Congress Appears to Want to Wait Till the Next Election to Fix the Economy

Republican congressional leaders sounded dismissive Tuesday about President Obama’s $447 billion job-creation proposal, with its offsetting tax increases, a day after Obama indicated he might be willing to accept a partial version of his plan or have Congress enact it in pieces.

House Speaker John Boehner said Obama, who was in Columbus, Ohio to promote his plan, was seeking "permanent tax increases ... to pay for temporary spending," a tradeoff GOP lawmakers are not willing to accept. 

I don’t know what permanent tax increases Speaker Boehner is talking about.  I have read the American Jobs Act and from what I read there is nothing about tax increases in the act.  However, I did see limits on deductions and credits which are something I have suggested in the past.  Too many deductions and credits are the reason the U.S. is in debt now.  It makes no sense for a country to owe its citizens more money than they pay in taxes.  Tax refunds are just another form of welfare or entitlements.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell dismissed Obama’s proposal as “a hodge-podge of retread ideas aimed at convincing people that a temporary fix is really permanent and that it will create permanent jobs.”

  I don’t understand why any sane person wouldn’t want a temporary fix as America inches closer to a double dip recession.  Permanent solutions can be tackled after the US economy is stabilized.  Congress needs to prioritize.  President Obama will not be in office until the year 3000 and he is focusing on the short term success of this nation.

The brush-off from GOP leaders wasn’t surprising: Since 2009, they’ve opposed the revenue-raising ideas that Obama’s budget chief, Jacob Lew, offered Monday to pay for the new jobs proposal.

The ideas were in the first budget blueprint that Obama introduced shortly after becoming president in 2009.

President Obama has been working hard since he got in office to begin paying off the deficit.  But Congress has been using their power to make the Obama administration look like the worst administration in US history.  Many Americans would be surprised if they knew how limited the president’s powers are. 

The tax impasse seems unlikely to be settled until voters have their say in the 2012 elections, as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters Tuesday. "Maybe the issue of taxation, maybe some of these other issues, will have to be left for the election," Cantor said.  Wait a second, the Republican Party is willing to do nothing for another 14 months so the economy gets worst and they win all the Democrat’s seats.  Are they not in office to represent the people?  What do they want a de facto single-party state?  Could this lead to Communism (Where is the sarcasm font when you need it?)?

But that doesn’t mean some of the job-creating tax cuts won’t be put to a vote in the House. Cantor said last Friday that GOP leaders would “take the things we can agree on… the things that provide incentives to the private-sector, small business people and entrepreneurs” and vote on them.

Is Congressman Cantor suggesting that the US give tax cuts without generating any new income?  Wouldn’t this dig us further in this $14 trillion ditch?