Rep. Thornberry - Servant Of The Rich

The 13th Congressional District of Texas is the northernmost district in the state of Texas.   It is largely a blue collar district, but it doesn't vote like it.   Being 81% white and in the middle of the Bible Belt, the district consistently votes against its own economic interests and for the social values of the Republican Party.   In fact, this district is tied with the 6th Congressional District of Alabama for the title of "Most Republican District in America" (according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index).   Democrats didn't even bother to field a candidate in the 13th District in the last election.

It should come as no surprise then that the district's congressman, Mac Thornberry, has been chosen to carry the water for the party's effort to get even more tax breaks for the richest Americans (even above the massive tax breaks given them last month).   Thornberry's first action in the new Congress was to introduce a bill to abolish the estate tax.   He mislabels it as the Death Tax Repeal Act.

Thornberry (and the other Republicans) would like for their constituents to believe this is a tax that affects a large portion of American citizens.   That is just not true.   The tax exempts the first $5 million in cash and property.   The truth is that the tax would only affect the richest 2% of all Americans (and would help the Wall Street tycoons far more than it would help the residents of the 13th District -- most of whom don't have anywhere near $5 million dollars to pass on to their children or other inheritors).   It would, however, increase the federal deficit that Republicans promised to lower.

In trying to defend this outrageous giveaway to the richest Americans (the only Americans who don't need help in this recession), Thornberry has said that abolishing this tax would create 1.5 million jobs.   Of course he doesn't say how it would create those jobs or where he got those ridiculous numbers.   That's because there is no reason to believe that abolishing the estate tax would create a single job.

It has been shown time and time again that reducing taxes are a very poor way to create jobs.   Businesses don't hire people because they get to keep more tax money, but because they need more people to produce their goods or deliver their services (regardless of what the tax rate is).   And abolishment of the estate tax would be an even worse job creator that lowering other kinds of taxes, since it doesn't put more money into a businessman's pocket -- it only transfers money from one person to another.

This is just more "trickle down" economic nonsense, and can only be defended by Republican lies.   It this was a real job creator, then it should have been creating jobs (since it was suspended for 2010 as a part of the Bush tax cuts for the rich).   The only thing Thornberry's new bill shows is that, like most other Republicans, he cares more for the rich than for the ordinary citizens in his district.

Adding to this notion is the fact that he is also co-sponsoring the repeal of the new health care law.   While he doesn't like the rich to have to pay their fair share of taxes, he doesn't mind denying health care to ordinary people.   He doesn't mind letting the insurance companies deny coverage because of "pre-existing conditions", or suspending coverage because a patient needs expensive medical treatment, or refusing to allow parents to keep college students on their insurance policies until age 26.

Thornberry doesn't mind hurting the people of his district, but he's quick to go to bat for the Wall Street tycoons.   And sadly, he will pay no price for that -- because he represents the reddest district in America.   And when the time comes, you can bet he'll vote to cut Social Security and Medicare.   It's disgusting.