As far as I know, the greatest concern voters expressed in the exit polls was the economy. Does this really truly mean that all those people who voted Republican want the ultra-rich to get tax cuts?
Because that's how the result has been interpreted, it seems:
It could be. It could be that Americans who are unemployed or dreading unemployment or who have their houses foreclosed only wanted the very rich to pay low taxes.
A conciliatory White House said on Thursday it was willing to negotiate with Republicans on tax cut extensions, but Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell took a hard line against compromises with President Barack Obama in a new Congress.
In the first possible policy shift since Democrats suffered heavy election losses two days ago, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs signaled Obama was open to talks on a temporary extension for the wealthy of Bush-era tax cuts that expire at the end of the year.
The fight over tax cuts looms as one of the biggest clashes since the election between Obama and Republicans, who will control the House of Representatives in the new Congress that convenes in January.
But I doubt that very much. What I don't doubt at all is the immense arrogance of the Republican politicians. They simply take whatever they want and urinate on everything bipartisan:
So we want tax cuts for everyone? And what shall we cut to keep the government from going into more debt? According to the Republicans, military spending is a sacred cow and will not be cut and neither will current Social Security or Medicare expenses. That doesn't leave very much wiggle-room for cutting, certainly not the kind of cutting that would not include unemployment compensations:
But it is just fine not to extend unemployment compensation in the middle of a recession? This guy is an immoral asshat.
Republicans signaled their determination to push the issue of an across-the-board tax cut extension.
"On the economy, we will work hard to ensure Democrats don't raise taxes on anybody, especially in the middle of a recession," McConnell said.
Just to remind you of the facts: In 2006, the latest year I found statistics for, the top 20% of earners earned 61.4% of all income, the bottom 40% earned 9.6% of all income. In the same year, the top 1% of earners earned 21.3% of all income and the top 5% around 37% of all income.
Or put into simpler terms, out of every dollar paid out as salaries and wages 61 cents went to only one fifth of the workers, the ones at the top of the earning ladders, while two fifths of the workers, at the bottom of that ladder, had to share ten cents between them. One worker out of each hundred (on the very top of the earnings ladder) took away 21 cents out of that dollar, and these are the workers that Mr. McConnell worries about.