You Must Remember This...

Sure, a kiss is just a kiss, but also? A lie is just a lie. And the lie far too many voters fell for this past election is that the Republicans who won - in many cases, handily - actually give a hoot about the deficit. Some may, most could care less - and like all congressmen and women, they want their share of earmarks, too.

But forget about all that silly stuff - it's easier just to note this: The Republicans as a party waxed on during the elections about the deficit, which again, voters actually don't care about.  But they are just as unified on another thing - the extension of the so-called Bush tax cuts. What they don't want is to vote on whether to simply extend these mostly to the middle class, which is what the Democratic plan below proposes, because that would be much harder to argue against. But here's the difference between the Democratic and the Republican plans, expressed visually -- remember, these are the size of the tax cuts each taxpayer got under the Bush tax cuts:

To quote:

The Republicans' plan to extend the Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthy would cost $36.6 billion more than the Democrats' plan, which extends cuts only for families making less than $250,000 a year and individuals making less than $200,000.

Remember, they hated the Affordable Care Act even though it lowers the deficit, but they have no qualms about adding $36,600,000,000.00 to the deficit, because it puts more money in rich people's pockets. Let's be clear - I'd love to give that to those folks (though I think there are better uses), but it's inexcusable to not find a way to pay for it - again. Fool me once, shame on you...well, I'll let the ex-President say it best:

The GOP won't extend unemployment benefits unless it can be directly paid for, but $36 BILLION for those who need it the least? No need to pay for that.

Happy Friday, folks.