GOP FAILS TO MAKE TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH PERMANENT

John McBush's mini-Me, South Carolina shill Lindsey Graham, offered an admendment in the Senate today to make Bush's tax cuts for the rich permanent. Even his butt-buddy Lieberman couldn't vote for it. And not one Democrat did. On top of that, two Republicans were too embarrassed by the gross unfairness to go along with the GOP on this. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and George Voinovich (R-OH) were the only Republicans today to stand up with the Senate Democrats for the middle class.

Among the Republican rubber stamps who decided that what middle and working class Americans need to protect them from the impending recession is to make sure the wealthiest 5% of us pay obscenely low taxes (forever) were a gaggle of reactionaries kissing up to big campaign donors in preparation for likely losses to Democratic challengers in November. Among the Republicans who voted for the richest 5% and against the 95% of normal Americans were:

John Cornyn (R-TX)
Norm Coleman (R-MN)
Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
and, of course, John W. McCain (R-AZ).

I asked two of our Blue America-endorsed candidates for the Senate to give me their perspectives since each, Rick Noriega (D-TX) and Jim Neal (D-NC), is running against a reflexive rubber stamp who, of course, supports more tax cuts for the wealthy. Rick Noriega thinks the Bush-Cornyn agenda has served Texas and the rest of the country very poorly.

"Texans have had enough of a government run by and for the richest few. Unlike John Cornyn, I will work for working families and not simply the privileged elite. 

We need a change in leadership in Washington to end our addiction to skyrocketing deficits, which have increased by 42 percent under the current Bush/Cornyn administration. I support putting our financial house back in order by eliminating obsolete federal programs and questionable subsidies, closing corporate loopholes, cutting special-interests earmarks, limiting no-bid contracts, and reversing tax cuts that only benefit a very small subset of the very wealthy."

All the populist and progressive Democrats endorsed by Blue America for the Senate are backing real steps to put America's finances back in order after the irresponsible and profligate spending spree of the Bush Regime. Like Rick, Jim Neal wants to see real action to help ease the burden on ordinary American families who are starting to suffer from the years of Bush economic policies, policies that were completely rubber stamped by the clueless candidate he is running against.

“We have a monstrous debt to foreign bankers and wars raging in foreign lands, which the working people of this country are expected to pay for with their tax dollars and their blood, while the rich refuse to make any sacrifice whatsoever.

True conservatives know we couldn’t afford Bush’s tax cut for the wealthiest in the first place; there is no reason to make them permanent now, especially with a recession brought upon us by the very same people who benefit from this tax cut. Senator Dole and my Republican-lite primary challenger look the other way while their wealthy, elitist donors evade taxes, ship our jobs overseas, and hide their money in off-shore tax shelters.

Any tax cuts should go to the hard working, middle class Americans who spend their money at the corner store.”

It may take many years to straighten out the mess created by 8 years of Bush but unless we replace rubber stamps like Cornyn and Dole with forward-thinking progressives like Rick Noriega and Jim Neal, we'll never even get started. Each of these guys is up against an entrenched-- though disliked-- incumbent flush with corporate millions. Each of our guys is counting on grassroots support from Americans who believe, like they do, that America can be a much better place again. If you can, please consider helping Rick and Jim afford to get their messages out in Texas and North Carolina, two states where people are ready to go from red to blue.