Blip from the Past: Tax cut deja vú, or Smirk can kiss MY ass

Eleven years ago, President George W. Bush decided it would be charitable to throw some scraps to his serfs…erm…middle class Americans by way of Treasury-issued checks. Of course, if you were lucky enough to be in that golden upper 1%, yours would not be scraps, but a lavish and never-ending buffet. Did this help the middle class? Nah. Did this help clean out the last of the Clinton surplus? Yep! Did this help to increase the deficit, forcing the Times Square Deficit Clock to be restarted? You betcha! This post from July 23, 2001 serves as a reminder: beware of Republicans in an election year bearing ‘gifts’ they can’t pay for…which, for the middle class, kinda amounts to getting a garish tie or an ugly appliqué-festooned sweater for Christmas. Meanwhile, your super-rich boss finds a brand new Lexus in his driveway. You know, the Trojan Horse thing?

Guess what I received in the mail today? Ah, you guessed correctly: I got Prez-Select Smirk’s “Tax Relief for America’s Workers” refund check. Yep, that’s what it says on the check: “Tax Relief for America’s Workers” — mighty clever little public relations ploy, doncha think? In fact, the letter I received last week informing me of my upcoming little windfall began with the following: “We are pleased to inform you that the United States Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which provides long-term tax relief for all Americans who pay income taxes.”

Now, doesn’t that sentence just beg for us tax-paying Amuuricans to kiss Smirky’s ass? “Oh, thank you soooo much Prez Smirk for my piddly $300 (which will go directly to Chevron to pay my gas bill, as your oil buddies predicted). But, um, what about next month, and the month after that…?” And, of course, I could also ask him about the dwindling surplus (you know, the huge surplus produced after President Bill Clinton slew the Reagan/Bush-created deficit?). A surplus which has gone from $90 billion to something like $19 billion, and which will dwindle ever more after this “Tax Relief for America’s Workers”gets fully dispensed (and the top 1% get their six-figure refunds). Well, I guess our military personnel will have to go without an additional pay raise which they desperately need — and no new aircraft to replace our metal-fatigued ones. No wonder Smirky took thousands of police officers off our streets — had to pay for the “Tax Relief for America’s Workers” PR stunt. And that’s only the beginning, kiddies.

Anyone remember Smirk-Daddy’s “tax cut” of 1990? It amounted to a mere $3.00 more per paycheck for me — and the “tax cut” of 2001 will be pretty much the same for us “American Workers.” Woo-hoo! Just think what you’ll be able to buy with that extra lucre. Ooooh, maybe if I put that extra three bucks aside every month, in 30 years I might be able to put a down payment on a house. Oops, I forgot. I live in California — in 30 years an average single-family shack will cost half a million… Oh well. Maybe I’ll just buy an extra pair of socks or a gallon of gas instead. Meanwhile, the lucky top-one-percenters can buy that new yacht or a second house in Miami or another new Mercedes.

So, what d’ya say we storm the Bastille? As far as I’m concerned, Smirky can kiss OUR asses.

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