How do you want your taxes to be raised?

[bulgron]

I agree.

The answer to your question is that the spending cuts hurt the already hurting poor......while the tax increases don't hurt the rich at all--they still have plenty of money to live a life of luxury.

(Draco was Greek politician who proposed death for almost every violation of the law.)

I think the poor need to suck it up and stop whining so much. If they wanted to make more money in life, they should have worked harder while they were in school. Maybe picked a career with a bigger upside than 'pool boy' or 'sanitary maintenance worker.'

[EagleScouter]

Since I'm not rich......my taxes will not be raised.

Not true.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pf_article_110005.html

[BG42EDGE]

Just a few months ago, it seemed like a safe bet that Congress would make a fix to keep the existing 10%, 15%, 25% and 28% rate brackets to help out lower and middle-income folks. That bet is now looking iffy.

Guess I'm a few months behind.

Do you really think they want to deal with the fallout of raising lower and middle-income taxes?

[Trent Rock]

Let Bush tax cuts expire
50% cut for defense
50% cut for domestic spending across the board

“Reductions like this need to be equitably shared across the agencies.”

Raise taxes across the board, poor, middle class and rich

Sequestration is exactly why I am against the Balanced Budget Amendment
FORCED cuts are a lose/lose situation

I would prefer America not be so obsessed with the debt

Deficit-worriers portray a future in which we’re impoverished by the need to pay back money we’ve been borrowing. They see America as being like a family that took out too large a mortgage, and will have a hard time making the monthly payments.

So yes, debt matters. But right now, other things matter more. We need more, not less, government spending to get us out of our unemployment trap. And the wrongheaded, ill-informed obsession with debt is standing in the way.

Nobody Understands Debt

Japan has gdp/debt ratio of 228%
And they are still there, last I looked
They are not doing super well economically
But, their house of cards has not collapsed
Like the deficit worriers (and fiat money haters) claim will happen

So what happens if everyone simultaneously slashes spending in an attempt to pay down debt? The answer is that everyone's income falls - my income falls because you're spending less, and your income falls because I'm spending less. And, as our incomes plunge, our debt problem gets worse, not better.
And there's a clear moral to this story: When the private sector is frantically trying to pay down debt, the public sector should do the opposite, spending when the private sector can't. By all means, let's balance our budget once the economy has recovered - but not now. The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity.

Krugman: Deficit reduction drive an excuse to slash aid

The 50/50 cut "deal" was a bad move..imho
All because of austerity mania sweeping the right leaning American population
Based mostly on fear of hyperinflation (STILLLL waiting for the Zimbabwe like inflation...), the collapse of fiat money and The Coming Economic Armageddon
The Heritage Foundation and The Cato Institute are the biggest deficit fear mongerers..IMHO (I kind of stopped reading them because it's the same thing over and over....Although I do like the FREE TRADE slant of those groups)
Now we all have to live with the bad decision by the politicians
It's a shame most politicians place the value of the vote over the value of the economists.......

[Triton]

Not applicable. Bush tax cuts will expire only for the rich......as it should be.

Not true. Obamacare is in effect and my taxes haven't gone up.

Currently the "Bush tax cuts" are set to expire for EVERYONE. The real taxes for obamacare are not scheduled to go into effect until after the next election. Just a coincidence I'm sure...

[timcsaw]

Currently the "Bush tax cuts" are set to expire for EVERYONE. The real taxes for obamacare are not scheduled to go into effect until after the next election. Just a coincidence I'm sure...

Obama gave out a few of the "goodies" prior to the election (must accept pre-existing conditions, kids on insurance till a higher age etc.) without raising taxes (yet) to pay for it all. The "pay for it all" part and the REAL PAIN from Obamacare doesn't start until 2013... again, coincidence I'm sure.

[jdm61]

Many on the left cite the European Social Democratic system as the ideal, so lets do what they do. Low taxes on corporate profits so that jobs are created and HIGH taxes on individual income, consumption and "discretionary" spending for ALL individuals because it is the individual taxpayer who uses almost all of the social welfare programs.

[jdm61]

Tim, the bad news is that the Federal and state governments have been opposing such things on private health insurers that write group policies for YEARS. That is one of the PRIMARY reasons why are health insurance costs are so high.

Obama gave out a few of the "goodies" prior to the election (must accept pre-existing conditions, kids on insurance till a higher age etc.) without raising taxes (yet) to pay for it all. The "pay for it all" part and the REAL PAIN from Obamacare doesn't start until 2013... again, coincidence I'm sure.

[jdm61]

Yes. The 10% bracket will becomes the old 15% bracket and the exemptions and decuctions will go back to their lower levels. The good news is that a fair number of the 47% of the American taxpayers who had zero of nagtvie tax liability last year will be paying taxes next year if the cuts expire. Obama's version of "shared sacrifice" apparently means those folks will continue to not pay anything while those in the upper percentile will pay more.

Currently the "Bush tax cuts" are set to expire for EVERYONE. The real taxes for obamacare are not scheduled to go into effect until after the next election. Just a coincidence I'm sure...

[BG42EDGE]

Obama's version of "shared sacrifice" apparently means those folks will continue to not pay anything while those in the upper percentile will pay more.

Ah, now you are beginning to understand fairness.

The rich are actually paying off loans that have been given to them by the poor.

[Triton]

Ah, now you are beginning to understand fairness.

The rich are actually paying off loans that have been given to them by the poor.

Your definition of "fair" and the rest of the world's seem to be a bit different. Most of us think that it's "fair" to allow those that earned the money to keep it not redistribute it to those that didn't earn it.

Please explain to us how the poor "loaned" the wealthy anything.

[BG42EDGE]

The poor lived in poverty while the wealthy sucked wealth off their labor and built huge fortunes.

Payback is fair.

The world understands that, even if you refuse to see it.

[timcsaw]

Your definition of "fair" and the rest of the world's seem to be a bit different. Most of us think that it's "fair" to allow those that earned the money to keep it not redistribute it to those that didn't earn it.

Please explain to us how the poor "loaned" the wealthy anything.

I believe that Rosie O'Donnell thinks that "fair" is to tax all the "rich people" who make OVER 1.3 million (Rosie makes 1.2 million I believe)... Same "logic" we see here in this thread.

[timcsaw]

The poor lived in poverty while the wealthy sucked wealth off their labor and built huge fortunes.

Payback is fair.

The world understands that, even if you refuse to see it.

And the wealthy provide thousand of jobs so that the "poor" could have at least 2 TV's, a video game system, a car, food, and Air Conditioning etc.

[BG42EDGE]

Yeah, all on credit while the banks keep them enslaved to obscene interest charges and they work three minimum wage jobs until they drop dead.

[Triton]

The poor lived in poverty while the wealthy sucked wealth off their labor and built huge fortunes.

Payback is fair.

The world understands that, even if you refuse to see it.

I believe that you have a basic ignorance of who the wealthy are and how they got that way. Who do you think the wealthy are and how did they get that way? What did they do to "suck wealth off of labor and make huge fortunes."

It is interesting that you like the obama start talking about "payback." I believe that this is really the root of what you want. You dress it up and call it "fairness" but in the end it is just bitterness and envy. You see people that have something you don't and rather than trying to work to get it you would rather try to tear other people down.

[Triton]

Yeah, all on credit while the banks keep them enslaved to obscene interest charges and they work three minimum wage jobs until they drop dead.

I too have often found it disturbing how banks force people to sign up for and use credit cards. Those poor poor people. If only they had some choice in the matter.

[BG42EDGE]

All that proves is people can be enticed.......we knew that.

[skyhorse]

Ah, now you are beginning to understand fairness.

The rich are actually paying off loans that have been given to them by the poor.

Are you referring to all the POE folks that pay no income tax and get a huge earned income check from the IRS every year?Or could it be all those POE folks that can get free grant money from the taxpayers to go to college and better they're lives?

[BG42EDGE]

Are you referring to all the POE folks that pay no income tax and get a huge earned income check from the IRS every year?Or could it be all those POE folks that can get free grant money from the taxpayers to go to college and better they're lives?

Oh......is our hate for the "POE" showing a bit?

Mythology aside, the poor have suffered enough......(that is why they're called "poor" right?) Let the rich pay their fair share for a change.