax cuts on capital gains and dividends through 2010, largely paid for by a vote Sue took just before the Thanksgiving break to cut $50 billion in federal student loan programs, Medicaid and child support enforcement. If Sue does decide to tout this vote, she'll no doubt talk about how this helps people save for retirement, despite the fact that the vast majority of people who save for retirement (via IRAs and 401-K plans) do so tax-free. A plan to limit the tax cuts to people making $500K or less (or $1 million for joint filers), which certainly seems reasonable to us, was defeated with Sue's help.
We also missed Sue taking credit for this vote earlier this week that basically told people struggling with hefty home heating bills to tough it out. The bill, which Sue voted against, would have doubled the amount of money available for home heating assistance. Perhaps Sue was thinking that all of that savings from capital gains and dividends would help heat people's houses this winter.
Over at the Daily Kos, someone has started posting pictures of various House members and the words: "I voted to starve poor children and increase the federal deficit." Sue's picture is already up there, but somehow we don't think Sue will be touting that either.
Among those was her vote yesterday to extend $56 billion worth of tax cuts on capital gains and dividends through 2010, largely paid for by a vote Sue took just before the Thanksgiving break to cut $50 billion in federal student loan programs, Medicaid and child support enforcement. If Sue does decide to tout this vote, she'll no doubt talk about how this helps people save for retirement, despite the fact that the vast majority of people who save for retirement (via IRAs and 401-K plans) do so tax-free. A plan to limit the tax cuts to people making $500K or less (or $1 million for joint filers), which certainly seems reasonable to us, was defeated with Sue's help.
We also missed Sue taking credit for this vote earlier this week that basically told people struggling with hefty home heating bills to tough it out. The bill, which Sue voted against, would have doubled the amount of money available for home heating assistance. Perhaps Sue was thinking that all of that savings from capital gains and dividends would help heat people's houses this winter.
Over at the Daily Kos, someone has started posting pictures of various House members and the words: "I voted to starve poor children and increase the federal deficit." Sue's picture is already up there, but somehow we don't think Sue will be touting that either.
