While all of us are splitting our attention between Ferguson protests and Thanksgiving planning, Congress is trying to pass a package of tax breaks that would cost $440 billion. It is worth getting angry about!

Congress has to pass a bill before the end of this year extending various tax breaks, or their corporate sponsors will not be able to take advantage of these tax breaks when they file their taxes next year, and that would make them very angry. Instead of just extending them for a single year, Congress is trying to put together a big bill that would extend various big tax breaks for a longer period of time. Fine, fine. However: our Republican Congress is proposing a bill (which Obama has promised to veto) that would mostly extend tax breaks benefiting corporations and the wealthy, and specifically leaving out tax breaks that benefit poor and middle class people, like the tax credit for low income people with children, and an earned income tax credit that also helps lower income workers. These have been cut out of the package by Republicans. And why? From the New York Times:

Left off were the two tax breaks valued most by liberal Democrats: a permanently expanded earned-income credit and a child tax credit for the working poor. Friday night, Republican negotiators announced they would exclude those measures as payback for the president's executive order on immigration, saying a surge of newly legalized workers would claim the credit, tax aides from both parties said.

In an enormous package of tax breaks that will cost the U.S. Treasury $450 billion, and which includes things like "benefits for racehorse owners," the Republicans cut out tax benefits for millions and millions of people who actually need the money, because they are mad that the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free might come to America and use these tax breaks, because they are poor.

Often the difference between the two political parties is exaggerated but here is a pretty good case of Republicans acting like heartless shills for the rich. How stereotypical.

[Photo: AP]