The next time any Republican Senator not named Collins, Snowe, Specter, or Voinovich (or, I suppose, Gregg) so much as mentions the need to make sure that new spending in the stimulus bill is only temporary, they should be subjected to peals of mockery. That's because the other 36 (36!) all voted for Jim DeMint's all-tax-cut, all-permanent alternative (italics and underlining his):
- Permanently repeal the alternative minimum tax once and for all;
- Permanently keep the capital gains and dividends taxes at 15 percent;
- Permanently kill the Death Tax for estates under $5 million, and cut the tax rate to 15 percent for those above;
- Permanently extend the $1,000-per-child tax credit;
- Permanently repeal the marriage tax penalty;
- Permanently simplify itemized deductions to include only home mortgage interest and charitable contributions.
- Lower top marginal income rates – the one paid by most of the small businesses that create new jobs – from 35 percent to 25 percent.
- Simplify the tax code to include only two other brackets, 15 and 10 percent.
- Lower corporate tax rate as well, from 35 percent to 25 percent.
(via David Weigel)
--Christopher Orr