Raise My Taxes

No, I'm not talking about President Obama's proposal to raise taxes, which would bring some sense of fairness to the tax code.

I'm referring to Paul Ryan and Herman Cain saying that middle class taxes should go up because the payroll tax cut that took effect this year "isn't working."

So putting a little extra money in my pocket is a bad thing?
"It hasn't worked," Ryan said, suggesting the current temporary tax cut should be allowed to expire, which will amount to a 50 percent tax hike on workers making less than $106,000 per year.
He also said he opposes the president's proposal to require millionaires to pay the same tax rate as the middle class, known as the Buffett plan. "Class warfare might make for good politics, but it makes for rotten economics," Ryan said.

Class warfare? Isn't that what happens when you give one group of people a benefit that's not available to another group? I would venture to say that keeping the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy but taking back the tax cut for the beleaguered middle class qualifies as class warfare. As for whether the payroll tax cut has worked, I would say that it's allowed middle and working class taxpayers the opportunity to pay down debt and perhaps to replenish the retirement accounts that were devastated when the stock market crashed in 2008 and 2009. If Mr. Ryan is thinking that because I didn't spend my $1,000 windfall, then he really doesn't understand economics.

I would also venture to say that the Bush tax cuts have been a mighty failure, given that they contributed to the massive redistribution of wealth upward and to the economic meltdown of 2008 that sent middle class income downward.

Mr. Ryan gives hypocrisy a firm handshake further on in the article with this gem:

Ryan, while backing a payroll tax hike, nevertheless said that tax hikes cannot be part of the deficit-cutting proposal that the super committee comes up with.

Of course. Why didn't I see it in the first place.

A Republican in the White House and Republican control of Congress in 2013 would be a disaster for those people who have to work to earn a living in this country.