Before talking about the history of the tax cuts, here is an analysis of what would happen should the cuts be extended or even made permanent.
As the republicans and conserva-dems crow about the looming expiration of the bush tax cuts, calling it a “tax bomb” and “the biggest tax increase in history,” let’s remember why they are expiring in the first place: the tax cut was passed using the budget reconciliation process, with the 2003 version actually passed with Dick Cheney casting the deciding, tie-breaking vote.
If the term “reconciliation sounds familiar, it should. It is the same process recently used to pass health care reform, which republicans equated to nazism, dictatorships, and a “ram-through” process.
The only people responsible for the coming tax hike are those who passed the tax cuts in the first place, knowing they would expire. Simply pushing off the debate and kicking the can down the road doesn’t absolve them of responsibility. To know who those senators were, check out the roll call lists linked above…
