Today, we have seen positive statements about the potential of the deal being reached, without the details about exactly what that deal would involve.
But reading between the lines, I think that a potential deal may be increasing the tax rate for those making over $250,000 to something less than the 39.6% rate we had under President Bill Clinton. An article in The Los Angeles Times states:
A shift can be heard in the rhetoric, as Republicans now say they are willing to consider increases in tax revenue, and Obama has softened his insistence that top income tax rates, now at 35%, must rise to 39.6%, the rate from the Clinton era.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fiscal-cliff-20121117,0,19628.story
So I suspect that the deal that will be presented to us will be the Republicans agreeing to raise the top tax rate to some number in between 35% and 39.6% in exchange for an agreement that this top tax rate be made permanent.
And we need to get the word out that if this is where they are headed that it is unacceptable.
This country cannot afford any extension of the Bush tax cuts. Because of these tax cuts, we have record deficits, and are facing cuts in social security, medicare, and programs affecting the social safety net. And despite the republican rhetoric, these tax cuts did not create a single job. In fact, they may have cost us jobs since they decreased the amount of money the government had for stimulus.
The Bush tax cuts need to expire in their entirety the end of the year. Period. No compromise on rates, timing, or income levels.
An increase in the top tax rate to something less than 39.6% will only add to the deficit and the national debt, and will result in cuts to social programs that could be avoided with the extra revenue generated by the full expiration of the Bush tax cuts.
The democrats are in the driver's seat here. They can sit back and do nothing and let the Bush cuts expire in their entirely. And then they can pass the extension of the middle class tax cut in January and dare the republicans to vote against it.
I simply do not get why democrats appear ready to repeat the mistake of giving into republican demands that the Bush tax cuts be continued.
We need to make sure that this does not happen by strongly and repeatedly stating in every forum possible that anything less than the full expiration of the Bush tax cuts is not acceptable.