Deficit fraud Sen. Jon Kyl

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The wife and heir of New York real estate tycoon Harry Helmsley, Leona Helmsley aka "the queen of mean," made national news in 1989 when she famously said "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."

Arizona's Sen. Jon Kyl is making similar statements with respect to the über-rich elite whom the GOP represents in a bid to lay claim to the title of "the queen of mean." You know what I mean.

As Think Progress noted Deficit Fraud Jon Kyl: ‘You Should Never Have To Offset’ Tax Cuts:

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has been one of President Obama’s most vocal critics on the budget deficit (most of which is actually attributable to the President’s predecessor). “The Obama administration is spending trillions of dollars we do not have on things we do not need,” Kyl has said.

But today on Fox News Sunday, Kyl threw his concerns about the deficit out the window when discussing tax cuts. Kyl said Congress should not allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, but when host Chris Wallace asked, “How are you going to pay the $678 billion to keep Bush tax cuts for the wealthy?” Kyl wouldn’t answer. And in fact, he went so far as to say tax cuts should never have to be paid for:

WALLACE: We’re running out of time, so how are you going to pay $678 billion just on the tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 a year?

KYL: You should never raise taxes in order to cut taxes. Surely congress has the authority and it would be right, if we decide we want to cut taxes to spur the economy, not to have to raise taxes in order to offset those costs. You do need to offset the cost of increased spending. And that’s what republicans object to. But you should never have to offset cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.

Watch it:

Kyl is not only a deficit peacock, but he’s also a deficit fraud. On the one hand, he attacks Obama for rising deficits but at the same time says that multibillion dollar tax cuts “never” have to be offset.

While Kyl advocates on behalf of the wealthy, he has no problem pretending to be a deficit hawk at the expense of the unemployed middle class. Kyl has been blocking the extension of unemployment benefits for months now as a bargaining chip for his "Paris Hilton Amendment" to the Estate Tax. Sen. Kyl's Paris Hilton Amendment; Senator obstruction, Jon Kyl, sides with the über-rich over the middle class unemployed.

Kyl today doubled down on the controversial statement he made this weekend, arguing in greater detail that tax cuts for wealthy people should never be offset, while unemployment benefits need to be fully paid for. In so doing, he claimed candidly that the very existence of unemployment insurance is a "necessary evil," while tax cuts ought not be paid for in order to make it easier to shrink the size of government. Kyl: Unemployment Benefits A 'Necessary Evil' | TPMDC:

"My view, and I think most of the people in my party don't believe that you should ever have to offset a tax cut," said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl. "That clearly reduced savings is a better way to offset increased spending than a tax increase is."

The rationale, Kyl said, goes back to the ultimate conservative goal of shrinking the size of government. If taxes are offset, then government can only grow.

* * *

Kyl dismissed the view of the Congressional Budget Office, and a large swath of economists, that during a recession, extending unemployment is one of the ripest forms of stimulus.

"CBO's been wrong before," Kyl said. "It's not a stimulus for the economy, to try to help people through tough times. It's a necessary evil, in a sense. We'd like not to have to raise revenue in order to pay people for not working–or not to pay them for not working, but because they can't get work."

Kyl concluded:

To me you shouldn't look at it as an economic matter, it's a humanitarian matter. You got people who are out of work, who can't find work, you want to help 'em out. Families need help. That's why you provide it. You don't do it because it's going to stimulate the economy. You have to borrow the money in order to pay the folks. That borrowing has huge costs. They are adverse economics costs. So it's not a good thing for the economy. It's a bad thing for the economy but it's still the right thing to do for other reasons.

I am surprised that Kyl's head does not explode with that much stupid crammed inside there. Let's review: borrowing to pay for tax cuts to the über-rich and corporations (Bush tax cuts I and II) which doubled our national debt in 8 years and produced the weakest post-recession (2001) economic recovery and the weakest job growth since the Great Depression is a good thing. Unemployment benefits to the middle class which every respectable economist, including conservative economists, agree is a stimulus to the economy and helps to prevent an economic spiral into a depression is a bad thing.

Kyl's economic theory is simple: spend the government into bankruptcy by transfering wealth to the über-rich and corporations through tax cuts, and once the government is "bankrupt" (not legally possible) the Republicans can use this as an excuse to eliminate all government programs they do not favor under the guise of fiscal austerity. It is the Grover Norquist "drown the baby in the bathtub" ideological position. What it produces is a stratified economy of the über-rich elite at the top, and everyone else at the bottom of the economic ladder. Welcome to corporatist serfdom.

Before anyone starts whining about "class warfare," yes there is class warfare: the über-rich have been waging it against the middle class since the days of FDR, and with the assistance of Congress they are on the verge of winning. The vast majority of Americans will be the ultimate losers.

UPDATE: Sen. Jon Kyl makes "worst person" for July 12. Here in Arizona, we know Jon Kyl makes "worst person" every day he continues to serve in office.

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