151 out of 236 House Republicans (64%) voted against the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2013. Included among those who wanted all of us earning less than $400,000 a year to pay more income taxes were Michele Bachmann, Jo Bonner, Eric Cantor, Darrell Issa, Connie Mack, John Mica, Dana Rohrabacher, David Schweikert, Jim Sensenbrenner, and Daniel Webster.
By waiting to vote until after the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts expired at 12 AM on January 1, it was no longer a matter of wanting to extend the Bush era tax cuts to all. Those tax cuts were history. The top 39.6% rate of the highest earners was then a given. The issue was, did they want to lower income taxes for the rest of us or not? 151 House Republicans answered "no."
If any of them claim they could not vote for these tax cuts for lack of spending cuts, most of them are contradicting their past actions. Why do they think Reagan was so great when his presidency lowered taxes without reducing government spending accordingly? Why did they vote for or support the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 without corresponding spending cuts? And will they finally admit that tax cuts don't produce enough growth in government revenue to pay for themselves? Since the Bush tax cuts went into effect the national debt has risen from $5.8 trillion to $16.3 trillion, are those who voted "no" now willing to admit that the Bush tax cuts were a mistake?
When the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy started the unemployment rate was between 4.7 and 6%. Now it is 7.8%. So the Bush tax cuts failed to produce jobs.
Instead the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy freed up money for the rich to invest in bundled sub-prime mortgages and oil speculation. The latter played a significant role in raising gas prices from $1.56/gallon to $3.60/gallon. (How many poor and middle class Republicans supporting tax breaks for the rich realize that they are supporting policies that led to higher prices at the pump?) The former ballooned an over-inflated housing bubble, which resulted in the great recession of 2008 after it burst.
