Who will pay the piper for tax breaks?

That new tax breaks for the wealthy will be passed on Capitol Hill is a given. They have already cleared Congress and the Senate is poised to quickly follow. It's not surprising given that most of our legislators are in the top ten percent of income earners. These breaks will undeniably benefit them. Equally certain is that the average American will be paying the tab. The NYT examines how the latest Congressional Ponzi scheme involving Roth IRAs will play out.

Current law doesn't let well-off Americans switch to Roths because it assumes — correctly — that they don't need extra help from the government to build their savings. Changing that rule will be a great deal for them. Income tax is due up front on the amounts that are shifted into Roth accounts, giving lawmakers a temporary burst of revenue to mask the true cost of their continuing tax-cutting spree.

But over time, Roths are a big revenue loser, because there's no tax on the earnings that accumulate in a Roth, even when the money is withdrawn. Because Roths are set up to avoid taxes in the future, they are especially attractive to people who believe that tax rates will go up over time.

It's a belief well grounded in reality. The house of cards that underpins Bushenomics will eventually collapse. One assumes the White House is hoping it won't happen before they leave office so they can blame the next administration, but this rule change will protect the assets of the big campaign donors among the have-mores when tax increases inevitably become necessary in order to pay for this reckless deficit spending. Once again the ever shrinking pool of middle class Americans will be footing the bill.

As a companion editorial in the NYT points out, it's difficult to believe the tanking GOP think this wholesale sellout of middle American's financial security will be a winning strategy.

After five years of duplicitous fiscal policy, Americans are catching on. And Republicans who see tax cuts as an automatic vote-getter may be in for a rude shock. Some two-thirds of Americans now say that the president's priorities, which clearly include ever more tax cuts, do not reflect their own.

This administration has been extraordinarily successful in painting their irresponsible policies as being constructive and reasonable. On paper it looks good, but all the pie charts and power point presentations in the world can't disguise the simple fact that for middle class Americans, there's no money in the bank and our quality of life has vastly diminished under GOP leadership.