Democrats Cave On Tax Cuts

As the US spends $200 billion (and counting) on the quagmire that is Iraq while shouldering a record federal debt and record annual deficit of $420 billion (and counting), no one seems to suggest that war isn't the best time to enact huge tax cuts without any way to pay for them.

The Democrats and fiscally mdoerate Republicans like John McCain were holding the line, but Democratic leaders caved to election year fears of looking weak on tax cuts and agreed to terms far worse than what the Republicans were offering just a few months ago. Nice going, guys. As the New York Times noted,

"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that debt will climb by $2.3 trillion over the next 10 years, and that making all Mr. Bush's tax cuts permanent would cost an additional $1.9 trillion by the end of 2014."

That's an ADDITIONAL $1.9 trillion, for a total from these cuts alone of $4.2 trillion. I'd love to see say $200 billion spent on a Manhattan Project to develop alternative energy sources within the next ten years and end our dependency on not just foreign oil but ALL oil. (If we can put a man on the moon....) Think of the dramatic savings long-term in not having to prop up huge dictatorships or letting our economy be held hostage by overseas countries. But this money is just being frittered away without any reason, without any acknowledgement that we're at war and deep in debt and maybe this isn't the time to show largesse to a segment of the population. It's time to dig deep and pay a price to secure our future.