Mr. Politico

Some people might be extremely interested in this where others probably don't care.  Either way I find it a compelling topic to speak on, as it is currently dominating the airways.

Bush Tax increases being extended.

People on the Far Left feel the President collapsed under the pressure to try and compromise with the Republican party.  People on the Far Right feel as though the Republicans gave into much in order to pass their agenda.

Moderates on both sides feel that someone is getting left out in the cold...

Personally, I say that the cuts are necessary.  Granted though I don't believe the Government should be taxing our incomes, I, as every politician would say, have a better idea.  But more on that later.

Right now there is basically an agreement that Congress will extend the Bush tax cuts to all classes for a few more years.  What that means is (depending on who you speak with) is either (A) Billions of dollars added to our national debt and the richest 1% will continue to be extremely wealthy and not share their money with the rest of us.  Or (B) we are extending the cuts to everyone and hoping it will help keep our economy in an upward motion.

In scenario (A) the Democrat party will try to make sure everyone knows that the top earners in the US will continue on this trend of making just an exuberant amount of money.  Because they are making this money they need to obviously be taxed more and give that money to the government where Congress (who always knows better) can use that to help fund other projects and programs.  It truly is the Robin Hood type story.  Steal from the rich and give to the poor.  There is nothing wrong with the idea of taxing people who make more money a larger percent.  Theory being that because they make such a large salary per year they can afford to pay 40-65% of it to Uncle Sam.  The Democrats are not wrong when they say that this will add billions of dollars to the deficit.  What they conveniently forget to add is that the billions being added are because we are not trimming our spending levels.  The Government runs on a neutral budget.  It is not a for-profit entity that should be ran like a business.  Nor though should it be ran like a non-for-profit entity and be scraping by every year on what we the people give.

So in order to have the tax cuts then that means that we need to cut back in other areas as well.  Which are what the Republicans and the Tea Party representatives have been voicing... however, they have yet to say what they want to cut back on...

In scenario (B) the Republican party rightfully goes on the offense saying that without extending the tax cuts further then every salary bracket will see a dramatic increase in taxes.  That would be a major downturn for everyone, as more of their paycheck goes to Uncle Sam.  That will cause the economy to slow down more due to less money being available for people to buy that must have widget of the season.

However, when a whole group holds up an almost an entire session of Congress to make sure everyone gets the same extension that is counter-productive.  But there is a reason for it.  Most of the Democrats don't mention it and unfortunately the Republicans don't really either.

THERE ARE FAR MORE PEOPLE THAT MAKE MORE THAN $250,000 THEN THOSE WHO FALL IN THE UBER RICH CATEGORY.

Let me explain.  The Democrats make sure that they say the extended tax cuts will help the mega rich stay that way.  The Republicans say it is for the good of the people.  Yet most avoid (almost like the plague) talking about that the extended tax cuts for those who make more than $250,000 are impacting business owners and more of a general populace then those who make the ridiculous money (IE the top hedge fund managers... 25 Billion split between 24 people... that is mega money).

Because there is this large group who are actual productive people in society no one wants to say they are uber wealthy, nor are they really "middle" class any more.  They are the fine group of "upper middle class".  This is the group that 25 years ago used to make 100K or more a year.  They are the ones who have worked (usually) hard and have paid dues and now get the benefit of their work.  They are the ones who when the tax increase goes up from 36% to 42% on $251,000 are really going to be hurt.

So were the Republicans really aware of this group and wanted to make sure that they were able to stay in a decent tax bracket, or did they just merely want to protect the mega wealthy and these people happened to be in the middle of a larger class war between the Reds and the Blues?

Let us discuss...

~M