Rep. Cantor Reluctantly Admits Extending Bush Tax Cuts Will Increase Deficits

[kpete]

Source: Media Matters

Rep. Cantor Reluctantly Admits Extending Bush Tax Cuts Will Increase Deficits
3 hours and 48 minutes ago — Matt Finkelstein

As campaign season heats up, Republicans are still pledging to deliver a "new" platform for 2010. But, after months of empty promises, it appears the GOP agenda can be summed up in one not-so-new idea: continuing President Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which are set to expire in 2011.

Today on MSNBC, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) attempted to defend his party's push to preserve the Bush tax cuts, even as they fuel the huge deficits that Republicans love to rail against. While saying that the deficits are "dangerous," Cantor was reticent about the actual impact of leaving the tax cuts in place.

At one point, host Savannah Guthrie asked whether Cantor would "simply acknowledge that passing these tax cuts worsens the budget deficit problem." Cantor initially refused, saying, "Let's look at it through the prism of the working families who are seeking jobs and the small business people who are creating them." When pressed further, Cantor finally conceded that the Bush tax cuts increase deficits. "Certainly, you're going to dig the hole deeper," he said. Watch:

Read more: http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201008020003

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VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxmsAZovzAg&feature=player_embedded

[JuniperLea]

1. Alan Greenspan said as much as well...

The fate of the tax cuts, passed in 2001 and 2003 under George W. Bush and slated to expire at the end of the year, is the latest political football in election-year Washington. President Obama has supported letting lapse the tax cut on households earning more than $250,000 a year.

Count Greenspan in the lapse camp.

“I’m very much in favor of tax cuts, but not with borrowed money,” Mr. Greenspan said on “Meet the Press” Sunday. “The problem that we’ve gotten into in recent years is spending programs with borrowed money, tax cuts with borrowed money, and at the end of the day, that proves disastrous.”


http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/08/02/greenspan-was-for-the-bush-tax-cutbefore-he-was-against-it/


Note how the RW media blames Greenspan...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Unbelievable memory hole.

[thereismore]

2. Even he couldn't deny that 1+1=2, even though he tried. nt

[Salviati]

4. Now people need to be asking other so called "deficit hawks" whether they agree with Cantor...

See, it's easy dem leadership, get just a single republican to acknowledge reality, and then start hitting all the other ones over the head with it.

[peace frog]

3. But but but - deficits don't matter !11!

Dick "I Have No Heart" Cheney said so. :crazy:

[onethatcares]

14. no, it was st ronnie who said that

that mudderfarking, union bustin, amnesia thinking actor from california.

Deficits do matter and if we ran our homes the way government runs its' business we'd all be homeless and out of jobs.

Oh, I forgot, we almost are.

Peace.

[peace frog]

15. I don't doubt he did, however--

Cheney to Treasury: "Deficits don't matter"

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was told "deficits don't matter" when he warned of a looming fiscal crisis.
O'Neill, fired in a shakeup of Bush's economic team in December 2002, raised objections to a new round of tax cuts and said the president balked at his more aggressive plan to combat corporate crime after a string of accounting scandals because of opposition from "the corporate crowd," a key constituency.

O'Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. "You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: "We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due." A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.

The vice president's office had no immediate comment, but John Snow, who replaced O'Neill, insisted that deficits "do matter" to the administration.

Source: Adam Entous, Reuters, on AOL News Jan 11, 2004

[backtomn]

23. This may be the wrong fight for us.....

Do a Google search of "Deficits are not important" and some of the first listings are from....Firedoglake.com, DU, and Huffington Post. This is a position held by many from this site, many times. "Are deficits more important than extending unemployment benefits"? "Are deficits more important than creating jobs"? "Are deficits more important than everyone having access to healthcare"?

Which way do we want it??.....or do we just want to criticize a Repub, no matter how hypocritical we look. Not me. We have plenty of material with Repubs, but this isn't it. Deficits are now over $1 TRILLION just this year. This is a trap. Don't fall for it.

[Metta]

5. Mazel freaking tov. The truth comes through this evil mf'er.

Like holding shit in too long, it will force its way out.

[havocmom]

6. Have no fear! The Deficit Hawks who admit the facts will demand cuts

Tax cuts without cuts in spending WILL increase the deficit. Now that they have admitted the obvious, how long before they start screaming that the middle class, working people, and poor, will just have to have services cut?

Set the clock. It'll happen.

[dtotire]

7. Cantor Is One Of The More Intelligent Republicans

Of course, that's not saying much

[BootinUp]

8. The difference would be measured on the MS scale

MS for Meat Sandwich.

[southern_belle]

12. ummmm

:rofl:

"Intelligent Republican" = Oxymoron

[4_TN_TITANS]

10. I don't think they ever thought the tax cuts would stay permanent...

This was just a stinking pile left by Bush that would expire on the next president right before an election so they could claim he was 'raising taxes' or they were 'preserving' tax cuts.

[The Wizard]

11. But what about

all that job creation the Bush tax cuts brought?
Uh, never mind.

[SpiralHawk]

13. D'oh

Only a nincompoop (R) would think or say otherwise...

Sheesh...

[NewJeffCT]

16. Orrin Hatch said that under Bush, "it was standard practice not to pay for things"

or something like that.

[DailyGrind51]

17. Tell us what we don't already know, Eric!

[underpants]

18. Savannah echoes the nonsense that only Dems won't cut spending

Republicans spend worse than the Dems. Over the last 30 years at least. Of course they spend by lining the pockets of their already rich sponsors: Reagan- defense contractors and HUD money, Bush- defense contractors, newly created defense contractors, new created industry ("security") and oil.

[Deep13]

19. Thank you, Captain obvious. nt

[howmad1]

20. C'mon people, rethuglicans are not so stupid:

Spend 8 years running up record deficits, lose a presidential election, blame the democrats for the deficit, win the next presidential election claiming to be deficit hawks. What's not to figure out? Unfortunately, democrats will NEVER match the strategies of these rethuglicans.

[bobburgster]

21. Reluctantly isn't the word.....

it was like pulling teeth from a pissed off crocodile bare-handed.

[BonnieJW]

22. Hey, admitting you're an asshole

is the first step to becoming a mensch. Old Jewish saying, Eric.

[DirkGently]

24. It would be nice to see this low-hanging hyprocritical fruit

plucked, for a change. Again, Republicans try to claim superior fisical responsibility. Once again, they focus on deficits. Once again, they are responsible for the bulk of the deficits. Once again, they insist that tax cuts for the wealthy and military / war spending be increased or maintained. Once again, they pretend that basic, demonstrably invaluable benefits for the American public must be slashed instead.

Now, the question is whether Democratic leaders will call them on this, and to what extent. Will they defend SS? Stand firm on letting the tax cuts expire? Agree that the state of perennial warfare Bush thrust us into MUST END?

[Blue Owl]

25. You mean to tell us that Bu$h and the GOP are LIARS???

No way.

:sarcasm: