Sunday, November 28, 2010

All Americans Have to Participate


The Economic Growth and Tax Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act of 2003 are the Bush tax cuts we hear about everywhere.

The tax reductions in EGTRRA were designed to be phased in over a period of up to 9 years. Many of these slow phase-ins were accelerated by the JGTRRA, which removed the waiting periods for many of EGTRRA's changes.

EGTRRA was designed to sunset, or revert to the provisions that were in effect before it was passed. EGTRRA will sunset on January 1, 2011 unless further legislation is enacted to make its changes permanent.

According to Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, "The biggest argument for extending the tax cuts right now is our economy is very weak, and raising taxes during a recession, or the recent weak recovery from the recession, could reverse our economic growth,"

If the tax cuts are extended, however, taxpayers won't really notice any change in their bottom line. So it's unlikely to create any new stimulus for the economy.

Treasury estimates the costs of making the tax cuts permanent for everyone is $3.7 trillion over 10 years.

Republicans’ refusal to participate in any real way with any legislation that would benefit Americans is explained with “Obama refuses to work with us.”

This has been extremely frustrating for us on the left who feel he’s given away the store. His compromises have weakened every policy from health care to corporate regulation and credit card usury rules to the point of uselessness. They’ve done nothing but allow the right to say, “See, it doesn’t work!”

A third of Obama’s stimulus has been tax cut Republicans have asked for. This is one of the reasons the stimulus was so weak.

Recovery will never happen until banks decide to lend to small businesses again.

Most Americans don’t even notice the small tax reduction on their paychecks but it’s definitely adding to the deficit.

8 years of Bush’s tax cuts not only didn’t make our economy grow but it helped create this deficit. None of the tax cuts worked! Why is there even an argument?

We were already at a historical low for taxes before the cuts. Let these stupid cuts expire for everyone. All Americans are going to have to take part in our recovery.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave,

To my family, ending the Bush tax cuts would mean about $100 per week. I would definitely notice it. That's a car payment. How much would it mean to you?

Jamie

Doggie said...

If you truly want to bring down the deficit, then that's what it would take. We'd still be at historic lows. I don't know what you make but I'll post the break down.

Anonymous said...

I agree, raising taxes will be a necessary part of any real plan to address the deficit. What I would like to know is how ending the Bush tax cuts would hit your (Dave's) budget. You are saying that "All Americans Have to Participate." Well, I would be participating to the tune of $100 per week.