"You want lower budget deficits? End the wars. Let the Bush tax cuts expire, or end them now"
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of tax policy. Tax receipts went up[ after the tax cuts - it can be
Googled.
2000
2,025,457
2001
1,991,426
2002
1,853,395
2003
1,782,532
2004
1,880,279
2005
2,153,859
2006
2,407,254
2007
2,568,239
2008
2,524,326
The Tax relief act was signed in 2003. If there is any causal relationship between tax cuts and tax receipts, it is reverse of what is claimed...the cuts actually increase revenue.
Art Laffer has a famous graph, the Laffer curve. It shows that tax revenue would be $0 at a 0% rate...fairly obvious. It also shows $0 at a 100% rate. Again obvious - who would work for nothing. Somewhere in the middle is the 'sweet spot' where revenue is highest. Were taxes too high or too low before the Bush cuts? Well, seeing as revenue went up after they were cut, it seems logical that they were on the high side of the curve. It also seems logical to expect revenue to fall if the tax cuts expire.
When I oppose higher taxes, its not because it affects me. I'm small fry...I'm not in the top rate. But it quite simply will reduce receipts to the treasury, and generally slow economic activity (which equals opportunity for class mobility).
And of all the things I disagree with this president about, his reflexive disdain for big business and personal wealth bugs me the most. He will let the cuts expire (and so will congress), and we will be told our taxes haven't gone up. Well, I plan to change my w-4 to plan for it, so I don't pay an underpayment penalty...so it will sure seem like my taxes have gone up.
As much as I hate the debt we are accumulating, I was actually for the stimulus package. We could grow our way out of our debt. Unfortunately, it is being spent on temporary positions in police departments, instead of hard infrastructure like was done in the 30's...for the most part, so I am disappointed with it. But ask the question: what is the difference between the stimulus and lowering taxes? Not mmuch really. Both are designed to put more money into the economy....just in a different way...so why are we suddenly so averse to keeping the tax cuts? Especially when it appears letting them expire will decrease revenue.