Of the nation's 100 senators, Sanders alone was taking to the floor to
explain - at length - his objection to extending the Bush tax cuts. By
Monday, the deal between Senate Republicans and the administration to
extend the tax cuts cleared the critical cloture vote by a significant
margin.
But that does not negate the impact and importance of what Sanders had
to say about extending the tax cuts, reducing Social Security payroll
taxes and changing the structure of the estate tax.
To have changed the estate tax, to take one example, would have impacted
three-tenths of 1 percent of Americans. The other 99.7 percent of us
would not be affected in any way. If the Senate extends the Bush-era
estate tax cuts and/or eliminates the estate tax entirely, the national
debt will rise by $1 trillion and families such as the Waltons (founders
of Wal-Mart) will receive a $30 billion tax break.
His point about Social Security needs to be reiterated. Social Security -
like extension of unemployment benefits - has become another political
football tossed around between the parties and the administration.
What Senator Sanders points out is that reducing Social Security taxes
for two years is a nice "tax holiday," but diverting $120 billion in
contributions is a bad business model for a program that most Americans
rely on for their retirements.
Senator Sanders is a lightening rod - just read the "My View" section of
this paper to see how much sentiment the former mayor of Burlington and
20-year Congressman stirs up.
But he cannot be faulted for failing to stand by his principles nor for
the courage to say what many Americans are still waiting for the
president to say.
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