Interesting... It seems the rest of the world doesn't like the Pubs. Which kind of makes me like them a bit more, lol (The pubs that is).
World watches US election and speculates on impact http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101103/ap_on_re_eu/us_elections_world_view
"Despite pledges to curb government spending and the huge U.S. budget deficit, Republicans are expected to address anxiety over unemployment and flagging growth by pushing hardest for an extension of the income tax cuts for everyone, including the rich that were passed during the presidency of George W. Bush — a move that would add to the deficit and, by extension, further weaken the U.S. dollar." Extending the tax cuts for everyone doesn't add the to the deficit. It doesn't cut it, but it doesn't add to it either. Republicans say they're going to cut spending by $100B, which actually would reduce the deficit.
Of course it does when talking about alternatives. Extending across the boards is the most expensive. Extending for all but the rich is less expensive. Not extending any cuts is cheapest (and probably not all that smart) for the country.
That's beer money. We need to seriously transform our economy to get outta this. Innovation will be the only savior to America.
It's a two-pronged process. We have a spending problem AND a revenue issue. The spending problem has to be address through entitlements. There has to be a group of people willing to lose their seats to make my generation work later in life and to receive fewer benefits once I retire. The second problem is to get the government out of the way and to let private enterprise innovate and produce. That means reforming how we gather taxes (get rid of any tax that results in double taxation) and have the government do fewer things. I think we have to get closer to the edge of the financial cliff or even fall off before we make the necessary changes.
No it doesn't. If the budget is $X before the tax cuts expire and they renew the tax cuts, the budget will still be $X. Not $X minus something. There's no inherit addition to the existing deficit by extending the tax cuts as they are. As maxiep points out, if you raise taxes, you theoretically raise revenues and that would mean a smaller deficit. Though the government would have to bump taxes by 75% on everyone, raise fees by 75%, FICA taxes by 75%, etc., to balance the budget through tax hikes alone.