Asks the parole board of H. I. McDonough in Raising Arizona, when he tells them he’s done re-formed himself.  “Are you just tellin’ us what we want to hear?” asks one.  Another joins in, “‘Cause we just want to hear the truth,” in response to which H. I. observes that in that case he reckons he is telling them what they want to hear.  “Well, which is it, young man?” asks the first.

For ten years now we’ve been assured, just positively assured by all the Deep Thinkers™ that them Horrible Bush Tax Cuts (passed by a Republican House and a Democrat Senate:  Folks seem to have forgot that Bush 43 only had a solid Republican Congress from January, 2003 until January, 2007; his first and last two years he had split Congresses) was just nothin’ more than a flagrant give-away to the rich.  Now they tell us that if those cuts expire the Clinton-era taxes on everyone and his cousin will go right through the roof.  Including my taxes.

Now wait just a damned minute here people.  Either those tax cuts provided no relief for middle-income America or they did.  If they provided no such relief then their expiration can impose no burden.  If they did provide such relief, then in fact they were tax cuts for everyone who in fact paid taxes (you can’t give a tax cut to a guy who’s not paying them in the first place; a “refundable credit” is a bogus marketing gimmick used because “direct wealth transfer” doesn’t sell very well) and were not just “tax cuts for the rich.”

So when I’m now told that expiration of them Awful Bush Tax Cuts will crank my tax burden up to the breaking point (and it will, by the way), and I’m told that by the same people who for a decade have labelled those tax cuts as having been just for “the rich,” I’ve a good mind to call bullshit on them all.

Which I now do.

™”Deep Thinkers” is trademarked by (well, maybe not exactly trademarked or copyrighted, but I got the phrase from him) Thos. Sowell.  I use it without attribution but with much gratitude for his work.