Let’s give these cuckoo ideas a reality check.Photo: Jeremy BrooksCross-posted from New Deal 2.0.
It’s not pretty when several irrational ideas collide. On May 12, the Senate conducted a hearing to discuss the removal of a $2 billion per year tax break for the top five oil companies. The New York Times called the testimony at the hearing “a big whine for big oil.” Eliminating a tax break like this should be a no-brainer, but that idea is blocked by six irrational notions from the right that come together in an explosion of false logic:
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) claims that “unsustainable debt and deficits threaten the prosperity of our children and the health and retirement security of our seniors,” but yet …Stopping a tax increase, no matter what kind of tax, is economic priority No. 1. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said that “all this hearing is about is providing a justification for tax increases.”
The conservative media pundits argue that an increase in taxes paid by the hugely profitable oil companies would raise the price of oil. So …
For many conservatives, the ... Read more
