Rodney Glassman, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, would make the Bush-era tax cuts permanent for the middle class, says his spokesman, Blake Morlock.
The candidate's spokesman, Blake Morlock, called us after reading this morning's blog post about Glassman's stance on the tax cuts. Despite Glassman's earlier position, vis-a-vis a news release, that he'd extend the cuts "until the economy recovered," Morlock told us that Glassman isn't implying he'd end the cuts once Americans found a fiscal toehold.
Glassman wants the cuts in place forever, Morlock said.
So Glassman would really take the tax cuts developed by Republicans and signed into law by W himself and make them permanent?
"I'm not sure if I like the way that sounds," Morlock says, but agreed that would be agreed.
That position, it turns out, puts Glassman at odds with President Obama, Democratic leaders and others who've been arguing to extend the tax cuts -- but only for a couple of years. Former White House budget director Peter Orszag says a permanent cut would be unaffordable.
Estimates put the tax cut's price tag, (if you could it that), at $3 trillion over 10 years.
Morlock said the main point of Glassman's beef with McCain over the tax cuts is that the Republican Senator is merely saying whatever he thinks will get him elected. McCain voted against the tax cuts in 2001 because he was concerned they would treat the wealthiest Americans better than the middle class, in Glassman's view, and now he opposes the cuts because they don't apply to the wealthy.
It's an interesting paradox, or so it seems: The Republican stands against the tax cuts that the Democrat demands.
But the whole story is more complicated, because McCain apparently would be for the tax cuts if they applied to everyone.
Also, the Dems' pandering to the masses could endanger jobs, the way we see it. A lot of those so-called wealthy people employ the middle class.
