Tuesday, April 21, 2015

AS IF 1993 NEVER HAPPENED

The headline of this New York Times story by Amy Chozick is "A Newcomer to Populism? Hillary Clinton Campaign Begs to Differ." The Clinton campaign made material available to Chozick that makes the case for Hillary as a longtime populist: Chozick offers the other side of the argument as well. It's a reasonably balanced story -- but how on earth did a sentence like the following make its way past Chozick's editors? Emphasis added:
In the years Mrs. Clinton served as secretary of state and since she left the State Department in early 2013, she has become more associated with the centrist policies of the Bill Clinton years than with policies of raising taxes on the wealthy and increasing government services that have become widely adopted on the left.
Really? Has Chozick forgotten that, before NAFTA and so-called welfare reform and Wall Street deregulation (and, also, an economy recovery more broad-based than any since), there was this?
The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 ... was a federal law that was enacted by the 103rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton....

* Previously the top individual tax rate of 31% applied to all income over $51,900. The Act created a new bracket of 36% for income above $115,000, and 39.6% for income above $250,000....

* Previously, corporate income above $335,000 was taxed at 34%. The Act created new brackets of 35% for income from $10 million to $15 million, 38% for income from $15 million to $18.33 million, and 35% for income above $18.33 million....

* The 2.9% Medicare tax previously was capped to only apply to the first $135,000 of income. This cap was removed....
Right-wingers still whine about that tax increase. But to Chozick, I guess, it never happened.

2 comments:

Yastreblyansky said...

I love "the years since she left the State Department". Really, both of them?

Victor said...

"...but how on earth did a sentence like the following make its way past Chozick's editors?..."

Uhm...
Maybe because the first cuts in our newspapers was most likely the Editors?

I despair for our "Fourth Estate."

That despair for our "Fourth Estate" leads me to drink a fifth of vodka every day.

Ok, ok, it's a liter...