What’s the only type of tax cut the GOP doesn’t like? A tax cut that goes to the middle class, and not the rich.
Senate Republicans Wednesday showed just how much they don’t like these types of tax cuts. Forty-six GOPers voted against extending the Bush tax cuts for the 98% of taxpayers earning up to $250,000 per year. The bill, which would give everyone a tax cut on income up to $250,000, passed by a vote of 51-48, but is likely to fail in the House. All of the Bush tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest Americans, seem likely to expire at the end of the year.
A Republican counter-proposal, which the Rev. Al Sharpton referred to as “bold and brazen,” would have given $1.1 million in tax breaks to wealthy estates, while at the same time letting tax credits expire for 13 million working families, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank.
“This is like a kind of in-your-face to the middle class kind of policy, that is stunning,” Sharpton said on PoliticsNation.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) agreed. “Republicans consistently want to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people, and everything else is secondary,” he said.
“It’s not conservative-liberal, it’s whose side are you on in these issues,” Brown continued. “And I think, again, President Obama and the Senate Democrats today showed that they’re on the side of the middle class and on the side of the people who just want an opportunity to get ahead.” “They want to work, want to send their kids to school, want to own a house, want to live the American dream,” Brown continued. “Just give them a little bit of tax help, so they have that opportunity.”
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