Just a thought. Maybe someone smarter than me can do the math.

[dawg]

If the Bush tax cuts had expired 12/31/10 as scheduled, how much longer could we have gone without raising the debt ceiling?

Maybe, before agreeing to extending those tax cuts, someone should have ... maybe .... demanded a debt-ceiling extension be made part of the deal. It would make sense to me, in a hostage-type situation like that, to make sure you at least get the hostages back before you hand over the money. But then, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm just not smart enough to understand three-dimensional chess.

[Fearless]

1. I don't know the answer but you would need to know what revenue the US made...

And what revenue they would have made had they expired.

[polmaven]

2. The hostages WERE released!

MILLIONS of unemployed people - whose FIRST TIER would expire - That's 26 weeks - yes, the first 26 weeks, saw our benefits extended because of it. Please try to imagine the situation if tens of millions of people were to lose benefits after only 6 months, have no income, and whole families are out on the street, paying no taxes at all, unable to spend at businesses, and unable to contribute anything to the economy.

I believe the economy would be MUCH worse than it is now. The president recognized that, and took the action he did.

[dawg]

3. And you don't think a debt-limit increase should have been part of the deal?

Those Bush tax cuts were a huge bargaining chip. Whether the deal was worth it or not is another issue. Maybe it was, because the unemployed are truly in a terrible fix in this economy. But this debt-limit thing was an easily foreseeable consequence.

You don't give in to blackmail just to set yourself up to be blackmailed again in 7 months.

[polmaven]

4. I think the president

got what he could. the extension of tax cuts for the middle and low income people and the extension of unemployment benefits. I also think that DADT repeal may have been an unstated part of that deal. With the teabag crowd, there will always be something.