Paul Ryan's Compassionate Conservatism trial balloon deflates

Paul Ryan's Compassionate Conservatism trial balloon deflates

by digby


I wrote about Lyin' Ryans new push for bogus "tax reform" a while back for Salon. Let's just say that his inner Randroid is alive and well. People are starting to notice that Ryan and the other "compassionate conservatives" who allegedly care about the poor are strangely silent now that the Earned Income Tax credit (the biggest tax break for working people) is slated to expire and the chance to make it permanent in a tax deal could be on the table. What a surprise.

Dylan Matthews at Vox comments:

Republican EITC/CTC fans like Ryan, Lee, and Rubio haven't ever explicitly supported making the 2009 expansions permanent. Ryan's poverty plan mentions the EITC expansion but doesn't state an opinion on it.

But now that the future of the expansions is a topic of active Congressional dispute, their silence is becoming more conspicuous. Ryan spokesman William Allison says the Congressman, who'll take over Ways and Means from Camp next year, will "respect Chairman Camp’s jurisdiction and defer to the current Ways and Means operation" rather than weighing in.

Lee appears actively opposed to making the credits permanent in the tax deal. Asked if Lee supports making the credit expansions permanent, spokesman Brian Phillips replied, "Not this way. Both programs need reform and should be addressed in standalone bills. And the EITC should be coupled with broader welfare reform." A spokesman for Rubio has yet to respond to a request for comment.

All this plays into a sense that Republican support for low-income credits is insincere and/or contingent on cuts to other benefits. "The ultimate trouble is that the EITC costs money," Jonathan Chait once noted. "And when you get into the gritty reality, Republicans are not willing to devote resources to it."

It's possible that this is a Paul Ryan negotiating tool to entice the president and the Democrats to sign on to big tax cuts for rich people. But, as we've seen over and over again the last six years, these "negotiations" inevitably seem to go sideways now that a bunch of Tea Partiers are driving the GOP bus. So don't kid yourself. They could let these credits expire. Remember, a large number of the Right believe that poor people don't pay enough in taxes. In fact, they believe that the poore 47% of Americans don't pay enough in taxes.

Recall:

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what...who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. ...These are people who pay no income tax. ...and so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

This is what they believe. So if the EITC expires, they won't lose any sleep over it. Poor people need to "pay in" and stop taking from the hard working 53%. And the beauty of it is that the right wing media will tell poorer Republicans whose taxes will rise (and there are plenty of them) that it's because of all the freeloaders on welfare. Win-win.

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