By: Tonyaa Weathersbee: BlackAmericaWeb.com – Date: Wednesday, December 08, 2010, 6:17 am
Where’s Tea Party hero Rand Paul now? And can anyone buy a vowel from him?
So I’m wondering: Where’s Rand Paul now? And can anyone buy a vowel from him?
Paul, the anti-civil rights, Kentucky Tea Party hero who rode to the Senate on a promise to force the government to live within its means, couldn’t be too thrilled about the deal that President Obama just struck with the Republicans.
He, as well as his other Tea Party compatriots, couldn’t be thrilled because the tax cut deal doesn’t come close to doing that.
It’s true that by agreeing to it, Obama stopped the GOP from possibly making good on its odious promise to block unemployment insurance for millions of Americans who are still jobless.
For black people, that’s a whopping 16 percent.
And for those who are fortunate enough to have jobs, the one-year cut in payroll taxes will give them a little extra money to spend – and possibly jar this limping economy into a gallop.
Extending those tax cuts and benefits will amount to around $800 to $900 billion. But they will invariably add to the deficit, and the lion’s share of them will go to the richest Americans.
Those cuts were unaffordable when Bush signed off on them in 2001 and 2003, and they’re even more unaffordable now as we continue to fight two wars – which we also couldn’t afford – and as we help people weather this recession.
So again, I ask: Where’s Paul?
Where are all those angry Tea Partiers who built much of their movement through demonizing Obama’s stimulus – which cost at least $100 billion less than these tax cuts – on the grounds that it would bankrupt the country and render their grandkids destitute?
So far, they aren’t saying much.
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