TAX BATTLE IS JUST BEGINNING

Washngton, D.C.-- The controversial $858 billion Tax-Cut agreement which President Barack Obama drafted with the Republicans passed the senate yesterday by 81 to 19 margin and it is now on it's way over to the House of Representatives.

Everyone knows that the "deal" will extend George W. Bush's reckless millionaire tax bailout— but what a lot of folks don't realize is that there are lots of other questionable parts of it, too.

Unemployed Americans desperately need their benefits extended to get by in this economy— so Republicans held them hostage to force through a slew of horrible economic policies in this deal.

President Obama urged in a statement today the House of Representatives to act quickly and vote for this bill and pass it under the belief that its failure will definitely halt the recovery if not get the economy into another recession.

Now the real battle begins. Congressional insiders tell the Voice Reporter that many Democrats who oppose this bill represent the majority. And, in the shadow of Moody's last statement of which Moody's said that the tax cuts draft would probably downgrade the U.S credit rating and might cause damage that exceeds the expected benefits.

Here are just a few that you might not have heard about:

Issue #1: The deal is a stealth attack on Social Security.

The deal will lower the payroll tax—the tax that funds the Social Security trust. This is a trap for Democrats. Republicans have been coming after Social Security for years and this cut is the biggest threat to the vital program in decades. It will cut one-third of Social Security's funding this year alone and when we need to restore the payroll tax back to its current level, Republicans will cry "tax increases" and could gut it permanently.

Issue #2: For nearly one in three workers, it's a tax increase.

Nearly 50 million working Americans—including all workers making less than $20,000 per year— and millions of federal, state, and municipal workers will see their taxes go up because of the deal. CSEA represents many part-time workers who do not meet that threshold.

Issue #3: The deal has not one but TWO millionaire bailouts.

In addition to extending all the Bush income tax breaks for the top 2 percent, the deal will slash the estate tax. If Congress did nothing, next year the estate tax would be 55 percent and apply to everyone inheriting $1 million or more. But the deal reduces it to 35 percent and only people who inherit more than $5 million will have to pay. This second bailout will give a gigantic tax giveaway to a few thousand of the richest families in the country and add hundreds of billions to the national debt.

Issue #4: Unemployment help is insufficient and inadequate.

While the deal extends unemployment benefits for another 13 months for people currently receiving it, millions of unemployed workers who've struggled the most and been out of work more than 99 weeks—since the giant Wall Street banks wrecked the economy— will get no help at all under the deal. It's a gamble that there will be jobs in the next 13 months when the insurance runs out, but the tax cuts will go well beyond that. Better to just pass a stand-alone unemployment extension to help all struggling Americans.

Issue #5: Tax giveaways to the rich are a terrible way to create jobs.

Tax breaks for the rich are the least efficient way to create jobs and help the economy grow. In fact the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says extending all tax cuts would lower unemployment only 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent over the next years and that the cost of the tax deal would be $900 billion over the next five years.

-Ove Overmyer  (This content reflects the opinion of the author exclusively and not CSEA as an organization.)