Push this back into Obama’s face. As Mark Levin brilliantly articulated, Propose a middle class tax CUT. Anyone who pays taxes under $250k/year get a cut and all other rates stay the same. Obama will lose the argument that he cares about the middle class. Also stop letting Obama act like he is giving the middle class a tax cut by simply agreeing to allow the rates we’ve been paying for almost a decade to remain! It’s insane that we are playing into his hand and allowing him to frame the argument.
Propose a middle class tax CUT. Anyone who pays taxes under $250k/year get a cut and all other rates stay the same.
If the Reps propose reducing taxes even below those now being paid by the middle class under the Bush tax cuts, how will the additional lost revenue be paid for? And letting the other rates "stay the same" would mean that Congress would have to extend the Bush tax cuts for the "rich." Recognizing that such posturing is just political eyewash and doesn't have a chance of being passed by the Senate or signed by the WH, I don't see the advantage of making such a proposal. It will just play into the Dem narrative that we have a revenue problem, not a spending problem.
We helped Obama frame the argument in the 2010 lame duck session when the GOP agreed to just extending the Bush tax cuts until January 2013 instead of making them permanent. Then, if Obama wins in 2012, as he did, the Dems would have had to take an overt action to get a tax increase on the wealthy. Now it is by default, no action needed. The Dems outsmarted the Stupid Party once again.
Sequestration was also another ploy by Obama to prevent spending cuts. The GOP must now try to defend draconian spending cuts for defense. No doubt the carrot will be increased revenue thru higher taxes. And the entitlement programs will not be cut but kicked down the road increasing our debt and deficit. We are screwed.
Dirty little secret that nobody will acknowledge - unless taxes are raised on ALL income levels, and the base of taxable income is extended LOWER than it now is, there is not, and never will be, any hope of ever raising revenue to even close the gap between spending and cash flow INTO the Treasury.
EVERYBODY should have skin in the game. A flat income tax, starting with Dollar One, same rate all the way to the maximum income step. Alternatively, a consumption tax, like a national sales tax, collected at the point of sale, no exemptions for any goods or services, no deductions.
Or stop spending to fund “Santa Claus” giveaway programs, distributing unearned benefits by government fiat.