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The Capitol Report: Bush Tax Cuts
Posted: 09.21.2010 at 5:25 PM
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ALBANY --
One of the fiercest policy battles being waged in New York is one that will be decided in Washington. It's the debate over those Bush–era tax cuts.
In this economy, it's difficult to remember when the stock market was making record gains and the country had a fat surplus. But that was life back in 2003 when the Bush tax cuts were passed.
The question facing Congress now is whether to extend those tax cuts. And should they be extended for everyone, or just the middle class. Republicans running for office on the state level are echoing their colleagues in Washington.
Chris Gibson – 20th Congressional Candidate (R) says, " We’re going to continue to advocate to do the right thing. and to do the right thing means to preserve the people’s tax cuts because what we want to do is grow the private sector of the economy, balance the budget by reducing federal spending".
Which sounds good, but that plan will add nearly $4 trillion to the national debt. Advocates for the poor and middle class, rallying in Albany Tuesday, instead demanded that any tax cuts bypass the wealthy
Frank Mauro – Fiscal Policy Institute says, "Extending the 2001 2003 tax cuts would also perpetuate many unfair aspects of the federal tax system. The example that we used in the report is the much lower tax on capital gains and dividends than on wages and salaries people work for. I will tell you there is a bipartisan feeling in Congress that we should not be allowing these tax cuts to sunset. 31 Democrats have sent a note to speaker Pelosi saying now is not the time to raise taxes in the middle of a recession."
The Senate Democrats also have a plan – one that would also continue tax cuts for everyone, but only temporarily. Their plan will cost $2 trillion.
What no one in Washington is talking about is simply letting the tax cuts lapse in January. Which would go a long way toward reaching President Obama's goal of a balanced budget by 2015.