Conservatives In Both Parties Look To Help The Rich By Cutting Estate Taxes

If I were Keith Olbermann, I'd put Sens. Kyl (R-AZ) and Lincoln (D-AR) as two of the worst persons in the world for today's show. These two Senators and their fellow supporters should be publicly shamed for what they consider a priority in their duties as Senators. Instead of backing the President and supporting sound, progressive policies, Kyl and others are focusing on reducing the estate taxes for the very wealthy.

From ThinkProgress:

Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) have offered a $250 billion proposal to cut estate taxes for the children of multi-millionaires. The proposal is attracting a disturbing amount of support. In an editorial this morning, The New York Times writes that, while the nation is focused on ending the deep recession, Kyl and Lincoln’s “most pressing issue is clear: America’s wealthiest families need help. Now.” The Wonk Room’s Ben Furnas noted yesterday:

While opponents of the estate tax claim rolling it back protects small farms and businesses, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out that “only 0.2 percent of the additional cost of the proposal, relative to [the Obama proposal], would go toward tax cuts for small businesses and farms.”

The rest of the cost, approximately $249.5 billion, would go to the inheritors of estates worth over $7 million. Paris Hilton, get excited.

Now of course Blanche Lincoln is from Arkansas, home of the wealthiest family in the world and I presume supporters of her and her conservative outlook on matters such as this. I expect this type of pandering to the rich from Republicans, but I loathe to see it in Democrats, even blue dogs like Blanche. Democrats need to stand up for the people, and I sincerely doubt that a majority of Arkansans want to see the Walton family getting preferential treatment before every other family in the state.

Kyl Continues GOP's Petty Grievances After Obama Asks It To End

Barack Obama gave a masterful speech yesterday. True, it may not have been as lofty as some may have hoped, but it laid out a clear message. That message is that we need to come together as a nation and work on the problems that we face. He was reinforcing his pragmatic vision for the country but for those that he chastised with generalities, well, they took offense, such as the petty Senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl.

From ThinkProgress:

“His speech was not high-brow, it was more low-brow and a bit surprising in that regard,” said the Senate Minority Whip. […]

He took exception to Obama’s call for “an end to petty grievances” and a political truce in Washington.

“If the idea is we have to avoid controversy by getting in line behind his proposals, that’s not patriotism,” Kyl said. “If he is asking that everybody agree with him and thereby have a truce, that’s not going to work.”

Either Kyl is being deliberatively obtuse or is just too caught up in the spin that his party continues to let drool out of their collective orifaces. If he had been paying attention to what Obama has been saying for the last two years, Kyl would know that the President wants to put an end to dramatic outbursts such as Kyl's so that we can get down to the business of the country. It isn't only Obama's ideas that will come forth with a truce, but anyone's that will move the nation forward out of these dire times.

Kyl Suggests Bush Had Nothing To Do With Our Fiscal Disaster

Republicans are extremely adept at trying to have things both ways on myriad issues. Senator Jon Kyl was no exception on CNN yesterday as he tried to talk up Bush's tax cuts while excluding him from blame over the current financial wreckage we are experiencing now. Kyl can spin all he wants, but the facts have a funny way of getting through the nonsense of his words.

From ThinkProgress:

Today on CNN’s Late Edition, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) claimed President Bush’s economic agenda had nothing to do with the current financial crisis, insisting defiantly that Bush “doesn’t run the economy”:

KYL: George Bush doesn’t run the economy. He didn’t create this problem. His tax rates being lower actually helped for six years create the second largest economic growth that we’ve had in the history of the country in recent years. … The President doesn’t run the economy.

The current financial crisis is a direct result of Bush running the economy. Bush’s massive tax cuts for the wealthy have contributed to record inequality and historic deficits and debt. The administration gutted several “specific regulations” of the financial system, helping plunge Wall Street into the mess it is facing today.

Embracing a common conservative talking point, Kyl tried to lay all the blame for the crisis on the lack of regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As Alan Greenspan, SEC Chairman Chris Cox, and former Treasury Secretary John Snow — along with the Wonk Room — have stated, this is false.

Of course, Kyl doesn't know jack shit about how to help the economy for anyone that ranks below John McCain's definition of middle class. For the 99.9 percent of us that make less, we have certainly felt the effects of Bush's economic stewardship, if you can use such a word to describe the disaster he has been for our nation. The decisions he has made have wrecked the country and if we let him get social security privatization through we'd be even more seriously screwed. Republicans must think the American people are stupid if we are to believe that the President has no economic pull, nice try Kyl.

Clueless Kyl

Speaking on This Week on ABC yesterday, Senator Kyl forgets what exactly is in the Iraq Study Group. Thankfully Senator Levin was there to remind him at the end of this clip: