Alabama Policy Institute's Gary Palmer Earns Keep

He's a machine! Gary Palmer continues to churn out the material. The hits just keep coming. This time he has Heritage Foundation information to back him up on why the Bu$h tax cuts need to be made permanent and the "unfair and immoral death tax" ought to be eliminated. He ends with, "Making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent and eliminating the "death tax" will alleviate the uncertainty that shrouds our economy and discourages businesses and individuals from investing."

Damn that uncertaintly! And about that "age old liberal argument that tax cuts are a drain on federal revenues and do not stimulate the economy" issue? Reckon it just might be true Gary? It didn't work for The Gipper and it didn't work for Bu$hCo.

Actually, I'm also hardly thrilled with the rebates making up this stimulus package yet Gary and I are predictably on opposite ends of the reasoning. There's adding to the deficit when even Slick Willy and his Contrary Congress had things headed in the right direction. And there can be little doubt the cuts were mostly for the fat cats. The increase in state deficits is worth noting. I surely felt the tax cuts when I tried to pay tuition in that period. The lost opportunities for revenue that could have been realized deserves more space than I'll give it. I fear that we, and in fact our children, will be paying for these Bu$h tax cuts for years to come.

As for jobs, manufacturing work has continued to become less common. Most of the jobs of those "created" were service or construction jobs yet the latter has surely backed up due to the housing collapse. Some jobs came in health care and the like. Long term unemployment is just one reality facing more and more Americans. I'll dodge delivering the details but many folks seem to feel like "jobless recovery" was an apt description. And the recovery did seem to go to the few. A feeling of broad prosperity, if it ever felt that way, might have been built on bad debt and rising housing prices. How's that working these days Mr. Palmer?

Again, I loathe the idea of taxing what we earn via work at often a higher rate than what we do with what the investing class (and yeah I know that can be awful broad if you count those invested in certain public pension funds) earns. Having the capital gains structured such that many avoid consequences from their earnings seems like policy that merits long hard pondering rather than just being accepted by folks like API's Gary Palmer.

As for the estate tax, I'm with Matt Taibbi. Then again, Estate Tax Malarkey works also. Those Big Mules just keep working on the repeal don't they? I also can't help but recall Alabama's own Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III looking for a corpse after Katrina to help him argue on behalf of repealing the estate tax. Do you really want to talk about the "immoral" Gary?

At least Gary Palmer didn't go so far as Dubyah in his recent SOTU where he falsely claimed Americans will see their tax bills go up by $1800 per year unless his tax cuts are made permanent. John Gunn