[mmtowns]

What do you like about it?

What do you see as the long-term ramifications of this bill?

[King Howie]

I don't like anything about it. They're just pushing the snowball downhill, and the snowball is getting bigger

[rkeenan]

Agreed. No spending cuts means that these taxes increases will be spent. Raising taxes to stimulate the economy is a terrible idea. The government is not a more efficient spender than the private sector. I am rather disgusted with the Republicans on this one. Probably why I am registered as an Indie.

[King Howie]

Cutting taxes stimulates the economy. Economic growth results in increased revenue to the treasury.

We're almost to the point where half of what the government spends comes from borrowing or printing money.

They should have either made the so-called "Bush tax cuts" permanent, or, better yet, lowered them more and we must cut spending.

The idea that we can tax and/or spend our way to prosperity is ludicrous

[mmtowns]

One of the things I've been thinking about in lieu of both the "Bush tax cuts" and President Obama's payroll tax cut /holiday during the past several years (4.2% employee social security contribution vs. 6.2%) is that it seems much easier to cut/reduce than it does increase. Part of the fiscal cliff ordeal is that nearly every American would have seen a tax increase if Congress failed to act in early January 2013. That would have been a newspaper headline "Taxes increase for nearly every American!" When the Bush tax cuts and Obama payroll tax cut/holiday were enacted were they celebrated with similar pomp and circumstance? It's a hypothesis without any strong empirical evidence, but I think it is easier to cut taxes than it is to increase them. Politics at its best.

[irishgirlz]

The arguments are going ahead on Capitol Hill. Republicans stay resistant to increasing taxes, as Democrats continue to covet entitlement spending. But do Americans really pay far too much in taxes? A survey or world rates claims no.