Earlier this month, white working class Americans provided the margin for GOP victory in the election and now, as those Republicans prepare to take office, the screwing of those working class Americans is about to begin.
A deal is in the works between house Republicans and aides of outgoing majority leader, Harry Reid for a tax package totaling $440 billion in breaks to businesses. The Republicans will legitimately call it a tax cut, but for millions of working people, it is anything but. The deal which focuses on renewing existing tax breaks, leaves out renewal of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the child tax credit for working families.
Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew labeled the measure a wrong move saying,
“An extender package that makes permanent expiring business provisions without addressing tax credits for working families is the wrong approach, at the expense of middle-class families.”
The President has threatened a veto. Also left to expire by the bill are credits to develop wind power deemed unfair by the oil industry (which collect billions in subsidies of their own.)
The GOP has a long history of bait and switch when it comes to those working class voters going back to the Reagan years. Great headlines were made with the announcement of his 1981 tax cuts which saved billions for corporations and the very wealthy and even saved a few dollars for the working man or woman. Little attention was paid, however, when those tax cuts were followed for the next six years with increases in Social Security withholdings and a higher gasoline levy which left working class Americans paying a higher proportion of their incomes at the end of Reagan’s term than at the beginning of it.
Fortunately for the GOP, most of those voters never did the math at the time. They are hoping none of them do it now.