Randy Demmer: Congress likes job security — its own

If the status quo prevails, every American will
see a dip in take-home pay Jan. 1. Congress
could have changed this before it adjourned
this past week; but, unfortunately for us, this
Congress specializes in repeatedly deferring
tough decisions for political gain.

I’m referring, of course, to the massive tax
increase that will result from the scheduled
expiration of the federal tax cuts of 2001 and
2003. When Congress returned to
Washington last week for one more round of
votes before the preelection sprint,
hardworking families and small businesses
had high hopes that their representatives
would take action to renew these tax cuts.

Sadly, they did not. When a bipartisan push
was made to keep the House in session,
presenting U.S. Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota’s
First District with an opportunity to bring the
issue up for a vote, he chose instead to
follow Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s instructions
and voted to quit. Getting home to campaign
for another term was more important than
staying and doing his job on behalf of his
constituents.

For Democrats in Congress, there seems to
be little urgency around putting a stop to
what would be the largest tax increase in
American history. The Democrat-controlled
Congress now plans to again defer a vote on
preventing this tax increase until a lame-
duck session is called after the midterm
elections. In the meantime, House Democrats
have been busy treating us to political
sideshows, even allowing TV comedian
Stephen Colbert to make a mockery of our
political process by testifying in front of a
House committee in character.

President Obama supports only a limited
extension of the Republican tax cuts,
choosing to play political favorites by
including only carefully selected slices of the
population that fit into a politically
manufactured definition of “middle-class
family” but excluding all other income-tax
filings. Obama and most other Washington
Democrats, including Walz, conveniently
overlook that many small businesses file with
the IRS as individuals.

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