On New Year’s night Kansas senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran voted to pull the nation back from the edge of the fiscal cliff and prevent what may have been an economic catastrophe. Roberts and Moran were among the 89 Republicans and Democrats who made that obvious decision — who voted reasonably, responsibly. THE SENATE chose to take an adult approach to the nation’s fiscal dilemma: Republicans and Democrats worked together. They cobbled up a complex measure that will keep the economy growing at a slow pace and does a minimum of harm to individuals at every income level. The rich will pay more income tax; the rest of the people will pay a higher Social Security tax. The unemployed will continue to get insurance payments. The estate tax will rise on that tiny percent of estates worth $5 million or more.
They deserve the same respect that all deserve who bow to the inevitable and preserve their strength for future fights.
Tuesday night all four members of the Kansas Congressional delegation voted against the same bill. The bill passed despite “no” votes from a majority of Republicans because of overwhelming support from House Democrats who didn’t think triggering a new recession was a bright idea.
Kansas was one of only four states in which every single representative voted against the compromise created in the Senate; in which all of the members voted, in effect, to raise income taxes across the board and slash federal spending so deeply that thousands would be thrown out of work.
Why on earth are Kansas senators so much more rational than Kansas representatives?
If Register readers sense exasperation in the tone of these comments they read them right.
Tim Huelskamp, Lynn Jenkins, Mike Pompeo and Kevin Yoder will piously proclaim they voted against the bill because it didn’t cut spending and did raise taxes on the wealthy. In other words, they opposed it because it didn’t embrace ultra-conservative imperatives. It wasn’t their bill.
What it did do was prevent all of the Bush tax cuts from expiring and postpone for a couple of months consideration of the spending cuts Congress promised itself to get by the last fiscal impasse.
While the changes made will reduce the federal deficit more than the laws now in place would, the debt will grow by another $4 trillion unless Congress does more to reverse that unsustainable trend.
The important lesson those two votes taught was that our nation’s taxing and spending problems won’t be resolved until both parties work together.
Roberts and Moran learned. Huelskamp, Jenkins, Pompeo and Yoder did not. Kansas voters should take note.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
P.S. News reports stated that some permanent tax changes were made. There is no such thing as a permanent law. Change is always possible. That’s what keeps hope alive.
