Tax cut deal: Both sides share blame

Every day our president seems more and more like the Manchurian Candidate. He promised us so much in the campaign, and after getting us to actually believe his speeches of vision and renewal for the middle class, he takes off his mask and shows us all that he is actually George W. Bush in a third term.

Gone are promises of jobs, infrastructure renewal, tax fairness, protection against polluters and banks. The wealthy now find themselves getting tax cuts, which will amount to $700 billion in 10 years.

As if that's not enough, they want to eliminate the estate tax. They need to keep it all and share nothing with the country that made their fortunes possible in the first place.

This is all being supported by the Republicans who talk about how our deficit is the most important thing, except for their patrons' tax cuts, which are seemingly more important than the future of America.

Franz P. Kirsch

Northport

Although it was a stunning political victory by the not-yet-GOP congressional majority to pressure President Barack Obama into extending the Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpaying Americans, one has to realize that there's no tax cut to celebrate here. All this means is that the status quo has been extended.

But since President Obama has now conceded the ideological point that having Americans keep more of their own hard-earned money instead of handing it over to the bloated federal government that has a long track record of wasteful spending and accruing astronomical deficits, shouldn't the national discussion now be on "doubling down" the Bush tax cuts?

President John F. Kennedy stated that it was a "paradoxical truth" that for "every dollar that is released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job."

Since the Obama administration has stated that its first priority is jobs, it makes perfect sense that a new round of JFK-like tax cuts should be in order to spur the economy and create jobs.

Eugene R. Dunn

Medford