The Mankato Free Press's editorial board is a consistent voice for fiscal responsibility. Today's editorial, Our View — Killing Paygo will cost plenty, deplores Congress's approval of an AMT deal that doesn't patch a gaping $50 billion hole in the treasury:
. . .More and more, it’s becoming clear that the Democratic Party, to the surprise of many, has become the party of fiscal responsibility, of fiscally conservative principles.
The recent vote on paying for the reduction in the Alternative Minimum Tax is a case in point, one Republicans and some Democrats will be hard-pressed to live down in the next election.
Both parties agreed the Alternative Minimum Tax needed to be changed before it grew to include many middle income Americans for whom it was never intended. But changing who the tax would affect would cost $50 billion. That’s $50 billion that would have come into the treasury. In fact, President George W. Bush counted that money as revenue in the administration’s last federal deficit prediction.
In short, House Democrats, following rules they imposed on themselves after taking over this year, voted twice to pay for this loss of $50 billion by closing a loophole on very high income investment-fund managers who were getting a better tax deal and write-offs than average folks.
They assess the political situation which led to the vote:
The blame lies first with Republicans in the Senate who stopped the majority Democrats from passing AMT reform with a plan to pay for it. The Republicans worked procedural technicalities and President Bush threatened a veto if the Democrats insisted on paying for the loss to the treasury.
Ultimately, the minority Republicans won, utilizing a shrewd political move. They could say Democrats voted against reforming AMT if Democrats did not capitulate to approve the reforms even though there is no money to pay for them.
Many Democrats in the House eventually relented, figuring they’d better vote to prevent average Americans from getting hit by the AMT, even if the government can’t pay for it and the vote effectively raises the federal deficit.
They praise those members of Congress who didn't take the bait and scold those who did:
Some House members, including Rep. Tim Walz, D-1st District, and Rep. Collin Peterson, D-7th District, didn’t take the bait and voted for keeping the Paygo rules. Meanwhile, Rep. John Kline, R-2nd District, voted against Paygo, as did Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.
And hope the voters remember:
The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, and the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group, resoundingly thrashed lawmakers unwilling to pay for things they approve. We are just as frustrated but expect to be even more exasperated when the campaigns heat up.
As part of the cover, opponents of Paygo will say Walz and Peterson voted for tax increases. We hope voters, who normally have short memories, will have a clearer mind on just what happened last week.
We suspect that the Free Press editorial board will remind voters of just that point over the next 11 months.
The Free Press did not mention that Congresswoman McCollum also voted against this legislation.
I am glad that The Free Press appreciates the ATM problem (in light of their Santa Clause Congress editorial earlier) as some of the other newspapers just seem to embrace " status quo politics — today’s “Smile and Wave While We Ignore the Real Problems” brand of government that ignores any issue that can’t be solved in a sound bite.”
I don't believe that there is much difference between last year's patch and this year's ... except the Republican-controlled Congress got it done earlier in the month (12/6/06) ... it still unfairly favors the wealthy. The Dems offered some very good tax proposals that Congressman Rangell said would generate revenue offsets for the almost $80 billion cost.
I haven't always agreed with Congressman Walz on all his votes, but this time he proves that he is a Fiscal Conservative as opposed to the Faux-Fiscal Conservative Gil Gutknecht.
Posted by: MinnesotaCentral | December 23, 2007 at 03:36 PM