Yesterday, the NRCC issued another one of its Beltway-generated boilerplate press releases about what it calls a "clean" patch for the alternate minimum tax.
Today's editorial in the Mankato Free Press, Another blow to fiscal common sense, helps clear the air.
The board spells out what's dirty in the NRCC's spin on the issue:
Some members of Congress continue to live in a virtual fiscal world where you don’t have to pay for a $50 billion expense.
The good news: Members of both houses voted to prevent 19 million Americans from paying a possible extra $2,000 in taxes by passing a bill to adjust the alternative minimum tax so it wouldn’t hit people it wasn’t intended to hit.
The bad news: The $50 billion expense will add to the federal deficit if the House agrees to the Senate’s lack of fiscal responsibility. The lose-lose situation: No House-Senate agreement means average people pay $2,000 more in taxes or if the House agrees to the Senate bill, the deficit will rise.
The Senate needs to swallow hard and agree to the House plan that will provide the tax relief but also require the government to pay for it and not increase the deficit. Of course, the Senate could also vote to decrease spending somewhere else to pay for the AMT. There is plenty of money in the area of earmarks.
The $50 billion expense on the AMT is the amount of money that won’t be coming to the treasury because the House and the Senate changed the income brackets so as to make sure middle class taxpayers don’t get hit with the tax. . . .
. . .Democrats in the House passed a bill to fix the problem, but under new House rules Democrats imposed this year (good for them), they actually have to make up the loss of $50 billion, so as not to increase the federal deficit.
And they did this by what they describe as closing a loophole in federal tax code that lets investment fund managers escape some income tax through setting up offshore operations.
Republicans, however, mostly in the Senate, call this a “tax increase” and feel they have enough support for people to believe them.
Republicans in the Senate, and ironically enough, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., don’t really want to pay for the $50 billion cost of the tax change or be required to cut spending by $50 billion somewhere else. They voted against imposing the PAYGO rule. Right now, those Senate Republicans and Reid are saying they’re OK with increasing the federal deficit which we find reprehensible.
PAYGO rules: How they voted
Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, R, voted against imposing the budget discipline of Pay As You Go rules on the bill to halt the unfair imposition of the alternative minimum tax. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D, voted in favor of a requirement to pay for the $50 billion expense and not increase the federal deficit.
Rep. Tim Walz, D-1st District, and Rep. Colin Peterson, D-7th District, voted in favor of paying for the AMT expense. Rep. John Kline, R-2nd District, voted against paying for the AMT expense.
Calling this move "clean" is one of those classic propaganda tactics first-year students at community colleges learn to recognise and avoid. One can readily understand why glittering generalities are so dear to the NRCC and Republican operatives who blog.
Updated: if we are lucky, the Free Press's editorial will help the Strib's stenographers go beyond repeating Republican catch phrases in their reporting. We're beginning to wonder what's up with the Strib's coverage of the U.S. House in general: it looks as if it's all GOP news, all the time. From the screen shot from today's "House" section of Politically connected, you'd never guess that there was a DFL candidate forum this week for the open seat in CD 3 during which one non-anointed contender dominated the field or an endorsement battle in the Sixth.
Indeed, the immigration story--which still mistakenly reports that Day accompanied the Border Patrol--was first published on November 29, so it's now over two weeks old at the Strib, which is some pretty stinky virtual fishwrap. (BSP, by the way, first caught the story of Day's Minuteman ride-along on November 19, from reading a MM blog; poor Mark Brunswick had to wait until Day sent him a press release).
The Kline story reports on an action that the Second District representative took back in the summer that the right is trying to elevate to heroic status. And the Meyer withdrawal, which is deemed worthy of the top visual billing? We have to agree with contender Dick Day on this one:
"I don't think it's a factor at all, because I don't know if he had over two delegates in the entire district that were for him," Day said this morning. "On the polling that was done, from what we gathered, he just didn't have any support."
"What is newsworthy?" is a concept taught in introductory Mass Communications classes in Minnesota's finest public colleges and universities. Perhaps a generous soul could chip in some coin and provide D.J. Tice and PC editor McGrath refresher course vouchers for their Christmas stockings.
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