Ending All Bush-era Tax Cuts Will Bring Budget Near Balance in Four Years

[niceypoo]

It's a no brainer

http://www.bobbyscott.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=533&Itemid=62

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, a member of the House Budget Committee, issued the following statement on the Bush-era tax cuts:

As the charts below show, using Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data, if we allow all of the Bush-era tax cuts to expire as scheduled, the federal budget would be close to primary balance in 2014.

“The fact remains that extending the Bush-era tax cuts will cost the U.S. Treasury about $3.7 trillion in revenue over the next decade. Extending just the popular middle- and lower-income tax cuts will cost $3 trillion. It is hard to imagine that extending all of the tax cuts at a cost of $3.7 trillion is fiscally irresponsible, but extending $3 trillion worth of tax cuts is somehow fiscally sensible.





Note: These charts show the deficit impact, in billions of dollars (chart 1) and as a percentage of GDP (chart 2), compared to Primary Balance (outlays excluding net interest payments on the debt) of the 4 primary options with regards to the Bush-era tax cuts. They are:

Bush-Era: Extend all Bush-era 2001-03 tax cuts
Obama: President Obama’s proposal – extend Bush-era tax cuts for those with incomes below $200k/ $250k
S-PAYGO: Statutory PAYGO’s (“S-PAYGO”) current policy tax exceptions – which accommodate President Obama’s proposals, but with only 2 years of AMT and estate tax relief
Tax Cuts Expire: Let all Bush-era tax cuts expire (CBO Baseline Data)

“We need to make tough, unpopular choices – obviously letting tax cuts expire is unpopular. But when we ever get serious about the deficit, we will find that the realistic alternatives are even more unpopular. Accordingly, the reasonable choice Congress should make now is to allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire as scheduled at the end of this year and try to restore fiscal sanity to our nation’s capital.”

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I agree with this

But we lost - yet again. We lost. It looks like the compromise is in and the wealthy spoiled brats are getting their selfish greedy own way.

[Cant trust em]

2. Letting ALL of the Bush tax cuts expire was never going to happen.

The middle class were always going to keep their cut.

[niceypoo]

The middle class cuts will cost $3 trillion in debt over ten years

We cannot afford them. It's a no brainer.

The Democrats need to stop acting like republicans.

[Parker CA]

3. Problem is that even if they all expire, the GOP will extend everything in the new congress and the

pressure will be so hard on Senate Dems to follow the house vote that all cuts will be extended, probably permanently.

From a fiscally responsible approach, the expiration is the best idea, but the reality today is that it will never happen.

[niceypoo]

7. If the tax cuts are extended permenantly, the economy will collapse

[Parker CA]

8. For everyone but the most wealthy. As long as their pockets are lined, the greater good carries

zero weight.

[niceypoo]

9. They believe that money will insulate them from the damage they cause

This is a third world model of economics. There is no common good if you are a sociopath.

[Parker CA]

12. We're on the same page. It's disgusting, and greed has completely taken over. nt

[golfguru]

19. Economy is already collapsing...check todays new UNemployment

rate at 9.8%. That does NOT include people who have given up and those
working in poorly paid part time jobs.

[Enrique]

13. the Senate dems can filibuster, and Obama can veto

they have the power to block any extension.

They voted nearly 100% to block them under Bush, twice, why can't they block them now when they've been proven a failure?

[lyonn]

16. Makes sense

Then the Dems might have the leverge on their side for unemployment extension, DADT, etc.. Trouble is our economy would collapse for sure - I have no idea? What would the total tax increase be for the bottom 97% and how much total for the top 2-3%?

[flpoljunkie]

4. All well and good, but the middle class (well below $250K) really need their tax cuts.

Their wages have been stagnant for several decades, and too many are without jobs and facing, if not in, foreclosure. It is not time to pull the rug out from under them.

The Republicans must be shamed for insisting any unemployment benefits be paid for while tax cuts for the top 1.5% do not. When it comes to tax cuts for the rich, 'deficits do not matter!'

[niceypoo]

5. The middle class tax cuts are a pittance.

The Bush tax cut for someone who makes $40k per year is about $9 per year.

How is nine dollars a year going to help anything?

[bornskeptic]

21. $832 for a married filing jointly return and $415 for a single return in 2009.

That's just from the 10% tax bracket. Virtually every single persom grossing over $15,000 and every married couple grossing over $30,000 would lose that.Filers with dependent children may get a few hundred or a thousand more more from the expanded child tax credit.

[starroute]

11. The trouble is that winds up as a WalMart-type solution

Just as WalMart is happy to have its employees on food stamps to keep its wages low, so business in general would be very pleased to have the federal government paying in the form of tax cuts to subsidize its own stinginess with workers.

This is why the Tea Party has been goaded into this whole "taxed enough already" stance. They're not wrong that their earnings aren't keeping up with their expenses, but blaming that on taxes is just an excuse for taking it out of the pockets of government -- which ultimately means out of the poor and elderly.

Ideally, what we should have is a substantial increase in wages across the board, to reflect the actual gains in productivity over the last few decades. If you had that, you could raise taxes, balance the federal budget, and still leave people with a lot more take-home pay than they're getting now.

But that is what business is determined not to let happen -- so instead, we're going to have an endless, grinding series of tax cuts that don't help ordinary Americans all that much but cripple the ability of the government to actually do anything useful.

[Oceansaway]

6. K&R...n/t

[Cosmocat]

10. Thank you for linking this ...

under NO circumstances should the top rate be kept where it is ...

I favor letting them all expire - really, the only reason the "middle" income tax breaks were even included where the bones to provide cover for the top rate ...

[dgibby]

14. I agree,

and as a member of the middle class, I'd be more than happy to let all the tax cuts expire; however saving the US economy is NOT the goal of the PTB. The goal is to destroy the economy, thereby leveling the global playing field. When we're desperate enough, we'll work for slave wages just like every other 3rd world country.

[Milo_Bloom]

15. They never should have been taken in the first place.

Democrats TRIED to fight it. The GOP had to pass them in reconciliation.

I can't figure out why we are even discussing keeping ANY of them.

[Laelth]

17. k&r for the truth. Let them all expire. n/t

-Laelth

[opihimoimoi]

18. KnR :o)

[golfguru]

20. There is a serious flaw in your premise

Those charts make assumptions for a full decade on levels of economic activity.
Economy is NOT a fixed size pie. No one predicted the current state
of economy 4 years ago when the housing boom was in full flourish.

No one alive is smart enough to know where economic activity will be in
2 years much less 10 years.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

22. I've always liked Bobby Scott. I think he's a smart statesman.