Fight Over Future of Bush Tax Cuts

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/fight_over_future_of_bush_tax_cuts_20100725/

The Bush suite of fat-cat tax cuts is set to expire Dec. 31, though many in Washington, including some Democrats, are poised to fight to maintain those reductions for the wealthy.

Critics of the cuts, including the Democratic leadership and President Barack Obama, would continue the lower rates for those described as “middle class”—individuals earning less than $200,000, or households earning less than $250,000. —JCL

The New York Times:

An epic fight is brewing over what Congress and President Obama should do about the expiring Bush tax cuts, with such substantial economic and political consequences that it could shape the fall elections and fiscal policy for years to come.

Democratic leaders, including Mr. Obama, say they are intent on letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire as scheduled at the end of this year. But they have pledged to continue the lower tax rates for individuals earning less than $200,000 and families earning less than $250,000 — what Democrats call the middle class.

More at the link --

[DesertFlower]

1. i'm tired of the rich getting all the breaks.

there scheduled to expire. let them expire.

it's the same damn thing with social security. the easiest way to make social security solvent is to take away the cap. i'm saying that as someone who benefits from the cap. it seems every year around september we hit the cap. it's nice having an extra $720 a month for a few months, but not at the risk of raising the retirement age or cutting benefits.

[napi21]

2. I only hit the cap once in my life bback in 1998, but I feel the same

as you do. The additional $$ was nice, but not nice enough for ME to cause harm to everyone else.

The once advantage the Dems have in this fight, or so a talking head on Washington Week said, is that neither side wants to be responsible for the tax cuts for the lower income people to expire, so he doesn't think the Pubs will hold out long enough to let the entire package expire.

[DesertFlower]

3. i hit it once. it was around 1985. the cap was

around $48,000. i made a few thousand more that year. i was so happy.

[Motown_Johnny]

4. we shouldn't even be talking about extending them. That is counterproductive.

We should be working on a round of Obama/Democratic tax cuts for the people who need it and simply not including those making $200,00/yr or more.



The discussion should be about Obama tax cuts, not Bush tax cuts.

[DesertFlower]

5. he gave us a tax cut last year.

[napi21]

6. I understand that, and if the Senate can't reach aome agreement

on letting the top 2% tax cuts expire while retaining the lower ones, I'm all for letting them ALL expire! What we got was not that much and letting them all go is much better for the country than letting the greedy keep on hoarding.

If your concern is REALLY about the poor---don't worry, they won't have to pay taxes anyway.

Think how much better it would have been if Reagan had nover been Prez. We USED to be able to deduct all local taxes, credit card interest, car loan interest, etc. I remember I used to keep a decorated box under the counter in the kitchen, and when I cam home from the store, I'd immediately drop the cash register receipt in the box. At the end of the year, I took about 1 1/2 hours to empty the box, stack the receipts & add up all the sales taxes. Even though we didn't make that much $$ back then, it usually added up to a couple of hundred dollars in deductions.

All the damn tax changes since then have been in favor of the wealthy and we, the little guy, have lost everything!

[DesertFlower]

7. i remember how it was before reagan.

some on DU are probably too young to know how it was. yes. everything was deductible. the deduction for drugs was 1% of your salary and doctors, etc. was 3%. now it's 7.5% and it's going up to 10 percent.

we never had a tax cut, taxes were rearranged.

[napi21]

8. You could even deduct something for cigaretts! HA! Everybody

suddenly became a smoker, even m aunt who never touched one in her life!

[DesertFlower]

9. lol. it still takes me time

to get my taxes ready. i have an accountant do them. i have to go through everything to see how much i've given to charity and medical and dental is deductible from the first $1.00 in arizona. we have some good things here.