Here's a thought for the day, via Think Progress:
As Occupy Wall Street protestors continue to demonstrate across the country, congress’ fiscal super committee failed to craft a deficit reduction package due to Republican refusal to consider tax increases on the super wealthy. In fact, the only package that the GOP officially submitted to the committee included lowering the top tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, even as new research shows that the optimal top tax rate is closer to 70 percent.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who co-chaired the super committee, explained that the major sticking point during negotiations with the GOP was what to do with the Bush tax cuts. With that in mind, the National Priorities Project points out that those tax cuts this year will give the richest 1 percent of Americans a bigger tax cut than the other 99 percent will receive in average income.
Murray's work with the super committee was praised by members of both parties yesterday, after it was announced that the debt panel had come to a deadlock.
She said that she would continue the panel's work after the Thanksgiving holiday break, adding that “I go home and still see people out of work,” she said. “I still see people struggling. I still see an economic imbalance and I still see that debt looming. ... We are going to keep working.”
