You would never know, would you? In all of the fury and progressive passion to soak the rich, no one is chattering about the expiration of unemployment benefits–except for the unemployed. With rising gas and food prices and the holidays quickly approaching, the Democrats zeal for taxing the rich has eclipsed the need to stimulate the economy and create jobs with unemployment compensation. As Pelosi states, it is “cruel” not to extend the benefits and typically the Republicans are blamed for this cruelty. But, now it is the Democrats holding up the unemployment benefit extension. And no one seems to even notice.

The agreement reached by the White House and GOP called for an extension of unemployment benefits, which now seems to be DOA according to House Dems.

The fact that the Democrats are blocking the tax cut deal between the White House and GOP begs the question of whether the Democrats are capable of governing according to the will of the American people and in a bipartisan manner. Clearly, the Democrats are squandering this opportunity based on their Keynesian and progressive taxation ideology as exemplified here by Rep. Barney Frank.

The baseless notion that the wealthy do not pay their fair share has been argued, but facts are facts, and the rich do pay the most taxes already:


In 2006, the latest available year from CBO, the top 20 percent of income earners paid 86.3 percent of all federal income taxes, an all-time high. This is an increase of over 6 percent from 2000, when the top 20 percent paid 81.2 percent. During the same period, the bottom four quintiles all saw their share of the federal income tax burden fall sharply:

  • The bottom 20 percent of income earners’ share of federal income taxes fell from -1.6 percent in 2000 to -2.8 percent in 2006;

  • The next 20 percent’s share declined from 1.1 percent to -0.8 percent;

  • The middle quintile’s share dropped from 5.7 percent to 4.4 percent; and

  • The fourth quintile’s share decreased from 13.5 percent to 12.9 percent.

Each of these four quintiles’ shares was an all-time low.

This class warfare the Democrats perpetuate is floated under false pretenses and plays out bitterly in society and pits Americans against one another. Moreover, the Democrats apparently have no problem using the unemployed as leverage in their deal, because according to Senator Chuck Grassley, he concedes that a deal could have been passed for a 3-month extension of unemployment benefits without the tax deal.