If you want a peek at what the next two years may hold, it came last week when President Obama promised to veto $450 billion in proposed tax cuts over the next 10 years, with most of the benefits going to corporations and special-interest business groups such as NASCAR and the horse-racing industry.
"The president would veto the proposed deal because it would provide permanent tax breaks to help well-connected corporations while neglecting working families," according to a deputy White House press secretary.
The deal had been negotiated by House Republicans and top Senate Democrats such as Harry Reid and Charles Schumer, but other Democrats were much less supportive. "This deal would give a massive handout to big corporations and expect working families to pick up the tab," Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. "Congress should be helping these families, not rewarding corporate lobbyists and their wealthy clients."
Tellingly, the "fiscal conservatives" on the right made no pretense about worrying about the bill's impact on the federal deficit. From their point of view, emergency spending bills to help Americans in times of natural disaster should be held hostage until the cost can be "offset" with spending cuts elsewhere, but no such offsets are required in a bill that hands hundreds of billions of dollars to corporate interests.
It's also important to consider context:
Corporate profits are already at an all-time high ...
... while the share of national income going to employees continues to drop ...
Yet the response of some in Washington is to pile further benefits on those interests described in the first chart, while ignoring those in the second group or even chastising them for insufficient diligence or effort. Meanwhile, those who point out the imbalance illustrated above are accused of fomenting class warfare, when in fact they merely dare to notice what ought to be glaringly apparent.
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