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Democrats Want It Both Ways on Taxes

Mar. 18, 2013 12:16am

Nicole Kaeding is the state policy analyst at Americans for Prosperity.

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Kaeding: Democrats Want It Both Ways on Taxes

Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-WA(Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

This is the second in series of columns from Americans For Prosperity contributors focusing on the federal budget proposals in Congress. The first post will focus Chairman Ryan’s plan, the second post will focus on the Senate Democrats’ plan, and subsequent posts will focus important differences between the two plans.

On Wednesday, Senator Patty Murray released the first Senate Democratic budget in four years. Digging through the pages it’s obvious why the Senate has shirked its duty the past several years; Senate Democrats didn’t want to tell Americans just how much their plan for America costs and how much they want to raise taxes. But now that they’ve spilled the beans on tax hikes, the Democrats are trying to use doublespeak to cover their tracks.

In the beginning of Senator Murray’s budget she writes “since President Obama took office, Democrats in Congress have worked with the administration to pass 18 direct tax breaks for small business. These include 100 percent expensing of new investments.”

This is actually one of the few policy areas that Americans for Prosperity agrees with Democrats and President Obama on tax policy; businesses should be allowed to expense 100% of their investments upfront. (Many Republicans support this idea as well.) This is the proper tax treatment for capital purchases. If we are going to tax firms on their income, removing expenses from the calculation is a crucial first step.

However, just 30 pages later in Murray’s budget, she writes “We simply can’t afford to continue the practice of giving billions of dollars in wasteful tax incentives to companies reporting record-breaking profits. Other unfair tax breaks-such as the special depreciation rules enjoyed by corporate jet owners….” But what Murray ignored is that the “corporate jet loophole” is the 100% expensing provision she praised. Corporate jets, or any jets for that matter, are a “new investment” and should be fully deducted at time of purchase.

Murray and Democrats want it both ways. They want to preach the benefits of tax breaks for small business, but then rail against the same tax breaks for large corporations. Who decides what is a “small business” and a “large corporation?” The purpose of the tax code is to raise the necessary revenue for essential government services; not to punish individuals or firms for their size or success.

Similarly, Senator Murray’s is claiming that her budget has $975 billion in tax hikes—which is a huge tax increase. But the text of her budget actually spells out $1.5 trillion in tax hikes. In addition to the $975 billion, Murray includes $480 billion in tax offsets to undo sequestration and another $100 billion in tax hikes to pay for more flawed stimulus spending.

Once budget analysts and groups like Americans for Prosperity pointed out Murray’s sleight-of-hand yesterday, she responded by saying that the $480 billion and the $100 billion were part of the $975 billion in tax hikes she envisioned. While that could be a possible interpretation of her proposal, she is then misleading about the amount of deficit reduction that is in her plan. The deficit numbers only work if you assume the tax hikes are separate increases. Murray can’t have it both ways.

Democrats in the Senate have ignored their legal obligation to file and pass a budget for the past four years because their vision of America is too expensive for Americans to stomach. But now that it’s out in the open, Senator Murray and Democrats are trying to cover up the contents and mislead the American public in the process.

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Comments (21)

DebateMe
Posted on March 19, 2013 at 4:03pm
“However, just 30 pages later in Murray’s budget, she writes “We simply can’t afford to continue the practice of giving billions of dollars in wasteful tax incentives…”

You can always spot a communist when their language assumes money is not yours in the first place.

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sinner-saint
Posted on March 19, 2013 at 3:58am
I have a much better idea. Arrest, charge, and convict all the democrats for failing to do their duties and give them all hard labor on chain gangs for a very long time.

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Jase
Posted on March 19, 2013 at 2:56am
I’m pretty sure obama and harry reid have been having it both ways for years.

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XPat
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 10:21pm
Murray looks like a dog trying to do diffy-q.

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- JohnofOregon
  Posted on March 18, 2013 at 10:57pm
  I still don’t get it. Murray has held the title repeatedly of stupidest member of congress. That ranking is a vote by Capitol staffers. It is printed each year. In other words, a bi-partisan vote of political peers that work with her!!!
  
  She is the former “Osama mamma” espousing the humanitarian ideology of the Taliban!!!
  
  Now she is writing the budget?
  
  Report this comment
- kenboo1
  Posted on March 19, 2013 at 2:32am
  too many treats on Murry’s plate… But seriously, come on… look at http://www.repeal17.net and lets work to repeal the 17th Amendment. The senate was originally designed to be the state legislatures representation in congress. Lets get it back…
  
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- JohnofOregon
  Posted on March 19, 2013 at 10:31am
  @ken
  
  It is nice to hear for someone who actually understands the root of America’s problems.
  
  I upset all the old guard that issue. You can talk about any issue want, all trace back to that amendment. It was passed because back room dealers in DC knew that America was picking up more states in the west. They had no allegiance to DC insiders and the new states would not back the largess of the northeast .
  
  The republic is based on those senators being picked by the legislatures in the interest of the states.
  
  If people actually believed in campaign finance reform, that Amendment would be repealed.
  
  Ifit was repealed, America’s problems would self correct under a proper republic.
  
  Be Franklin was right.
  
  Report this comment
dmerwin
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 8:27pm
They talk about tax reform. It sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher. Real tax reform would completely scrap the current system and do the following:
1. Fair Tax- everyone pays and read the book before you say it hurts the poor the most. Potential to eliminate or transfer 90,000 IRS workers to something like, oh maybe, Border Patrol.
2. Flat Tax- only effects legal workers, (drug dealers and other nefarious characters will not file for obvious reasons), not good but better than current system. Could be 7%, 14% and 19% to incorporate some progressivity.

Whatever we end up with must eliminate tax refunds for people who did not pay taxes, i.e. EITC; it must eliminate ALL deductions; it must eliminate ALL corporate exemptions and subsidies (free market); it must not pay people to do nothing or NOT produce something (green energy and farm subsidies come to mind). Finally, the corporate rate should be several percentage points below ALL other industrialized nations to encourage business to come to the US not leave the US.

Nibbling around the edges and substituting one loophole for another will only continue the same system.

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team1blazer
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 7:22pm
Democrats….always looking for ways to spend other peoples money….the only problem is, the money is all gone….and we’re not going to give any more.

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zoro51
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 7:17pm
the LEFTISTS DEMS DONT GIVE 3 ***** to the wind about ANY PLAN but sorros…plan to RAPE america.. IMPEACH OBAMA NOW

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Listen_then_think
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 5:49pm
Democrats are the low income, low information, low intelligence voters and policy makers.

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- DIR
  Posted on March 18, 2013 at 8:17pm
  Dems have been conning the public, at large, for as long as I can remember. What’s new? By the way, is ‘Prince Harry’ fat in the can or a load of unfiltered fertilizer?
  
  Report this comment
freedoc
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 5:37pm
Patty Murphy is one of my two senators( the other being Maria Cantwell). Mrs. Murphy is literally a moron. I don’t mean that in the demeaning sense of that word. I mean: She is mildly mentally retarded. At least, that is my take, given her speeches, writing and various other exposure.

How does she continue to be re-elected then?

Beats me.

You would think the Democratz could find someone semi-intelligent. Then again, she certainly tows the line of the party well.

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- NOTYERHUCKLEBERRY
  Posted on March 18, 2013 at 6:14pm
  I too suffer your fate. I have always wondered who was her puppet master, since she is dumber than a box of rocks! She keeps getting elected by the King County court house press in the basement. They can always print enough ballots to offset the rest of the state. Besides, the majority of folks in King, Thurston and Snohomish counties suffer from “Moss on The Brain”. Too much rain turns the brain to mush!
  
  Report this comment
- JGraham III
  Posted on March 18, 2013 at 7:53pm
  The late not so great, alcohol soaked Senator from Washington Warren G Magnusson allegedly said that any democrat wishing to win a state wide or national election in the “people’s republic of Washington could see all the votes they needed to do so from the top of the Space Needle. Apparently he was right because ever since Slippery Slade Gordon (the last Republican Senator from here) lost in yet another questionable vote count and recount effort from the basement of King County’s courthouse to Maria Cantwell. She won a last second recount by nearly 2000 votes. We haven’t had a republican since.
  
  Report this comment
Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 5:06pm
These are alinsky radicals following the alinsky dictators words and deeds. handed to them every day.
You cannot bargain with them, you cannot reason with them. Anything that has to the Constitution they call “radical right wing”. The only argument is how far off the Constitution THEY are.

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Watchman2013
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:51pm
The problem is the Dems “want” things and that is enough for them, just to want, and they can’t let reality and facts get in the way of what they want. The sad thing is the people they are preaching to, the ones that need the help the most and vote for these morons because they either “want” something too or refuse to understand that someone somewhere is going to pay and it’s normally coming right back to them in the cost of goods they purchase.

The dems tag line: “Keep em dumb, so we can keep our power.” These people make snake oil salesman look great.

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oxycontinxx
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:50pm
murray…you been hanging around the reid dumbmass campfire much too long.

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- Watchman2013
  Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:59pm
  She is starting to look and act just like Prince Harry, dumb as a stump.
  
  There will be a real hero will be when someone stands up and exposes all that is DC from both parties.
  
  Report this comment
MrSunshine
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:44pm
I’ll gladly give it to them both ways!

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TRVTH
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 12:35pm
Democrats typical of many do not understand that corporations DO NOT Pay income taxes. Yes they are charged by the IRS for their profits, but this is just another expense in doing business and as such are paid by the customers, the corporation is just a pass through entity. Raise corporate tax rates and prices go up, lower them and prices go down. Pure and simple, all you are doing is taxing the people, not the corporate entity. Make corporate tax rates 0, and the capital will flood back into this nation, creating jobs and wealth hence more tax revenue. But then this has never been about what works, it has been about demogoging those that are successful. And that is the first step to communism, punish wealth, enslave the middle class, then enflame the lower class, accomplish these three, and the populous will be clamoring for more government control ie communism and tyranny.

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