Tea Party Types and GOP: Explain this to me

Wake up Obama and Dems. Why are u afraid to break this down to your fellow Americans???

Well said. But the the Republicants have the frigging forty votes to stifle any meaningful bills. Unless two or three gutless Reps. decide to grow a conscience in the next few days, nothing good is going to happen.

Oh this is just typical liberal dribble. Tax cuts create jobs so those people won't need the unemployment benefits. They can just use their savings or borrow against their homes until the trickle down hits them.

Extention of the unemplyment benefit will help the economy because this group will actually BUY things. A tax break for the super wealthy does not create jobs, except perhaps yacht building jobs--and even they are predominately providing jobs to foreign boatbuilders. Overall, I think this quote sums it up nicely...

"If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end - people like myself - should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it".
Warren Buffett

Thing is- my point is not about taxes. If it was up to me the tax cuts would expire for all of us. My point is that the GOP is deliberately allowing 2 million Americans suffer and for political reasons and using faulty logic to justify it.

And the dems are afraid to point it out in simplistic terms because they lost the last election...

Thing is- my point is not about taxes. If it was up to me the tax cuts would expire for all of us. My point is that the GOP is deliberately allowing 2 million Americans suffer and for political reasons and using faulty logic to justify it.

Yep, they always do their shadiest work right after a landslide. The average voter won't remember this come 2012 and that's what the GOP is hoping for.

Notice the usual suspects are commenting, of course they probably are deluded enough to think those tax cuts benefit them.

If the tax cuts are not extended then everyone will suffer. A family making 80,000 per year (certainly not rich) will pay an extra 200 dollars every bi-weekly pay period in new taxes. 400 dollars a month less in take home pay is a pretty big hit for most families.

The unemployment is raising spending. Spending more money we do not have, The tax cuts are not raising spending. This is our money that they are trying to seize, not spending money we do not have. The government takes in over 2.5 TRILLION dollars this year with the tax cuts in place. That should be plenty of money to operate the government.

I am glad that the Republicans finally have stood up for themselves and stopped being bullied by the Harry Reids of the world. I think they could find compromise by extending the cuts for everyone below 1 million per year. But they had to get their attention first and show them that they have to deal with the Republicans. After all, to quote the president, " We won."

If the tax cuts are not extended then everyone will suffer. A family making 80,000 per year (certainly not rich) will pay an extra 200 dollars every bi-weekly pay period in new taxes. 400 dollars a month less in take home pay is a pretty big hit for most families.

The unemployment is raising spending. Spending more money we do not have, The tax cuts are not raising spending. This is our money that they are trying to seize, not spending money we do not have. The government takes in over 2.5 TRILLION dollars this year with the tax cuts in place. That should be plenty of money to operate the government.

I am glad that the Republicans finally have stood up for themselves and stopped being bullied by the Harry Reids of the world. I think they could find compromise by extending the cuts for everyone below 1 million per year. But they had to get their attention first and show them that they have to deal with the Republicans. After all, to quote the president, " We won."

Okay, so what is the GOP going to cut to make up for the 700 million loss, and why do we have to drag the GOP's deficit reduction plan out of them bit by bit?

A) Republicans will not agree to $18B for an extension to unemployment benefits because it isn't paid for/will add to the deficit.

B) Republicans are blocking all legislation unless Dems agree to an extension of Bush tax cuts for the rich which amounts to $700B (which wouldn't be paid for/would add to the deficit).

$18B added to the deficit to help people meet their basic needs is problematic but $700B added to the deficit to help the nation's wealthiest get a few extra percentage points on their financial statement isn't problematic?

Tea Party and GOP:
are u fricking serious?

Wake up America.

You're massaging statistics. The 700 billion number is an estimate based on total cost over ten years, the 18 billion number is for a year. I don't know about the accuracy of the unemployment figure, but the 700B figure is likely over estimated and more likely to be around 20-30 billion per year.

Another interesting data point, extending the Bush tax cuts for the lower and middle classes (hey wait, what? Bush gave tax cuts to the poor and middle class? really? But I thought... the democrats said, oh never mind...) would likely cost around 160 billion a year. (160 / 18 = 8.8? woah!)

So you know, whatever. I think the dems and reps should try to balance it out. Short term unemployment payments, extending the tax cuts, which ever. We could also fund this spending by trimming a couple hundred billion from the defense budget, or killing a couple boondoggles like the department of education. One thing we know for sure, all of these expenditures will help the economic recovery in some way or another, cutting any may hurt. So take your pick.

Which course of action would you take?

99 weeks of unemployment benefits adding to the deficit is taking us in the wrong direction. We are becoming a floundering EU from debt.

Tax cuts is going to get our economy back on track not handouts to the poor. Obamas stimulus was the biggest waste in our nations history. Step aside and let us fix the problem.

99 weeks of unemployment benefits adding to the deficit is taking us in the wrong direction. We are becoming a floundering EU from debt.

Tax cuts is going to get our economy back on track not handouts to the poor. Obamas stimulus was the biggest waste in our nations history. Step aside and let us fix the problem.

So 700 billion of stimulus spending bad.

700 billion of people possibly spending good.

You keep insisting that if people get tax cuts they'll spend the money, but you forget that they might also do something crazy like save it or use it to pay down credit cards.

So 700 billion of stimulus spending bad.

700 billion of people possibly spending good.

You keep insisting that if people get tax cuts they'll spend the money, but you forget that they might also do something crazy like save it or use it to pay down credit cards.

Saving and paying down personal debt are good things for the long-term. There is a huge difference between spending 700 billion in one year and not taking 700 billion from the taxpayers over a 10 year period.

Thanks for showing up
to discuss.

It seems I messed up by saying $700B because as a few of you stated- that is not the cost of the tax cuts for a year. I apologize for not comparing apples to apples.

Pls come clean on your own inaccurate date. Idlewind, you said letting tax cuts expire would cost a family making 80K about $400 per month. The data I am seeing from the CBO says letting them expire would cost households making less than 200k an average of $1100 for a whole year.

Annual cost of all Bush tax cuts if extended for 2011
is $238B.

AndrewG,

It is unreasonable for
you to insist that extending tax cuts that cost $238B a year will fix the economy. I can prove this to you. How?Take a look at what the economy did during the years of the same tax cuts you want to extend. Now take a look at the economy during the mid to late nineties when taxes were higher.

Thanks for showing up
to discuss.

It seems I messed up by saying $700B because as a few of you stated- that is not the cost of the tax cuts for a year. I apologize for not comparing apples to apples.

Pls come clean on your own inaccurate date. Idlewind, you said letting tax cuts expire would cost a family making 80K about $400 per month. The data I am seeing from the CBO says letting them expire would cost households making less than 200k an average of $1100 for a whole year.

Annual cost of all Bush tax cuts if extended for 2011
is $238B.

Where did you find that Geo? I've been looking for annual break downs but haven't found anything "official".

So 700 billion of stimulus spending bad.

700 billion of people possibly spending good.

You keep insisting that if people get tax cuts they'll spend the money, but you forget that they might also do something crazy like save it or use it to pay down credit cards.

Bowles-Simpson not only extends the Bush cuts, it adds a payroll tax holidy in 2011. And it still manages to bring the debt as a percentage of GDP way down over the long term. I say we adopt the plan.

Here you go, friend.

GOP plan to extend tax cuts for rich adds $36 billion to deficit, panel finds

Here you go, friend.

GOP plan to extend tax cuts for rich adds $36 billion to deficit, panel finds

Wow, so my figures on the low and middle income cuts were off, I had 30-50 billion per year on the upper income cuts and 160 billion on the other cuts.

So dems want extensions that add $202 billion.
Reps want extensions that add $238 billion.

Which just drives the point home the differences between the two parties are pretty minor overall - they both want to act fiscally irresponsible. 😀