It is shameful that we have a Right Wing Echo Chamber that includes Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and Talk Radio that continues to misinform Americans on the reality of what was achieved in the first half of the Obama administration. It is imperative that honest bloggers and the press present information with corroborating facts to attempt to inform those that were so immorally misled by the Right Wing Echo Chamber.
A major problem is the circular firing used by the Right Wing. They spend an inordinate amount of time convincing conservatives that the Main Stream Media is Liberal and as such does should not be believed.
They then use a circular family of Right Wing press to confirm each other. The only solution to this malfeasance is to provide documentation and the mathematics behind each issue. While doing this should be absolute, for those who accept the Right Wing Echo chamber as religion, those will remain in their own zone of alternate reality.
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies
With the recent Massachusetts Senate election redefining the political landscape in Washington, NBC’s Meet the Press host David Gregory asked David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, whether the president now needs to start moving more toward the middle.
Axelrod responded that Republicans and Democrats ought to be working together on ways to stimulate job growth, but he said Republicans have not gotten on board even when it comes to tax cuts that Republicans have traditionally supported.
"We passed without, frankly, the help of the Republican caucus, we passed 25 tax cuts last year, mostly aimed at the middle class and small businesses," Axelrod said.
We were intrigued by the claim that Democrats passed 25 tax cuts last year, so we contacted the WhiteHouse press office and asked for a list. And they gave us one, all from the economic stimulus package championed by Obama and signed on Feb. 17, 2009.
We checked them out, provided sections and page numbers in the stimulus for reference, and added a brief explainer for some. If your eyes glaze over midway through, feel free to skip ahead to the bottom of the list where we’ll pick up our analysis.
Individual Tax Cuts:
1. "Making Work Pay" Tax Credit (Sec. 1001, Page 195). In tax years 2009 and 2010, the Making Work Pay provision will provide a refundable tax credit of 6.2 percent of earned income up to $400 for individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing joint returns.
2. Increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit (Sec. 1002, Page 198). Go to the stimulus bill for all the details, but it essentially expands this benefit for the working poor.
3. Increased Eligibility for the Refundable Portion of Child Credit (Sec. 1003, Page 199). In 2009 and 2010, families who don’t earn enough to pay income tax would be eligible to claim the $1,000 child credit.
4. "American Opportunity" Education Tax Credit (Sec. 1004, Page 199). Increases the Hope Scholarship Credit to $2,500.
5. Refundable First-time Home Buyer Credit. (Sec. 1006, Page 202). This extended and increased the first-time home buyer tax credit from $7,500 to $8,000.
PolitiFact | Axelrod claims Democrats passed 25 tax cuts last year without the help of Republicans
