Will the Bush Tax Cuts Expire in 2012?
Remember when the Bush Tax Cuts passed? They were set to expire at the end of 2010. Then they were extended at the last minute, so that the rates in place would last for two more years. Now the original cuts are once again set to expire at the end of the year, wreaking potential havoc on the tax rates. The House has already passed a bill to extend the cuts for all Americans, while the Senate has passed a bill to extend them for only those making under $250,000 per year. Since Congress is in recess for much of the rest of 2012, and the extension of the cuts is causing such a deep divide between the two parties, there’s no guarantee that another extension will actually become law. Since we’re not sure what will happen, we thought we’d do a round-up of what exactly the expiring tax cuts 2012 will be at the end of the year if no further legislation is passed.
Update: A new bill will extend tax cuts for most people. Stay tuned for additional details from the Fiscal Cliff Deal in process.
Tax Cuts Expiring in December 2012
Generally speaking, the tax code and underlying income and investment tax rates (and related deductions)Â will revert back to pre-2001 rates if the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2012. These are the highlights of what that entails:
- Tax Brackets. First and most significantly, the 2013 income tax brackets would change, with the 10% rate disappearing, the 35% rate jumping to either 36% or 39.5%, and other rates increasing. Note that the current budget proposal (outlined here) preserves the 10% - 33% rates as-is and only increases rate for those currently in the 35% bracket. The Tax Policy Center does a good job of highlighting the current rates, the rates if the cuts expire with no further action, and the rates under the current proposed budget.
- Estate Taxes. Estate taxes have shifted dramatically over the last several years. If the Bush Tax Cuts expire, a 55% rate will apply to transferred assets exceeding $1,000,000 per person.
- Investment Taxes. If you sell an asset that you have owned for more than one year, you currently pay special rates that max out at 15% (taxpayers in the 10% or 15% tax bracket pay no capital gains taxes). The capital gains rates will jump to 10% and 20% if the current tax cuts expire. Additionally, all dividends will be subject to ordinary income rates.
- Credits and other changes. The child care tax credit will be reduced to $500 per child and other credits would be limited as well. The personal exemption and itemized deduction phase outs would return.
- Payroll Tax. Also set to expire at the end of 2012 is the Payroll Tax Cut that lowered Social Security taxes by two percentage points. This isn’t a part of the Bush Tax Cuts, but just like everything above will end at the end of 2012 and cause an increase in current taxes (and a corresponding decrease in your take-home pay).
2013 Planning
It’s hard to know exactly what will happen and if the tax cuts will expire, but planning for a tax increase won’t hurt – we do know for sure that there’s almost no way taxes will go down! You can avoid incurring larger taxes next year by converting Roth IRAs, selling any appreciated investments you might want to unload soon (stocks/bonds and real property), and generally doing your best to move income to this year while pushing deductions to 2013. “Worst” case scenario, rates don’t increase and you make some moves this year that would have cost you exactly the same next year. But if rates DO increase, you’ll rest a little easier knowing that you saved mega money by making big moves a few weeks or months in advance. You can use the tax calculator to project the impact of any potential changes you make in 2012.
Further Reading
- The Heritage Foundation has put together a detailed list of all tax laws scheduled to change (either because of expiration or new laws taking effect). It’s somewhat partisan in some of its language choices, but the numbers and rates cited are solid.
- The Tax Foundation has also put together a list showing what will happen if current laws are extended, what will happen if they are allowed to expire with no further action, and what will happen if the Obama Administration’s proposals are adopted.
More Tax Topics
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To which Obama will say that he didn’t raise our taxes. He will just let the tax cuts expire, so that we pay more.
Do you think they will let them expire?
Interesting that we were PROMISED that we wouldn’t have a tax increase from the current administration of his media cohorts, but they never did promise we wouldn’t pay more in taxes.
Hopefully, there will be some changes coming soon in November.
I’m hoping so too. But then again, I’m not sure how they would pay for everything else that was promised.
They draw a distinction – and I would, too – between reverting to prior tax rates and actually increasing the tax rate. This is especially important when you consider that we could never afford the Bush tax cuts in the first place (Republicans have always been better at preaching fiscal discipline than actually following through).
It’s always been my understanding that President Obama had promised no tax increases to the “lowest 99% of income earners”, i.e. the Bush tax cuts would expire, thus raising the tax burden on the top bracket earners, the 1%.
I’ve also been under the impression that the expiration of the Bush tax cuts have been included in all health care reform cost extrapolations, so that extending them would change what has already been explained/laid out.
I don’t believe that the expiration of the Bush tax cuts had anything to do with the cost estimates of the health care bill. I remember reading reports about how the CBO scoring process was being “gamed”. The CBO scores the legislation put it front of it, without regard to any other legislation, e.g. the phantom “savings” by putting the “doc fix” in another bill, or the additional “discretionary” money that was recently reported that is going to have to be allocated in future years to implement parts of the new health care system (unless Republicans get a majority this year and do not include it in the next budget).
If the Democrats know what assumptions CBO works with and hides spending in other bills that have yet to be introduced, the bill’s score is going to come out the way the Democrats want it to. All of the spending in the bill had to be offset by the taxes included in the bill. There’s nothing about the federal income tax rates or other Bush era tax cuts in the health care bill.
I had no idea long term capital gains are presently 0%. Are you sure? So if I sell a rental property that I have owned for 12 years,and I sell it before 2011 there will be no capital gains to pay??
Yes, I’m sure. The capital gains rate switched to 0% back in 2008 and is set to expire at the end of this year. The 0% applies to taxpayers in the bottom two tax brackets.
IRS Tax Tip 2010-35
Have you heard of capital gains and losses? If not, you may want to read up on them because they might have an impact on your tax return. The IRS wants you to know these ten facts about gains and losses and how they could affect your tax situation.
Almost everything you own and use for personal purposes, pleasure or investment is a capital asset.
When you sell a capital asset, the difference between the amount you sell it for and your basis – which is usually what you paid for it – is a capital gain or a capital loss.
You must report all capital gains.
You may deduct capital losses only on investment property, not on property held for personal use.
Capital gains and losses are classified as long-term or short-term, depending on how long you hold the property before you sell it. If you hold it more than one year, your capital gain or loss is long-term. If you hold it one year or less, your capital gain or loss is short-term.
If you have long-term gains in excess of your long-term losses, you have a net capital gain to the extent your net long-term capital gain is more than your net short-term capital loss, if any.
The tax rates that apply to net capital gain are generally lower than the tax rates that apply to other income. For 2009, the maximum capital gains rate for most people is15%. For lower-income individuals, the rate may be 0% on some or all of the net capital gain. Special types of net capital gain can be taxed at 25% or 28%.
If your capital losses exceed your capital gains, the excess can be deducted on your tax return and used to reduce other income, such as wages, up to an annual limit of $3,000, or $1,500 if you are married filing separately.
If your total net capital loss is more than the yearly limit on capital loss deductions, you can carry over the unused part to the next year and treat it as if you incurred it in that next year.
Capital gains and losses are reported on Schedule D, Capital Gains and Losses, and then transferred to line 13of Form 1040.
For more information about reporting capital gains and losses, see the Schedule D instructions, Publication 550, Investment Income and Expenses or Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax. All forms and publications are available at IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).
I believe the tax cuts should be allowed to expire for everyone.
We hear so much about the debt being left to future generations, allowing the cuts to expire will lessen or eliminate the problem so often cited by the “deficit hawks” who put us in this position in the first place.
For those who consider this naive, remember, from the mouths of babes….
so everyone should pay more in taxes ?
what happened to the Govt. spending less
if we give more they will spend more
they will not change their ways …we must take our country back, maybe to late
Terry h, I agree with you, starting this year, 2010, I will begin following your advise, all Americans should, so with that in mind I freely offer some guidelines to help all Americans going forward to know which politicians to trust and what policies going forward will help to limit or outright prevent abuse.:
~ NEVER ELECT ANOTHER REPUBLICAN EVER! (use to be one, not any more…speaking from experience here)
~ recognize that 100% of markets, in the USA, are NOT FREE, nor are they working. Until corporate monied lobbyist influence is removed they will not be, thus any politician wanting to followed the failed economic policies where we have proof they do not work should be considered not fit and un-qualified for any office. Hint: Economics dictate that markets react to supply and demand…when was the last time anything you buy and/or purchase went down. How about your local, state and federal taxes? Enough proof that there are NO FREE MARKETS.
~ prosecute for war crimes any President that starts any military action (i.e. declares war, puts additional troops in a foreign country) without Congressional approval, as stipulated in the Constitution. Just because someone held a high office, they should not be immune to criminal prosecution. This must apply to all government employees equally across the board.
~ increase tariffs, re-enact trade polices (removed since President Reagan, Clinton, etc…), and institute tax policies to encourage jobs to return to America. Its how our founding fathers built America, a proven strategy to create jobs and small businesses in America. Putting into talking points that this is not true does not change historical fact. And you can not re-write all of history, some of us know better already. Amazing some of the revisionist history going on today, especially with Wikipedia…shame on you all.
~ Any company with “Gross profit” over a certain amount, say $500,000 SHALL NOT be considered a small business. That is well over 10 times the amount of an individual considered middle class…what few of them remain after the current Republican economic pillaging of the country. Even over 60% of Republicans were against privatizing the profit and socializing the risk, i.e. the bank/financial bailouts.
~ Whenever any politician spreads the flames of FEAR in order to get their way, as soon as it is realized that they knowingly spread lies, and thus FEAR, they should be removed from office for violating their oath of office and classified as a domestic terrorist, thus being prevented from ever running for office, ever again. (Good Deterent to future wrong doing if you actually prosecute them from a criminal prospective as well)
~ Recognize that a thriving middle class earning liveable wages is required to pay for services and policies that protect 100% of American’s “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”. A thriving middle class is also able to pursuit their religious and spiritual preference un-encumbered. (Good case for separation of church and state as well, to prevent well meaning religious leaders from creating a legal precedent based solely or partially on religion, which threatens our children s birth rights to freedom of religion)
~ Enact single payer, pay for it by removing the excesses of corporate insurance and health related companies. No new funding will be required, as they waste more then enough to provide care for every person on the planet, much less 100% of Americans. Allow medical professionals to once again provide quality care based on their oath.
~ Strengthen state rights to regulate the health care and insurance industries, being able to ban any company from doing business, owning assets (including land) in the state that violate the Hippocratic oath based on their company policies.
~ Recognize that 100% of Republican talking points lie when you review the details. They did not always, but today, sadly they do. For people that claim to follow and honour truth, they lie more than any other political party, pathetic. The Republicans never want you to look at their track record, thus their desire to have no plan (blank pieces of paper at presidential speeches; no solution when asked how they would fix the economy…hello Republican from Kentucky, etc…).
~ Strike down Citizen’s United vs FEC as unconstitutional; not only did the pro-Republican, pro-Corporate Supreme Court over step its mandate and legislate from the bench, they over reached to do so. Look at the other 30 – 48 times the Supreme Court has taken for itself that which is not chartered to it by the Constitution and strike them down as well. (When a Supreme Court Justice states under oath that they will NOT legislate from the bench, which all the recent Republican nominated Supreme court judges stated…I watched it myself on CSpan, should they not be removed from office because they violated their oath of office?) (This is what you get when you put religious issues before legal issues…will we ever learn?)
~ Enact the recent law that Republicans blocked(and a few Democrats), forcing corporations to identify all contributions of any amounts given to any politician. A good guideline would be the laws for the State of Minnesota that were approved 100% (i.e. even the Republicans in Minnesota) of the politicians. So there are some good Republicans, perhaps there were more when I was part of that party, but not today. While my knowledge of Minnesota’s laws are far from exact, for those that do not know they go along these guidelines: All donations within 24 hours…; No donations can be made within a specific time period of the election(weeks or months, not days); all donations above a certain dollar amount ($5,000 I think, its low) must be made over 3 months in advance of the election. Thus once declared this information is valuable to voters to decide who is bought and paid for and who MIGHT be able to be trusted to serve in their best interests. There is plenty of advanced notification of who gave how much to whom. (I freely admit that the details of the Minnesota law, I do not know and am badly guessing/paraphrasing here)
~ create a law that the Federal budget MUST be balanced by a certain date each year and if it is not, that any elected politicians not voting to approve the current budget not get paid until the current budget is approved. All items, including war funding, black operational budgets and any expenses related to the military industrial complex be included in the budget.
~ Politicians leaving office must be prevented from seeking employment with any company doing business with the federal government for a minimum of 10 years or twice the period they were in office, whichever is larger to prevent them from abusing their office or contacts made while in office. Especially any contractor (of any size, by any measure) that is doing business with the American military. This should be a no brainier for any American believing in freedom.
~ Enact into law that any program that has been funded in the past, must continue to be funded, if funding lapses, no elected politician voting against funding gets paid until the funding is approved. If a politician wants to stop funding, they should be forced to have it voted on and there by stand with their convictions so the people back home they are suppose to serve can respond appropriately.
~ Enact into law that any funding previously approved for any specific program, can ONLY be used for that program. Should any politician “attempt” to legislate or re-appropriate funding for another purpose that is “proof” of violation of their oath of office as a “domestic enemy” and they are immediately removed from office by the police. A new election for their replacement should be held immediately. They should not be allowed to remain in office and do more harm. They can of course avail themselves of the legal system in this country and respond legally if they wish. A verdict of “not guilty” must be received or they should be banned for the rest of their life from seeking any public office.
~ If a politician wants funding for a new program, they should create the funding mechanism so that it is perpetual in nature, based on cost of living, inflation, with the salaries of all involved changing (up and down) based on the current economy. No raises should be allowed of any politician or government official during a recession or economic downturn. The economy should be increasing successfully for multiple quarters before a raise is granted. If a program can not balance their books based on funding, then why should they get a raise, especially during a recession.
~ When a politician violates their oath of office, especially with respects to “domestic enemies” where physical proof exists, they are removed from office and a new election is held to replace them. (Worth repeating, the ultimate poison pill to remove the evil that seek public office for personal and political gain only.
~ enact the FairTax. Held in tax committees in both the House and the Senate since 1996 and prevented from coming to a floor vote is unacceptable. All the members of both tax/finance committees should be removed for preventing this critical job producing legislation from coming to a floor vote.
~ No proposed law should be allowed to be held in committee without a floor vote for more than two terms. (That would delay legislation for no more than 4 years ever. Personally I think 4 years is too long. The fair tax, since 1996, that is already 14 years. If it is so bad, vote on it. So far no politician that goes against the FairTax remains in office. A good example of legislation, simple, straight forward that the average American understands implicitly. Probably a good standard for wording of all future legislation, if it requires a lawyer to understand, it should be re-worded as someone is trying to hide something from some one…another duh moment)
~ Any company owned by more than 20% foreign ownership must be forced to die, prevented from doing business after 5 years. All money should be returned to the state in which it is chartered, with a fund being established to guarantee the pensions of workers for that company. Under no circumstances should any individual (foreign or domestic) be allowed to rob workers of the pensions, in most cases they themselves have contributed to from their own wages. How dare anyone do this?
~ Until the federal government is balanced, deficits managed fiscally responsibly for a minimum of ten years, with safe guards enacted to prevent political abuse and pillaging of the funds, no attempts should be made to change social security, or any other government backed and/or funded pension program. Any politician that attempts to steal any hard workers future, should be considered in violation of their oath of office and a domestic enemy to the country. Just because someone has a government pension, does not mean that they have not contributed from their salary as well, in fact most have. Its not just government money based on that alone.
~ States should be in 100% control of the incorporation of companies within their state, without federal interference. All companies should be required to obtain incorporation in each state in which it conducts business and subject to that’s state’s laws and regulations.
~ All Companies should be “locally” owned by over 80% by individuals living in that specific county/township/city area. Companies with greater than 20% foreign ownership can not do business in any county/township/city area without local ownership. That alone would create millions of high paying jobs. It also gives a local contact to hold responsible.
~ Any imported product, produced with foreign labour, must be taxed at an amount that will prevent jobs from being off shored. If it costs Americans 90 cents to make it, and they make it with only 10 cents, then an effective import tax would be 80 cents. It really is that simple to bring jobs back to America. Our founding fathers understood this and what the Boston Tea Party was really about, had nothing to do with pro corporate anything or religion, that’s for sure. Learn your history….
~ Any corporation that causes destruction to the water supply, animal life, lifestyles of others, must make restitution in the amount to for every year until the environment is repaired and life can continue at the same or better rate. At that point it should be up to each individual state whether to use the “Death Penalty” and kill that corporation from operating in that state or not. All states should help all the other states recover enough money from that company, its holding companies and any and all companies related to the foreign and domestic owners of that company. Federal oversight should guarantee that the states work together. If companies don’t do anything wrong, they should not FEAR such legislation.
~ Any politician that does not register to vote, Meg Whitman ~ California Governor, in order to avoid jury duty, should be disqualified from serving for any government office. All political candidates shall be required to be registered to vote in the last 5 elections. Live somewhere for a few years and create a track record based on their actions that show who and what they are.
~ The only reason President Obama might not have been qualified, was his lack of voting record in order to get elected. We see the same failed policy with potential supreme court justices. This is what happens when religious zealots, bigots and those with a political agenda have too much say in the candidates for a specific office. Individuals avoid anything that reveals their true self based on their track records. We do this dis-service to ourselves. President Obama was the lesser of evils, not necessarily the best person for the job…as has been the case with every President since I have been old enough to vote. Always the lesser of evils thanks to our failed two party system. Remember if you only have 2 choices, you have no choice.
~ Remove any and all death taxes (FairTax would do this). We pay tax once (salary), twice(purchases), thrice(investments), (fourth (income tax in all but 7 states…FairTax fixes this also), fifth (you name the event, I know there is one); whatever our wishes are, should be honoured upon our death, with respects to the few pennies of wealth we are able to save after this already excessive taxation system. If you want to give to family to give them a leg up in the world so be it. If you want to give it to charity, so be it. If you want to give it to the city, county, state or government, so be it. A dying citizen’s wishes should never be circumvented by any elected official, law or ruling. An politician who tries should be classified a “domestic enemy” and removed from office as they have violated their oath of office per the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Which by fact of birth, is guaranteed to all Americans and can never be impacted via any legislation, nor should any politician ever try to do so. What is wrong with them? Does the law violate the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, if so, remove it.
For everyone but Terry, do your research, look at which group has created more jobs over the years, its not who you think, that I am sure. Hint: Look back to pre Reagan decades, form your hypothesis and see if it holds true post Reagan. Ask yourself why not? What changed? Follow the money. Also look at party platforms and realize that neither party is who they use to be. Stop voting along party lines.
I hate excessive taxes, yet the financials, job history, etc… show us that when corporate executives had to pay higher and higher taxes, instead of getting higher and higher salaries, they poured the money back into the business, creating jobs, economic activity and opportunity. However once taxes were drastically lowered, they hoarded wealth, which is their right, bought up companies removing jobs from the economy and consolidated their hold on their industry. Instead of creating jobs, they pay lobbyists to purchase politician’s votes on laws that prevent the free market from working and creating obstacles to others to compete with their business.
A great example are the telcos, even though the received out right money (our taxes), were allowed to add additional FEES and taxes for providing Fiber to Americans. (Over $900 Billion since 1990) Instead of providing fiber they put laws on the books in at least 38 states to prevent competition, solidifying their monopolies and duopoly. Had they not watered down the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (there is that year again) and removed the teeth of its enforcement; Americans would have had 100Mbps/100Mbps ($55 per month) bi-directional synchronous Fiber Internet connections by the year 2000 as the Japanese had thanks to the government de-regulation of NTT (Japanese Telephone company). By 2006, Japanese consumers were receiving 1 Gbps/ 1Gbps for $52 per month. (Price went down, a sign the economic market for Internet access in Japan was actually working, unlike the telco market here in the USA). Today in the USA, the only places you can get 100Mbps/100Mbps bi-directional synchronous fiber Internet are:
~ 20 – 24 communities in Utah via Utopia. User owned Fiber links from their homes to the Telco switching station paid for via bonds.
~ Wilson, N.C. via Greenlight. (100Mbps/100Mbps at FIOS prices) Began service in 2009, telcos response to lobby for anti-competitive legislation, continues in 2010.
~ Chattanooga, TN; thanks to the city maintaining ownership of their local telecommunications infrastructure that they have been building since the 1990s you can get Fiber to your home or business in many locations.
There are no other places you can get 100Mbps/100Mbps Fiber in the USA yet. Google might add 5 more in the near future that will offer 1 Gbps/1 Gbps, we will see. Remember Verizon FIOS is only 50Mbps/5Mbps fiber and costs over $100 per month.
And the FCC declares broadband to be only 756Kbps…pathetic in 2010. I suggest to you that no Cable provider in reality provides, or can provide broadband communications, my minimum bandwidth definition is 100Mbps/100Mbps without Fiber. Neither can any wireless system, 3G, 4G, etc…even if they call it 10G. Such failed attempts at maintaining tiered pricing and restricted/limited bandwidth are failures and anti American.
100% of Cable providers restrict and limit bandwidth. How much they throttle you back is the only question? To sub broadband levels, I would hypothesis YES, definitely.
If you are not running either DD-WRT, OpenWRT or tomato firmware on a “supported device” firewall/router, you simply DO NOT KNOW how badly your internet stream is being restricted. I pay for 16Mbps/2Mbps (only see this during the speed test, a second after service is limited, throttled, restricted) and am restricted to less than 80Kbps/16Kbps 98% of the time with occasional 1Mbps – 4Mbps 1 sec spikes….a pathetic fail. I often see as little as 40Kbps/8Kbps. At 1.5Mbps/768Kbps, based on my location, DSL is in reality more then 7 times faster than my cable supposed ‘broadband’ reality. Based on their restrictions, in my actual experience thanks to DD-WRT monitoring, my cable provider does not even provide me with broadband. Based on the FCC standard of 756Kbps to be considered broadband. This is one of the many reasons we need net neutrality. No restrictions, no limitations, no false advertising, etc…
Follow the money, blame the lobbyists and our politicians that take their money.
We are living the Republican wet dream of Reagonomics, Free Markets, etc, etc… many of which I mistakenly believed in when I was younger and less wise. As historical fact has proven, these policies are an economic disaster, which is expected to worsen in the next 6 months to a year for a duration of approx 2 – 3 years. We simply can not afford Republican financial policies any longer in America.
And any party/politician that refuses to look at the historical facts is not fit for office. Perhaps such a warped perspective should be considered a violation of their oath of office at the worst, or at the best, they should be viewed as completely and utterly incompetent.
To the Republicans that are benefiting and thus want to keep the status quo, I get that, understand it implicitly, but ask yourself this…whatever your business, as the top players consolidate and become fewer and fewer and fewer, what will that leave you locally? As your influence diminishes, unless you have millions to throw at politicians as well, what happens to you. Ultimately you guys eat your own, an accurate if unsavoury metaphor. I understand that you game the system financially for your benefit and do not worry about anyone else. I get that too. How you can take a $15,000 tax bill, reduced to $350 by paying a competent accountant a few thousand dollars. However, your gravy train is coming to an end….it takes people with jobs to buy products and services and have an economy. The last three decades have hurt us all, perhaps you are finally starting to feel it, if not now or not already like most Americans, soon said the mother, soon said the father.
I know some of you do not give a rats about your own children, much less the rest of Americans, but even you have to admit that having over 90% of wealth controlled by 9% of Americans is not healthy for America.
As of October 1, 2010, over 90% of the wealth in America is controlled by less than 9% of a very wealthy elite. This is a documented fact. Google the college studies, there are many for yourself. Those same elites now have the means thanks to Citizen United vs FEC to buy politicians. Look at races where > $4 Million is given by only 2, 3 or 4 contributors to a politicians campaign war chest.
America is for sale! 100% of Republicans are selling big time. 60 – 80% of Democrats are selling as well. Pro corporate Libertarians are no better and will sell big time just like the Republicans.
We need candidates, aka Mr Smith Goes to Washington, citizen politicians to get elected, serve their community and within a 8 – 10 year frame return to their communities, their jobs, their lives. Thus the incentive to create or vote for legislation that will damage them when they return is not at all likely. Unless they want to be hated when they return to their communities.
And if you think you church, even a Mega church can raise the millions required to buy an office or politician, you need to reconsider. Perhaps your church is more of a business then a place of spiritual enlightenment and personal religious growth. Its your life….as it should be.
We do NOT need professional politicians that will spend Millions or Billions for a job (office) that pays less than the amount they spend. Duh moment people, of course they are buying something, the more they spend, the more the office is worth to them…duh moment.
WAKE UP!
Ironically, and quite funny, is that Citizen United vs FEC totally negates 90% of the K-Street lobbyists that have actively prevented sound conservative fiscal accounting with related to budgets, deficits and spending. These same K-Street lobbyists have kept the FairTax in committee since 1996, now they are being put out of business… Why would a large company need them, when they can purchase the politician directly. Its still not good for the rest of us however. With only a few, foreign owned mega corporations dominating thanks to that legislation, the newest outsourced will be them…too funny.
Gerry,
Raising the tax rate to 100% for all earners will not generate enough money to cover the yearly deficit. Budget cuts are mandatory to eliminate the problem. Tax increases, while potentially helpful, cannot solve the problem by themselves.
I think all tax cuts should be expired. I believe that america needs change and this is definatly a step in the right direction.
Excellent article and links. We agree, it’s good to be prepared. Thanks!