President Obama, please stop lying. There are no “tax cuts for the wealthy” on the table. The Bush tax rates are what the taxpayers pay and have been paying for 10 years. Keeping the rates the same does not equate to a tax cut. And changing the rates to the Clinton-era rates is, in fact, a tax increase.
These current tax margins have been built into the economic market for a decade. Our economy – for better or for worse – has operated on that particular set of data. Increasing of the rates would have the effect on the marketplace and in the business world of immediately reducing the value (by reducing the after-tax cash flow) of all existing investments, and, by reducing the expected return of prospective investments, will eliminate many of them (and the jobs that would have gone with them).
To talk about “restoring the old Clinton-era rates” is ludicrous for several reasons: 1) the Clinton-era economy was stronger than our current one; 2) the Clinton rates did not have the burdens of taxation introduced by legislation since then; 3) state and local tax rates are significantly higher (and states have much higher debt levels which portend even greater increases); 4) the enormously increased burden of Obama (and some Bush) era regulations exists, which have the same effect of still further tax increases, and 5) we now have to contend with Obamacare and all the staggering taxes associated with it.
Additionally, spending during the Clinton-era was much lower than now. Currently, Obama is spending 24% of the GDP, compared to 18% with Clinton. It was Clinton who specifically declared “the era of big government is over”; he aimed to reduce the spending in order to substantially reduce the size of government. Not so with Obama. Really, how in the world does Obama have the chutzpah to compare himself to Clinton when talking taxes?
Referring to a continuation of the same law is not a “tax cut”. Just because the liberals have not accepted it doesn’t mean it’s not the law. Increasing tax rates on any segment of taxpayers, especially the segment responsible for nearly all job creation, is irresponsible.