If Bush tax cuts allowed to expire, deficit would fall to 4.2% of GDP in 2012--down from 7% for 2011

[flpoljunkie]

(So, why don't Republicans, who express such concern for the federal debt, support ending the Bush tax cuts? The answer is obvious. Their concern is totally disingenuous--more election year 'wedge issue' bullsh*t. For the record, I support Obama's tax plan. The bottom 97% or so has fallen far behind in the Bush economy.)

The CBO says extending the Bush tax cuts helps short-term but poses danger in the long-run, reports Brady Dennis: "The CBO's baseline scenario assumes that the Bush-era tax breaks will expire, as current law provides. In that case, next year's deficit would fall to $1.07 trillion, or 7 percent of the country's total economic output, or gross domestic product, according to agency estimates. By 2012, the deficit would shrink to $665 billion, or 4.2 percent of GDP."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/08/wonkbook_jobless_claims_jump_s.html#more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/19/AR2010081906102.html

[Richardo]

1. What if they allow just the highest tier tax cuts to expire and extend the cuts for the rest of us?

That's what I want to happen.

[4lbs]

3. That's the current plan. But the Republicans don't want that.

They say either tax cuts for everyone, or no one, but actually really they just want them for the rich.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Yes. The bottom 98% has suffered enough under the Bush tax cut and spend/deregulation era.

[Cosmocat]

9. cause it is the insanely obviously thing to do ...

it makes sense, is the right thing, and would be drop dead good politics ...

Why they are not all in with it NOW is beyond me - stake their flags, shout that we are are going to stop borrowing money to give tax breaks to the rich and let the Rs spin around like tops trying to explain their virulent opposition to tax cuts for the average Joe ...

[TheKentuckian]

2. Let them all expire and reinvest what would go to working class folks into infrastructure

and the safety net.

Stop borrowing for the the top 2% portion and that will be significant deficit reduction.

[tridim]

4. They have never cared about debt and deficit

The proof? American history.

[maxsolomon]

5. that amount could easily be carved out of the pentagon's budget

but that's sacrosanct because republicans are scared of their own shadows.

[Cirque du So-What]

7. I don't believe that even repugs buy into that nonsense

It has more to do with defense contracts & war profiteering than actual fear of attack. I still believe President Kennedy was assassinated because he refused to go along with the war pigs' plans to invade Indochina for fun & profit. Think of all the defense contracts (most notably in Texas) that would have gone unfulfilled if JFK had stepped back from the brink as he'd planned. They found a more compliant figure in LBJ - one who would fabricate a casus belli - a false flag operation known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Smells like imaginary WMDs, eh what?

[Bitwit1234]

8. With republicans ranting and raving and peeing and moaning

about everything President Obama and the Democrats do to improve this country, don't you think Bush and Cheney are sitting on the toilet and laughing their ass off.