[alnick]

As we stated here, tax cuts for the rich are only 3% of the deficit this year.

I get what you're saying, but they're not even that. They are ZERO percent of the deficit.

Number one, they're not "tax cuts." It's status quo. What the 'rats were proposing was a tax HIKE.

Using the democrats' logic, we could cut the deficit quite a bit by having the government confiscate 100 percent of all of our incomes.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

As we stated here, tax cuts for the rich are only 3% of the deficit this year.

they're not "tax cuts." It's status quo. What the 'rats were proposing was a tax HIKE.

No, of course they're not tax cuts at this point but a battle over the status quo. I considered putting scare quotes around "tax cuts" in that statement, but I was quoting the original article, and the original article did not have scare quotes around that expression.

The fact that the "Bush tax cuts" are the status quo, and all this deal does is maintain the status quo tax rates, implies to me that nothing in this would be expected to improve the economy. It only prevents destruction from being automatically increased.