I never made up my mind either way about the tax bill

[bluestateguy]

I guess we'll just wait and see how it all plays out.

[AlabamaLibrul]

1. To see how it plays out, I humbly suggest you "look backwards" instead of "looking forward"

we've seen this one before.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I think most of us are there with you...

It's a complex issue, one that is too complex for me to decipher...

[babylonsister]

3. What? A voice of reason?

No theatrics? :hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear babylonsister...

Me? I try...

I have a cold, so I don't have the energy for threatrics, lol!

:hug:

[nevergiveup]

7. You got it. I like your honesty!

I was against it before I was for it and then against it again and finally today I just threw my hands in the air in total confusion. I think "too complex to decipher" works for me too.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. A lot of apocalyptic scenarios being predicted

Whether any of them play out is another matter altogether, despite the fervent "certainty" of their promoters.

[frazzled]

8. I remember the same thing when Bill Clinton signed Welfare Reform

and I have to admit that I thought people were going to be dying in the streets, too. I was livid. And we all predicted apocalyptic disaster. That really didn't come to pass. And it was an important lesson I learned: nothing is ever as bad (or good) as we think; everything is correctable, if necessary (except wars).

Almost all of the provisions in the compromise are in effect for two years. We don't have to get hyperbolic.

[bluestateguy]

10. The welfare bill was fine, as long as you had 4% unemployment and a surging economy

In a stagnant or slumping economy, I'm not so sure it was a good thing.

[frazzled]

11. Which is why we needed to get those unemployment benefits ...

extended and the earned income credit expanded, etc. this time: these were measures that disproportionately affect the poorest among us -- unemployment is vastly higher among the lesser educated, economically less well off right now.

That said, even in these rough times, I haven't heard anyone ask for a return to a full and permanent welfare system. I hate to admit it, but there was some truth to the idea that work gives dignity, and I think people came to accept that. People want jobs now, not welfare.

[frazzled]

6. I think that shows you were thinking

On a policy level, there were things to disagree with (low estate tax for two years, continuation of cuts for wealthy for two years), and also things to like (unemployment extension, expansion of EIC, stimulative measures). That is why it's called a compromise.

On the political level, there was a decision to make about whether to do nothing (the bill we'd originally wanted, which I'm not even sure I wanted after a while, got voted down in the Senate) and getting something out of a situation that can only get worse two weeks from now, when the House is totally out of our control.

It wasn't easy: compromise is never easy. But we'd better get used to it, because the American people, in all their unwisdom, sent these jokers to Washington last November, and come January 3, they are going to be screwing us royally.

[UrbScotty]

9. It was not a good deal - not by a long shot. But I don't know how a stronger bill...

...could've passed.

[TheKentuckian]

12. I find it annoying to see folks pretending not to get the connection between the tax breaks

and our structural distribution and demand issues.

Same with trade policy. Same with regulatory policy. On and on it goes.

It is not always okay because we got something in return. A trade of items is not always equitable.

Let's get real, the main concession from the TeaPubliKlans was something up to this moment they had never been against in any serious way, Bush extended it. I think Ray Gun extended them (but was a huge prick about it with weekly reports and madcap hoops).

It is bullshit all around. We are apparently "force feeding" the country Republican bullshit solutions that in year's past as the alternatives to actually trying to fix anything mixed in with continuing their failed policies they managed to actually foist onto the country.

[patrice]

13. I understood the arguments for it, but found in favor of securing our investments in shared resource

s (including infrastructure) by putting those tax cuts back into revenues and, thus, taking a step toward deficit reduction as we address Medicare Reform.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. I think the fact that people were way more apopleptic about the Estate Tax than, say

the top marginal rate, proves a lot of people weren't really paying attention.

In terms of revenue, the cuts to the top income bracket translate to much more $$$ than the Estate Tax. The Estate Tax is a sideshow, and the temper tantrum thrown pertaining to it diminished the credibility of what could have been some otherwise sound arguments (why aren't we constantly reminded, for instance, that the top marginal rate under Eisenhower was 90%?)

No, rather than crunch the numbers in a rational way, some people wanted it all to be about the Estate Tax--- because, like, everyone hates Paris Hilton.

Maybe that wasn't the best plan.