The GOP Congress has been widely and rightly reviled for the recent tax cut, especially since the hard-liners running the government removed credits for the poorest taxpayers at the last minute. They did this to keep the "cost" of the cut to "$350 billion," a sham anyway since that depends on the tax cuts expiring in a few years when the people who wrote the bill have no intent of ever letting any tax cut expire.

When news broke that families earning between $10,000 and $26,000 wouldn't receive any child tax credits, affecting one out of every six children under 17, the GOP felt the pressure and rushed to add that tax cut separately, by raising customs taxes and other fees to pay for it. It passed the Senate today 94-2.

Guess what two senators voted against tax credits for the poorest taxpayers? That's right: Oklahoma's own gruesome ideological twosome, Don Nickles and Jim Inhofe. And, according to the Associated Press, why did they vote no?

Nickles says millions of low-income workers pay no income taxes and Inhofe says giving taxpayer money to those who don't pay taxes is not an economic stimulus.

Please try to understand the depths of Inhofe's stupidity: he says that giving money to the nation's poorest people who desperately need it to pay for daily expenses is not an economic stimulus, but giving it to rich people who will not spend it is an economic stimulus. Apparently if the poor would just use that money to hire domestic servants, Inhofe would be all in favor of letting them have their child tax credits.

Nickles excuse is no better:

Mr. Nickles said he objected to increasing the refund to people who did not pay federal income taxes.

Never mind, of course, that these people pay huge chunks of their salaries in payroll taxes. The GOP decided years ago to pretend that payroll taxes are not taxes while income taxes are, largely because payroll taxes disproportionately affect poorer workers and the GOP's wealthy base has no interest in lowering them. That might make it more difficult to cut dividend or inheritance taxes. The GOP has been happy for years to tax people who work at a job for a living, but if your money came to you through investment or inheritance, they want it tax-free.

The only reason these people don't pay income taxes is because their payroll taxes over the year are equal to or larger than their annual income tax burden. These folks desperately need that money to pump into the economy now, and Oklahoma's two moron senators think that's plenty reason not to let them have it.

One wonders if the "new" Oklahoman, after Ed Gaylord's recent death, will bother to point out things like this on its editorial page or, God forbid, when either of them runs for re-election.