If David Axelrod’s comments on the White House’s new-found willingness to extend all the Bush tax cuts for a couple of years are true, then he’s successfully made the national Democrats out as liars. He’s also made life all the more difficult for his country cousins in Virginia, who remain wedded to the notion that only a tax hike can get the commonwealth moving again.
In Axelrod’s “candid interview” with the Huffington Post, he states that the President is willing to absorb the Bush tax cuts for high income earners because it’s the only way to ensure the middle class cuts stay in place.
What he also admits is that the cuts will likely be extended for more than just a few years – in effect, becoming permanent. This is good news for Republicans who need an evergreen campaign issue. But for Democrats it’s a repudiation of their 2008 platform – the one on which Barack Obama ran and won. Buried inside, and in the purplest of prose, is this nugget:
In the name of our children, we reject the proposals of those who want to continue George Bush’s disastrous economic policies.
Or as one Democratic friend said to me: “Were they lying then, or are they lying now?”
Don’t hold your breath waiting for an answer. So sure, congressional Democrats look bad, the President looks bad, the party platform is in tatters…what does any of this have to do with Virginia?
Plenty – if you’ve been paying attention to the rhetoric coming out of the ABC privatization debate. Remember, this is really a discussion about transportation. The Governor wants any money raised from selling the business to go into road projects (via an infrastructure bank). Democrats think this won’t come close to meeting the state’s transportation funding needs. To keep the roads paved and bridges repaired, Virginia’s Senate Democrats, in particular, want a hike in the gas tax (something they tried and failed to do back in 2008 and tried to do again in the 2010 session).
To recap: nationally, Democrats will keep tax cuts in place for Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, but in Virginia, General Assembly Democrats are hell-bent on raising gas taxes on Mr. and Mrs. Joe Q. Six Pack.
Tax breaks for the richest at the national level and regressive tax hikes for the poorest at the state level. There’s not enough dill in creation to flavor that sickly pickle.
Though I’m sure they will try…”in the name of our children,” of course.
