Posted by AzBliueMeanie:
Our own "Senator Obstruction," Jon Kyl, has voted against the bank rescue bill, the federal stimulus bill, and the Obama budget resolution designed to rescue our economy from sliding into a depression (see David Safier's post on Robert Reich). Eh, just let it go!
Has your 401(k) been decimated? Have you had to cash out your IRA to meet living expenses? Are you under water on your mortgage, or worse, in foreclosure? Have you lost your job? Are you worried about losing your job?
TOUGH! Jon Kyl doesn't care about you or the cumulative effect of millions of Americans like you on the U.S. economy who suddenly find themselves in dire economic straights due to circumstances beyond their control. It's your fault you slackers! The global economy has no impact upon your miserable meaningless lives (the guy is an economics ignoramus).
Who does Jon Kyl care about? You guessed it, the top 0.2 percentile of income earners, the super wealthy, many of whom are trust fund babies who inherited great wealth and who do not have to work a day in their life if they so choose. Let's just call this the Paris Hilton Amendment:
On Thursday, [ten] Democrats broke with Obama and Democratic leaders to vote in favor of cutting taxes on multimillion-dollar estates. The 51-48 vote endorsed a nonbinding but symbolically important plan by Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to exempt estates up to $10 million from the estate tax, and taxing estates at a 35 percent rate.
But they would have to raise taxes elsewhere to finance 10-year costs exceeding $100 billion, a difficult chore at best.
House, Senate budget plans boost Obama agenda. That means shifting this $100 billion in lost estate taxes (which Republicans fraudulently refer to by the misnomer "death tax," as if it is death that is taxed) to everyone else, meaning you and me. Paris Hilton gets to keep her family's fortune while we get stuck with the tax bill.
Think Progress provides more details:
Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) recently introduced a $250 billion amendment to slash estate taxes for the heirs of multimillion-dollar estates. Yesterday, the Senate narrowly passed the bill by a 51-48 vote. Joining Republicans in approving the bill were ten Senate Democrats:
Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Cantwell (D-WA), Landrieu (D-LA), Lincoln (D-AR), Murray (D-WA), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Pryor (D-AR), Tester (D-MT)
As the New York Times explained, under Obama’s budget, “99.8 percent of estates will never — ever — pay a penny of estate tax. The heirs of the remaining 0.2 percent of estates are who Ms. Lincoln and Mr. Kyl are so worried about.”
The fact that 10 Democrats, some of them members of Sen. Evan Bayh's "blue dog" coalition in the Senate, voted for this amendment simply defies any rational explanation. What the hell were they thinking? Luckily, this was a nonbinding amendment and it will likely come out in conference committee when House negotiators reconcile the two budget resolutions.
When you are standing in line for unemployment benefits or at job fairs, I want you to think of Jon Kyl and imagine putting him on that unemployment line in 2012.