So Who's Holding the Unemployed Hostage Now?

Unemployment Benefits Being Held Hostage by Dems

Susan Anne Hiller
HotAir.com
December 11, 2010

You would never know, would you? In all of the fury and progressive passion to soak the rich, no one is chattering about the expiration of unemployment benefits - except for the unemployed. With rising gas and food prices and the holidays quickly approaching, the
Democrats zeal for taxing the rich has eclipsed the need to stimulate the economy and create jobs with unemployment compensation. As Pelosi states, it is “cruel” not to extend the benefits and typically the Republicans are blamed for this cruelty. But, now it is the Democrats holding up the unemployment benefit extension. And no one seems to even notice.

The agreement reached by the White House and GOP called for an extension of unemployment benefits, which now seems to be DOA according to House Dems.

The fact that the Democrats are blocking the tax cut deal between the White House and GOP–which most Americans support noted by Ed – puts out the question of are the Democrats capable of governing according to the will of the American people and in a bipartisan manner. Clearly, the Democrats are squandering this opportunity based on their Keynesian and progressive taxation ideology as exemplified here by Rep. Barney Frank.

The baseless notion that the wealthy do not pay their fair share has been argued, but facts are facts, and the rich do pay the most taxes already:

In 2006, the latest available year from CBO, the top 20 percent of income earners paid 86.3 percent of all federal income taxes, an all-time high. This is an increase of over 6 percent from 2000, when the top 20 percent paid 81.2 percent. During the same period, the bottom four quintiles all saw their share of the federal income tax burden fall sharply:

* The bottom 20 percent of income earners’ share of federal income taxes fell from -1.6 percent in 2000 to -2.8 percent in 2006;
* The next 20 percent’s share declined from 1.1 percent to -0.8 percent;
* The middle quintile’s share dropped from 5.7 percent to 4.4 percent; and
* The fourth quintile’s share decreased from 13.5 percent to 12.9 percent.

Each of these four quintiles’ shares was an all-time low.

This class warfare the Democrats perpetuate is floated under false pretenses and plays out bitterly in society and pits Americans against one another. Moreover, the Democrats apparently have no problem using the unemployed as leverage in their deal, because according to Senator Chuck Grassley, he concedes that a deal could have been passed for a 3-month extension of unemployment benefits without the tax deal.

So Who's Holding the Unemployed Hostage Now?

John Merline
AOL News
Dec. 10, 2010

With Democrats threatening to block the Obama/Republican compromise on Bush-era tax cuts, does that mean they're the ones now holding the unemployed hostage until they get their way?

That was, after all, the charge Democrats and others had often lodged against Republicans.

Examples:

* Earlier this month, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said: "We could take a major step toward fixing our economy today if Republicans stopped holding the Senate hostage to more tax giveaways for millionaires."

* Last month, the liberal Daily Kos complained that the GOP was "holding 2 million unemployed hostage on behalf of richest 2%."

* Back in July, President Barack Obama accused Republicans of "using their power to hold this relief hostage -- a move that only ends up holding back our recovery. It doesn't make sense."

But now it's Democrats who are threatening to hold up the tax deal -- and with it the extension in unemployment benefits (which have already started to run out for millions of long-term unemployed) -- until they get what they want on taxes.

On Thursday, House Democrats cast a symbolic voice vote rejecting the deal. "This message today is very simple: That in the form that it was negotiated, it is not acceptable to the House Democratic caucus. It's as simple as that," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, added: "We were told yesterday by the vice president this was a take-it-or-leave-it deal. We're saying leave it."

And Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats, has vowed to do anything he can to block the deal in the Senate, including a filibuster.

It was all too much for some centrist Democrats. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., for example, complained, "We are allowing the liberal wing of the Democratic caucus to hold these critically needed tax cuts hostage."

Of course, Republicans are just as guilty of flagrantly flip-flopping on this particular issue. GOP lawmakers had repeatedly fought unemployment benefit extensions that weren't paid for with spending cuts elsewhere in the federal budget.

Here's how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., put it in July: "We've repeatedly voted for similar bills in the past. And we are ready to support one now. What we do not support -- and we make no apologies for -- is borrowing tens of billions of dollars to pass this bill at a time when the national debt is spinning completely out of control."

And just a few weeks ago, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., argued: "We're facing a fiscal crisis in this country. If we're going to choose to extend unemployment again, we've got to find a way to pay for it."

Now, suddenly, after getting an agreement out of Obama to extend all the Bush tax cuts, that concern has dropped from Republicans' radar.

It seems that in Washington, hostage taking -- and fiscal responsibility -- are in the eye of the beholder.

It is utterly amazing that ALL the facts, ALL the numbers CLEARLY show that what conservatives have been saying about who pays the highest share of taxes in this country is TRUE! It is not like there's some kind of gray areas here... some different way to read these numbers; upper income earners are carrying this country. And they are not only paying the most in taxes, these are the people who EMPLOY others, provide the jobs our economy depends on.

The Democrats are waging a class war against the "evil rich" that is baseless - it has no basis in fact!

But pay they must..... because they can.