The 2010 sunset provision was included in the original legislation simply to allow members of Congress to cover their @sses and institute a massive tax hike without having to vote on it.
My theory is that the severe economic contraction was the inevitable -- and well-planned -- result of idiotic fiscal policy under which the U.S. government implements massive new domestic spending programs while at the same time spending hundreds of billions of dollars on major military campaigns overseas.
What you're seeing now is no different than the last time this idiocy took place (LBJ's combination of the "Great Society" and the Vietnam War).
Nope.
They were intended to be renewed ... by a Republican Congress.
The idea was that they could get re-elected by promising tax cuts for the next few years. The other ploy was that they had some pay-go rules (since ignored) so a temporary tax cut was ‘cheaper’ than permanent one - even though the cap gains tax cut paid for itself!
Obviously, the political ploy backfired and we now have an economic mess because the Democrats hate tax cuts.
Nobody plans a bad economy deliberately.
But liberalism and socialism create it because they have a grudge against the wealth-creators. I like Rush’s term - their “War on Prosperity”. That’s what it is.