The Bush tax cuts debate waged on in Congress on Tuesday with two senators proposing that a limited-time extension be considered. In this scenario, the extension would only last until Congress was able to secure an overhaul of the U.S. tax code or pass policies that would directly address the budget deficit.
Tax Ideas Keep Rolling In
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the current chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) both revealed what they believe would be good approaches to solving the Bush tax cuts issue.
Conrad suggested extending the current tax breaks, but only until a complete tax overhaul is accomplished. He believes changing the tax system is the best long-term solution because it allows lawmakers to create fair rules on how much all tax levels should have to pay.
Bayh suggested something similar, proposing that the cuts be extended for two years, for all current tax levels, to give Congress time to implement policies that would reduce government deficits.
Their ideas are not the first to roll in. Debates over what should be done about the Bush tax cuts have been heated since July when it was acknowledged that they would expire at the end of the year.
Economists have been in favor of extending the taxes to help consumers add more to their bank accounts while have enough left over to fuel the economy. However, President Barack Obama wants to extend the tax cuts only for the middle class.
Time is Running Out
Many ideas have been tossed around about how to handle the tax breaks, but soon something will have to be decided as time is running out. If lawmakers don’t act then the old taxes will be reinstated on Jan. 1, 2011–less than two months away–and this could mean seeing a significant jump in income, capital gains and estate taxes.
It seems lawmakers agree that the bulky tax code needs to be overhauled, but taking on an overhaul of this magnitude with a newly-divided Congress could take years to resolve.
At least some Republican aides on Capitol Hill have expressed cautious interest in the Democratic senators’ ideas, signaling that coming to an agreement may not be as ugly as health care reform was. We can only hope, right?
Public Programs should not be shut-down just to ensure that wealthy homes are given more money. Furthermore tax-breaks on jobs created outside the country need to stop.
BushTax has succeeded is funneling massive amounts of american currency outside the country. This could lead to an increase in the amount of currency printed, thus inflationary cost. The politicians in favor of extending BushTax are obviously thinking with their own wallets and not for their country or the american people. These are shameful politicians and the people that voted them in are a cancer on the U.S. economy.