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US Sen Conrad: Democrats Should Postpone Tax Increase For Wealthy

First Published Wednesday, 21 July 2010 06:35 pm - © 2010 Dow Jones
By Martin Vaughan
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) a senior Senate Democrat with influence over tax and budget policy, said Wednesday that Congress should not allow taxes on the wealthy to rise until the economy is on a more sound footing.
Conrad told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview outside the Senate chamber that Democrats should cancel plans to let the top individual income tax rates and capital gains rates rise for the wealthy at the end of this year. He said chronic unemployment and turmoil in European debt markets call those plans into question.
"As a general rule, you don't want to be cutting spending or raising taxes in the midst of a downturn," Conrad said.

"At the same time, we know that very soon we've got to pivot and focus on the deficit," he said. "But it probably is too soon to cut spending or raise taxes."

Conrad, who is the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and sits on the tax-writing Finance Committee, is the most senior Democrat to call for extending all of the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, including those for the wealthy.
His views put him at odds with those of congressional Democratic leaders and President Barack Obama, who have said they want to extend tax cuts for the middle class while letting rates for the wealthy rise at year's end.

Those Democrats have downplayed any negative economic effect of raising taxes on the rich, and argued that the nation needs the revenue to begin to get the soaring budget deficit under control.
"I think the debt is the threat," said Conrad in response to those concerns. "But the immediate, highest priority threat is a double-dip recession."

Under the plan put forward by Obama, the top income tax rate would rise in 2011 to 39.6% from 35%. Capital gains and dividend rates would rise to 20% from 15%.

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Originally posted by Riverlove:

Pelosi and Reid will also be fitted with Mongolian changs around their necks, and marched around the Capitol Bldg. eight hours a day for one year.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Funny, but none of you right-whiners thought to question Bush when he took a surplus and turned it into the biggest deficit in US history, and created the biggest economic crash since 1930.

Don't ever let anyone accuse you of thinking, m'kay?

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Then good on you, Kaneman, bc you're on of the very few.
But let me ask you a question: You saw the deficit. Did you see the coming crash? 'Cause I did.

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Originally posted by kaneman:

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Funny, but none of you right-whiners thought to question Bush when he took a surplus and turned it into the biggest deficit in US history, and created the biggest economic crash since 1930.

Don't ever let anyone accuse you of thinking, m'kay?

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I did. I have consistently said Bush was as bad as a liberal...He was a neo-con. He is as far from being a fiscal conservative as one could get. But, you can continue to make blanket statements if it suits you......

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by kaneman:

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Funny, but none of you right-whiners thought to question Bush when he took a surplus and turned it into the biggest deficit in US history, and created the biggest economic crash since 1930.

Don't ever let anyone accuse you of thinking, m'kay?

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I did. I have consistently said Bush was as bad as a liberal...He was a neo-con. He is as far from being a fiscal conservative as one could get. But, you can continue to make blanket statements if it suits you......

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Well... you've "consistently" said that since November 2008, anyway... Well, it's true. You never uttered a discouraging word about Bush or the deficit while he was in office.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
And Ron Paul predicted the crash because....?

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Funny, but none of you right-whiners thought to question Bush when he took a surplus and turned it into the biggest deficit in US history, and created the biggest economic crash since 1930.

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
"Reduced government spending."

Hello,

Is there anyone who thinks we don't need to reduce government spending?

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Let's start by shutting down overseas military operations. We can also cut our Navy in half, putting many ships in mothballs and saving us their operating costs.

Then we can see about cutting back on our ineffective overbloated intel agencies, though I worry when we cut their funding they'll blow something up to prove we still need them.

Anyhow, we can save many billions with this plan.

--Anthony

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Originally posted by jewelstaitefan:

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
"Reduced government spending."

Hello,

Is there anyone who thinks we don't need to reduce government spending?

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Yep. They call themselves Liberals. They need to increase government spending, regardless of the state of the economy.

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That's just common sense.

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Yep. Those that call themselves Liberals lack that.

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Let's start by shutting down overseas military operations. We can also cut our Navy in half, putting many ships in mothballs and saving us their operating costs.

Then we can see about cutting back on our ineffective overbloated intel agencies, though I worry when we cut their funding they'll blow something up to prove we still need them.

Anyhow, we can save many billions with this plan.

--Anthony

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You would not be the first to think of that. It has been done.
In the 1850's.
In the 1910's.
In the 1930's.
In the late 1940's.
In the 1990's.
They had drastic cuts in National Defense.
They were followed by Confederate War, World War I, World War II, Korea, 9/11.
One mission of American troops after the Japanese Imperial Surrender was to find out why Japan attacked America. The universal answer was that they did not think we would fight back, we were too weak, we slashed our National Defense and preached Isolationism.
If you do not learn from history Anthony, you will be doomed to repeat it.

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