Extending Tax Breaks for Wealthy, Cutting Off Jobless Insurance Benefits
MADISON – Multimillionaire Ron Johnson, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, released his “Prosperity Agenda” yesterday on Charlie Sykes’ radio program, calling for an extension of Bush Administration tax cuts for the wealthy that have increased the deficit and would continue to balloon the nations debt.
When Republican shill Sykes asked Johnson, “What about tax cuts, though? Can you cut taxes without also exploding the deficit?” Johnson replied, “Well first of all, you shouldn’t allow the tax cuts that Bush instituted to expire.”
The Obama administration inherited over $10 trillion of debt from the Bush administrations failed economic policies, including unpaid for tax cuts, two unpaid for wars, an unpaid for expansion of Medicare Part D, the 2008 economic collapse, and the Wall Street bailout.
Last week Johnson came out in support of cutting off unemployment benefits for 111,865 Wisconsin workers who are out of work, including 15,744 Wisconsinites who just recently lost their job. He previously opposed extending unemployment benefits for more than 730,000 Wisconsin residents through the Recovery Act.
Ron Johnson on Jobless Wisconsinites
“The extension of unemployment benefits actually prolongs unemployment.”
“When you give, when you continue to extend unemployment benefits, people really don’t have the incentive to go take other jobs, you know, they’ll just wait the system out until their benefits run out.” [Wisconsin Public Television, Here and Now on 6/11/10]
“It’s clear where Ron Johnson’s priorities are. He is out of touch with the struggles of people who have been thrown out of work and supports the same, failed economic policies that drove our economy into a ditch,” said Mike Tate, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “Ron Johnson believes that all we need to do is take care of people at the top like him. His economic plan is simple – ‘Tax cuts for me, nothing for you.’”
Johnson, whose million-dollar TV ad campaign has focused on the deficit and debt, provided no plan to pay for extending the Bush tax cuts.
