Aug. 3: Don't Defend the Dividend

By Sylvia Gurinsky

You might have seen those television ads imploring viewers to "Defend My Dividend."

The campaign is better known as the battle to maintain the Bush Tax Cuts. You know, the cuts that, along with two wars, helped push this country into a budget and deficit disaster.

Those cuts greenlighted by President George W. Bush and a Republican Congress gave a tax break to those making $250,000 or more each year. President Barack Obama wants to remove that tax break from the fiscal 2011 budget. His budget does include breaks for small businesses - the ones who could really use them.

Of course, big corporations and many of the other people that helped bring you this extreme recession want to keep their breaks. Never mind that many of them have gone back to making profits while still keeping rank-and-file people unemployed or underemployed.

Given that, the "dividend" is indefensible. Congress should let the so-called "Bush Tax Cuts" expire.