Largest Tax Increase in History? "Marlarky," Says Boyda Camp

We've been hearing it for months- "The Democrat [sic] controlled Congress has passed the largest tax increase in history, blah blah blah..." We've all heard it, and, hopefully, everyone on both sides knows it's nothing more than partisan lies.

Even though it is just partisan lies, that certainly doesn't prevent both Jim Ryun and Lynn Jenkins for repeating it- often. There lack of integrity isn't new or so much surprising, but, still, holding their fee to the fire is the calling of this particular blog, so we're glad to again oblige.

Today, however, we have the help of the mainstream media.

Former Congressman Jim Ryun's campaign spokeswoman told Harris News Service on Monday that Boyda's first term as Kansas' 2nd District congresswoman included her vote for "the largest tax increase in American history."

But Boyda's spokesman, Thomas Seay, refers to a national nonpartisan organization's conclusion that the claim, oft-repeated by Republican candidates, simply isn't true.

"It's, frankly, malarkey," Seay said.

Why, oh wise Mr. Seay, is it malarkey? The article provides a narrative of how this persestent falsehood came into being.

The tax hike claim, first promoted by the National Republican Congressional Committee, surfaced in March after House Democrats, including Boyda, passed a budget resolution, a non-binding proposal to map out budgets for coming years.

Republicans opposed it and issued press releases decrying it as a $683 billion tax hike, or a $2,863 annual increase for the average Kansan.

The resolution laid out a plan to balance the federal budget by ending tax cuts put in place by the Bush administration in 2001 and 2003.

But, wait...so the Democrats do want to increase our taxes? Ah, but there is more:

However, Democrats say they want to change the law to extend the middle-class tax cuts indefinitely beyond 2010.

"Of course, the congresswoman strongly opposes allowing the middle-class Bush tax cuts to expire," Seay said. "She believes that marriage penalty tax relief, the 10 percent tax bracket, and the increased child tax credit should all be made permanent.

Ah ha. So, really, in the end, we're just talking about the Republicans trying to protect the tax cuts for their base- multimillionaires and billionaires.

But wait, Boyda has sympathy for those good folks, too.

"She's also willing to consider extending cuts for the super-wealthy if Congress can find a responsible way to pay for it."

That could occur if lawmakers opt to, say, cut billions in funds elsewhere, such as by scaling back subsidies to big oil companies and major health insurers, Seay said.

"That alone could save more than $70 billion tax dollars over the next five years."

So...there you go. Boyda doesn't support increasing taxes on average Americans, and she doesn't support increasing taxes on the vast, vast majority of Kansans. And she'll even consider keeping the cuts in place for the super-rich if we can eliminate tax breaks for, say, Big Oil.

But there is one final bit to all of this that the Republicans always conveniently ignore: The "largest tax increase in history" that the Democrats supposedly passed...never did. No budget, not one line of any bill, has contained any of the language the House approved in the above mentioned non-binding resolution. Nada. None of it.

"The truth is that Congress has yet to vote either way on extending the Bush tax cuts," he said. "The sunset clauses don't take effect until 2011, and Congress won't pass a 2011 budget for another two years."

So, is that the end? Can we finally put this mess behind us? Have we fully and completely discredited the Republicans by now?

We should only be so lucky.

However, Seay said he expected to continue to hear Republicans repeat the tax hike claim.

"They're going to keep on making it until Election Day."

Nothing more than a skipping record, those dang Republicans.