This page was last updated on February 16, 2018.
Rothfus warns of debt, but votes to increase it; Danielle Mascher (DM); Beaver County Times; January 19, 2018.
This letter appears to be the first of a mini-blitz of letters-to-the-editor published by the BCT.
DM is assistant secretary of the Beaver County Democratic Committee’s (BCDC) executive board and secretary of the executive board of the Beaver County Young Democrats (BCYD).
When I posted a comment about this letter, Miles Newell (MN) rode to DM’s defense and wrote, “@Robin Cox please show your work. State your sources. Specific sources.” MN is treasurer of the BCDC. Here’s a photo of MN rockin’ a “Bill for First Lady” t-shirt, complete with a “Hillary for President” button, and some audio describing his opposition to “assault weapons.” Anyway, I posted links to my data sources with no response from MN, not even a “thank you” <g>.
Two days after the subject letter, the BCT published a letter from Victoria Smith (VS), president of the executive board of the BCYD.
Four days after the subject letter, the BCT published a letter from Joe Bosh (JB), secretary of the executive board of the BCDC.
About three weeks after the subject letter, the BCT published a letter from Andrew Bosh (AB), a member of the executive board of the BCDC.
The common thread is neither the authors nor the BCT noted they are in leadership positions of a politics-oriented organization. The BCT usually notes when an author is in a leadership position of a politics-oriented organization, but did not in this case. It’s likely the BCT relies on prior knowledge and/or self-reporting.
Below is a review of the subject letter.
“This is in response to Congressman Keith Rothfus’ mailing regarding the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.”
[RWC] As you’ll read below, much of this letter is a regurgitation of what the left said about the Bush (GWB) tax-RATE cuts in the early 2000s.
“The national debt has always been a big issue for Rothfus, who consistently campaigned on controlling the national debt, which, according to his website, ‘threatens our economy, national security, seniors, and veterans.’ That same website even contains an ever-increasing national debt clock, ticking at more than $20 trillion, but nowhere does Rothfus mention that the tax bill he championed will add more than $1 trillion to the deficit.”
[RWC] The GWB cuts were RATE cuts, not revenue cuts. Before the 2007/2008 recession began to kick in, federal tax revenue peaked at $2.6 trillion in 2007, an increase of $577 billion (29%) since 2001. By the end of fiscal year 2007 (the last before the recession), the deficit was down to $161 billion. Once again, tax revenue wasn’t the problem, spending was.
“This ‘tax reform’ bill represents one of the largest redistributions of wealth to the richest people in the country in modern history. The wealthiest 1 percent of households will reap 80 percent of the benefits in perpetuity. These tax cuts for everyone else expire by 2027.”
[RWC] According to the Tax Foundation (TF), “In 2010, 41 percent of all tax returns filed had no income tax liability. This represents over 58 million income tax filers.” Here’s something most lefties hope we don’t notice. You can’t cut the income tax paid by someone who pays no income tax.
According to the TF, in 2015, the top one percent paid 39% of income tax revenue while the bottom 50% paid three percent.
Claims the GWB RATE cuts were simply “tax cuts for the rich?” Both the TF (a source the BCT uses) and then-President Obama disagreed.
The TF reported, “Despite the charges of critics that the tax cuts enacted in 2001, 2003 and 2004 favored the ‘rich,’ these cuts actually reduced the tax burden of low- and middle-income taxpayers and shifted the tax burden onto wealthier taxpayers.”
The GWB rate-cuts had an expiration date of 12/31/2010. As a result, Democrats finally had to admit the “tax cuts for the rich” BS was a lie. On December 6, 2010, then-President Obama said the following about the GWB income tax RATES: “Make no mistake: Allowing taxes to go up [by not renewing the GWB rates] on all Americans would have raised taxes by $3,000 for a typical American family. And that could cost our economy well over a million jobs.”
“In the meantime, a Democrat will replace the current occupant of the White House, and ‘Millionaire Keith’ will magically rediscover his deep concern about the debt and deficit caused by this tax bill. He will then be left with no choice but to demand spending cuts on ‘entitlement programs,’ such as Medicare and Social Security, something Republicans have longed to do for years.”
[RWC] What’s wrong with being a millionaire? DM refers to “Millionaire Keith,” but has she ever referred to “Millionaire Tom [Wolf]?” In case you care, “Millionaire Tom [Wolf]” contributed $10 million of his wealth to his 2014 gubernatorial campaign.
According to “The Center for Responsive Politics,” KR’s 2015 net worth was between five million dollars and $11 million. The most common figure I see is somewhere around seven million dollars. KR ranked at 86.
As for the comment Republicans long to enact Socialist Security and Medicare spending cuts, in whose lifetime? Democrats make this boilerplate claim during every election campaign. Though the wrong thing to do, it was actually Republicans who added prescription drug coverage (Part D) to Medicare.
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