GOP cuts to poor offset by tax breaks for millionaires

GOP budget cuts against the poor are being offset almost dollar for dollar with tax breaks for millionaires.

The republican attack on the poor is targeting food for low income women and children.

“The House Appropriations Committee approved more than $830 million in cuts to WIC and millions more in cuts to the Emergency Food Assistance Program,” according to Think Progess.

The deal to cut funding to food programs for women and children is being offset by $860 million in tax breaks for those earning more than $1 million dollars a year, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

The loss of revenue for the low income food program was caused by the extension of the Bush tax cuts late last year.

Do tax cuts for the rich really create jobs?

There is little evidence to suggest that low tax rates for the wealthy and corporate welfare does much to create jobs. Data supports quite the contrary. Historically, when tax rates on the rich are higher, the economy does better. "In the 1950s, which had one of the sharpest periods of economic growth in all of American economic history, the top marginal tax rates for the richest Americans stretched above 90 percent. Read more.....

Is there an easy way to solve the budget deficit and healthcare crisis?

There is an effective way to address the US budget deficit and deal with the healthcare crisis at the same time. The problem is, it would require a level of political strength that no one in Washington appears to have.

Healthcare costs continue to rise because insurance companies looking to make a profit by cherry-picking who and what they will cover are controlling everything from legislation to pricing. Nowhere else in the civilized world is this allowed to happen except in America.

Escalating healthcare costs are driving up the federal deficit. However, the single payer healthcare system that conservatives are fighting would go a long way toward stabilizing costs. In a Medicare for all scenario, the negotiating power of the US government to stabilize costs would dramatically increase. Medicare already has set fees in place for what they will pay doctors and hospitals.

In a more perfect world, lobbyists would not be running America by writing their own legislation and throwing money at the candidates that they believe will then force them into law. And that is exactly why the United States may never enact the legislation needed to solve both the budget deficit crisis and healthcare crisis, which are very much related and easier to fix than most politicians are willing to admit.