Roscoe Bartlett: “when the Democrats on the other side make their arguments explaining why they oppose our tax cut package, I listen to…”

“when the Democrats on the other side make their arguments explaining why they oppose our tax cut package, I listen to them. It is not fun, but I do listen. The problem is their arguments are extremely weak. The first argument is that most of the benefits go to the rich. My response to that argument is that they speak as if there is a pot of money that is distributed to people, that the Government divides up some amount of benefits and decides where the benefits go. This is simply wrong. A tax cut simply means that the Government will take less. It will take less from upper income people. It will take less from lower income people. And let us please try to remember, it is their money to begin with; no one is giving them anything. The second argument is that the tax credit should apply to the working poor who pay no income taxes but who do pay payroll and other taxes. But low-income workers already receive a subsidy for the payroll taxes through the EITC, and payroll taxes are for Medicare and Social Security anyway, for which they will also get a subsidy. So that is why their arguments simply do not add up.”