Tax deal another TARP?

Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who likes to cast himself as one of the more conservative members of Congress, will not be voting for the tax-cut compromise Republicans recently struck with President Obama.

Chaffetz told Politico.com the bill increases spending “beyond the point of being reasonable.” He also said, “We can’t keep adding to the debt, we have to cut spending. This deal as it is being presented has not one cut. What does the president give up? Nothing.”
He also compares the bill to TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program that was so unpopular it cost the seats of some lawmakers who voted for it. That, Chaffetz said, will “scare a lot of (Republicans) off.”
Well now …
The difference between this and TARP is that it directly affects the pocketbooks of all Americans. If Congress rejects the tax-cut deal, taxes will rise for everyone on Jan. 1, not just the rich. If, on the other hand, Congress passes the bill, every salaried worker who gets taxes withheld from his or her paycheck (and who earns less than $106,800) will see a reduction in Social Security withholding from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent.
It’s hard for me to believe too many people will be storming town hall meetings over that.
Sure, deficit spending is way out of control. The public, however, tends to pick and choose when it comes to which budget-busters it wants to get worked up over. Politicians have too much to lose by not extending the Bush-era tax cuts before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, if Chaffetz wants to get serious about deficit-busting, he and his colleagues should work toward serious tax-and-budget reform after the new year – something perhaps not the same, but just as radical as what the president’s deficit commission called for recently.