Bernie Sanders On Tax Cuts: GOP Wants To Grow National Debt, Then Slash Social Security

[cal04]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/bernie-sanders-tax-cuts_n_793405.html

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Tuesday that if Democrats cede ground on the tax package now, it will come back to haunt them in the 112th Congress, adding that he will do "anything and everything" to stop the recently-reached deal between the White House and Republicans from going through.

"This is only the beginning," said Sanders of what he referred to as the Republican's "right-wing" agenda. "They want a governmental crisis. Then they're going to shut down the government."

The package opposed by Sanders would allow the Bush tax cuts for the highest-earning Americans to be extended for two years in return for GOP cooperation on the reauthorization of unemployment benefits for just 13 months.

(snip)
"We are protecting the middle class by waging this fight and saying, 'You can't grow the national debt so that the Republicans can come back and slash benefits or move toward raising the retirement age or making other cuts in Social Security,'" said Sanders.

[Larkspur]

1. And Obama will help the GOP slash Social Security

In his compromise solution, Obama agreed to a payroll tax break, which directly threatens Social Security.

Obama likes putting arsenic in our coffee.

[sasha031]

2. it's being sold as a pay raise for working people

:(

[JVS]

3. We have to call their bluff and just let the national debt explode.

No blinking

[pleah]

4. Bingo :(

[gratuitous]

5. Dammit Bernie, learn to say "spoiler alert"

Now everybody's gonna know what happens before it does.

[toddwv]

6. Well known stated strategy.

"My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
Grover Norquist

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/grover_norquist.html#ixzz17TDVAnul

Wiki entry for "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast>starving the beast":

"Starving the beast" is a fiscal-political strategy of some American conservatives<1><2><3> to use budget deficits via tax cuts to force future reductions in the size of government. The term "beast" refers to the government and the programs it funds, particularly social programs such as welfare, Social Security, Medicare and public schools.

The tax cuts of former US President George W. Bush's administration, still in place, are an example. He said in 2001 "so we have the tax relief plan <...> that now provides a new kind -- a fiscal straightjacket for Congress. And that's good for the taxpayers, and it's incredibly positive news if you're worried about a federal government that has been growing at a dramatic pace over the past eight years and it has been."<4>

Former U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin expressly advocates the policy: "please , starve the beast, don't perpetuate the problem, don't fund the largesse, we need to cut taxes."<5> U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, states "you should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans."<6>

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[somone]

8. Obama to GOP: "May I Help You?"

the Obama commission already said it's important

[Gin]

9. Right on Bernie....he sees the future and it's not pretty