Pay for healthcare by letting Bush's Tax Cuts expire, & a trillion+ is added to the treasury

[Lorax7844]

Does anyone have a date? Is it before or after the new Congress will get to vote on it?

If the Bush Tax Cuts cost twice as much as the healthcare bill, then if they are allowed to expire it would be a good way to help control the deficit.

Just wondering, all I could find was right-wing junk about this when I googled it.

From Huff Post:
Enacted in 2001 and 2003, the Bush tax cuts are projected to cost about $2.1 trillion in lost revenue in the 10 years since they were first passed, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal-leaning research group in Washington, D.C. About $979 billion of that would have come from the richest five percent of taxpayers.

Healthcare problem solved, STFU rich people.

[laughingliberal]

1. As I understand it the tax cuts will self-destruct next year

In order to keep them in place there would have to be a vote to keep them

[Lorax7844]

2. Yeah, that is my thinking.

[Lorax7844]

3. Why isn't anyone talking about this? It seems simple when you look at it like that

If the tax cuts cost us over 2 trillion and healthcare is expected to cost 1 trillion, then we end up with 1 trillion plus in our treasury.

Why the fuck is NO ONE, not even us bringing this up?

[hfojvt]

4. for one thing because nobody has the guts to raise taxes for all of us

Part of that $2 trillion is the "child tax credit". It went from $500 per child to $1,000 per child. Any politician who allows that to go back from $1,000 to $500 might as well sign his/her own political death warrant while he/she is at it.

[Lorax7844]

5. Then keep the tax credit and we still break even.

Problem solved.

[hfojvt]

6. I am just saying, you cannot look at the whole pile

plus, you know I made a similar argument last month

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6292172

[Lorax7844]

7. Good, but why aren't you making it every day?

It's a good point that no one seems to want to make. Why did you stop mentioning it?

[exboyfil]

8. What do you think the reported income loss will be when

the higher marginal rates get reset? Do you think that it will be 100% of income which is currently being taxed? Rich people have lots of options when it comes to their income. Will be an interesting test case though. Tax revenues went up significantly after the 2004 tax cuts even though they lagged as a percentage of the overall economic activity (which came first the chicken or the egg).

I am sorry to see the child tax credit go. Kind of like the government bribing the middle class to have more kids (something being considered in Japan right now). The $1,000 I lose will come out of the kids' college funds.

[Statistical]

10. That projection was from 2003.

Something happened in 2008.

Tax revenue is down massively, especially for the wealthiest 5%.

The top 5% pay the majority of their taxes on investments.

When stock market tanks 60% and companies stop paying dividends there isn't a lot of taxes to be paid.

[stray cat]

9. That raises taxes on everyone during a downturn - you and I have to pay and we should