There are only 17 days left until the Bush Tax Cuts expire and are gone forever. Your thoughts? If so, why?

[sgt ryker usa]

good

[Progress]

Republicans aren’t worried. Boehner has had the House work only four days in the past two weeks. To them a “week” means coming in on Tuesday and leaving on Thursday. What the hell?

Pelosi ran the most productive House in our history. Boehner takes it over, reduces the House schedule, and turns it into the LEAST productive in our history.

[Pat]

It is about time .

[Chloe]

Good riddance. Its long overdo. I am quite vocal about the Bush/CHENEY/Rove tax cuts because I believe they were the height of fiscal irresponsibility. Bush/CHENEY/Rove insidiously altered the tax structure of the United States as they started a war based on lies and at a time when Social Security needed repair. I usually post the 60 Minutes interview with Paul O'Neill, Treasury Secretary, under Bush/CHENEY, who was fired by CHENEY for disagreeing with him regarding the tax cuts. O'Neill agreed to be interviewed 'on the record' by Ron Suskind who wrote the book, 'The Price of Loyalty' which is a look into how the Bush/CHENEY administration did business. O'Neill, Suskind tells us, was warned by Donald Rumsfeld not to do the interview for the book. He did it anyway, because, as O'Neill puts it, "I believe there is still a market for the truth." The interview is short and worth watching. Its chilling.

[Mujer Alta]

I'm sick of the Republicans telling us one thing and then doing something else. Back when the tax cuts were passed (2001 and 2003), the government was running a surplus and the GOP's theme was "deficit neutrality". Every bill would be vetted on its effect on the deficit and those not meeting the standard wouldn't be passed. "Poison pills" were written into the tax cut bills and we were assured that, if the tax cuts effected the deficit, the bills would be allowed to sunset. The date for them to pass into history was December, 2010. Now, the Republicans act like their lives depend on these old bills' continued existence even though fiscal and financial circumstances are a lot different than when the bills where written.

These bills should be allowed to die and new tax legislation that reflects today's realities should be introduced in Congress. Specifically, the Republican-controlled House needs to can its drama queen act and get busy doing the people's work, the work they are paid very well to do.

[Noah]

There were tax cuts that never should have been made. Added to that the Bush Junta started two wars with no war tax. To cover the bills we had to 'borrow'. Then came the Great Bank Heist and all the rest of it. Now, we're still at war, the interest on the cash we borrowed is a major factor and we're still borrowing money to keep our 800 billion borrowed dollar a year military in bullets and beans. Then there's the 'black budget' for 'security' plus the ten billion borrowed dollars for all of the 'Homeland Security' expenditures.

There's a dozen different reasons for the current stake in the heart of the world economy in general and the US economy in particular.....there's plenty of blame to go around. But 'blame' at this time isn't the point. The point right now is to stop borrowing and start taxing. In the end the amount of taxes we need NOW is about the amount of taxes we should have collected from 2000 until right this minute. There's no 'free lunch', folks. We're going to have stop telling ourselves that we're the 'richest country on earth' and start dealing with reality.

Conclusion: Taxes have to go up and probably higher than Barack has suggested. Spending on the military has to take a back seat to our domestic problems such as our failing social and physical infrastructure. A robust Jobs Bill to get working on both the deficit in our social situation and our physical infrastructure is our problem right now. The banks are flush with cash. Contractors are ready to hire...all they need is a government contract in hand. A few million Americans are ready to go to work tomorrow morning. The hold up? At this point it's the GOP/Tea/Fox/Jesus freak party dead enders. We can do this....let's get 'er done!

[El Tecolote]

It's going to take the expiration of those tax cuts for people to understand their significance. And when they find out how much it's going to cost the middle class and working poor, they're going to blame Republicans for their tax bills. It's coming. Just watch.