Let the Bush tax rate expire, Where did all the money go that was borrowed!Bring mortgage rates down to 4.5% and let people stay in their homes.Pay livable wages so people can pay and help TAX down the debt.Impose import tax to help pay down debt.Under Clinton Petroleum was $1.12 a gallon, Under Bush it was $4.62 a gallon and no one in the middle class had any wage increase, Then came the mortgage interest increase.People had to choose,High gas rate to drive to work, Or high balloon mortgage rates.There is no reason why the top 2% can not pay their fair share.President Eisenhauer had no problem with the increase..We will not survive without Middle Class..Tell Kissinger and his Bildeburg Group to share their wealth.HubCamel.

Let the tax cuts expire and increase import tax to help pay down the debt, and pay livable wage for workers who then can pay more tax to bring down the debt..Has any one ever thought about,,WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY! We borrowed, Government needs to be audited,Bush said he was keeping a eye on the money for CATRINA.Well where is it, In the Bush Stadium..Who was the CEO’s in charge of the open-ended contracts,to re-build IRAQ..Let Bush tax cuts expire, then review the tax structure.Re-set Morgage Rates to 5% and throw out all the contaminated morgages, let people stay in their homes for fixed reasonable rates.No wage increase for workers under Bush..While Petroleum rates went from $1.12 under Clinton to $4.62 under Bush. Then the Mortgage interest went up with no increase in wages..

When is Congress going to extend unemployment for the 99′ers ? I’m all out of unemployment up here in Connecticut !!

Give Wall Street a few trillion but you can’t give Ol Viktor a few hundred each week so he can eat ?

I use to help people out – even when I was getting unemployment ! But if Congress doesn’t pass an extension (a tier 5,6,7 and 8) I’m going to become one mean Scrooge !

Ok TEA PARTY ! Let’s start with you guys first. Hey Mr. Ron Paul, your making over 178,000/yr – how about cutting your pay down by 30% ? And you too Mr. Rand Paul ! Because 30% of Americans are unemployed ! How about all you Tea Party Congress people take a 30% cut in your pay !

That’s a good compromise – cut Congress and the Presidents pay by 30 % then you don’t have to extend unemployment ….

The politics behind the tax bill thing shows the sheer short sightedness of the politicians.

Yes, it would be nice to get this straightened out. BUT … it is not the critical things we need done and neither side is working on those except as a by-product. The GOP wants it passed to show they support the people (a political gesture) while the Dems whan it stripped of the protection for the rich to show their supporters (a political gesture). The real thing we want is to cut expenses enough that we can cut the taxes because they will no longer be needed. But neither party wants to face doing that. They simply want the political gesture.

The Tea Party is gaining membership and strength by the day thanks to the idiots still making these unbelievable “in your face” decisions” concerning your taxes, tax monies and future. Again, it’s as if they did not care to hear what statement was made by this last election but they will and the lesson is going to be harsh and punative, we the voters and taxpayers are just fed up with these elite, arrogant numbskulls. They want to take from you and keep whatever they have voted for themselves, they want to live above the laws they write for you, they want to live on in style even when the reasons for which they were cast from office had to do with abuse of office and breaking the law, they do not want to take responsibility for their acts. This to me indicates they are no better than criminals and have no right to abuse you, the taxpayer, the one who follows law and believes in justice for all. Remove these kinds of people from office and punish them for crimes they have commited while holding office, the need for integrity of elected officials is paramount.

I find it remarkable that all the attention is about extending the so-called Bush tax cuts but that the “HI-Tax” is being ignored almost universally.

In my profession I have dealt with well over a dozen suicides over the past 26 months or so, all of them involving loss of jobs and/or small businesses, “deadbeat” (because of the recession)
FICO scores, personal and/or small business bankruptcies, loss of homes and resulting divorces and separations, etc. Nobody even discusses the implications of the “HI-Tax” but I suspect the reason for that fact is that it has been already enacted and cannot be rescinded in any manner. The mind-set seems to be “If we ignore it, maybe it will go away.”

I personally prefer a particular brand of Colby-Jack cheeze, and paid a month ago around $3.60 for a package of same that contained 18 slices….last week, I paid the same price for another package of the same brand and type off cheese, but it only contained 11 slices, a 38.88% drop in quantity of the product purchased at the former 18 slices of product. That is the direct result of the “HI-Tax” and that rate of “taxation” is consistent with an ever-growing number of consumer products and services.

Okay, I’ll tell you…just so you can look it up yourself…”HI-Tax” is “Hyper-Inflation ‘tax’” that reduces quantity and usually also quality without changing the package price itself…at least until the package is made smaller and the price on the package goes up at the same time.

Between our government, the banking cartels and Wall Street all those of us who are trying to live on Main Street are suffering and will continue to suffer until our US greenbacks are no longer an international measure of value or worth. I figure China will wind up as the controller of all the world currency in the fairly near future…and we Americans on Main Street will all have to learn to “bite the bullet” and learn to live at a considerably-lower standard of living.

I close with this question: What would you do next Monday if the Federal Reserve declared bankruptcy and all the “fiat money” you own in paper, via computer and in your pockets became worthless? What would you use for money if the greenback failed?

At least food for thought, is it not?

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas Avery Blair, EA

We have to extend the tax cuts for the wealthy in order to maintain this upsurge in job growth we have been experiencing for the last twelve years.This trickle down economics is fantastic.No lines at the employment offices and no food stamps seen lately.Oh my do you mean they have direct deposit of unemployment checks and are given credit cards instead of food stamps?Drat foiled again,well our grandchildren can work two or three jobs in order to pay the 700 billion tax break for the millionaires who may need the money for a new home in Europe or in the Carribean.

An interesting letter to the editor from today’s Las Vegas Review-Journal:
” A note to our progressive friends. There is a good reason President Obama did not eliminate tax breaks for “the rich”. He came to the realization that in two years he is going to be a very wealthy ex-president, and taxes on those speaking fees are a killer. Ahhh, altruistic dreams die painfully.”

The Democrats and Republicans have their favorite pork so nothing will change unless the hidden agendas are written into law so that they will not be allowed. In the latest bill we all benefit from the cut of 2% in payroll tax. Yet in order to do that they have to borrow $14 billion from the Social Security fund. That alone should defeat this bill unless you want to rob Peter to pay Paul.

Why do we allow government bills to be written in a way that equates to, for each step forward, we must take three steps backwards?
All that should be on the table is, do we keep the tax rates as they are or do we change them? Each compromise contained in the bill should be a separate question voted on based upon the individual merit upon which it is based.
Why not produce a poll for Americans listing each item contained in each bill to be voted on and see what the Voters think of the individual compromises their representatives accept in their name in order to pass these bills.

Then there’s Ms Bachman:

Conservative Tea Party Darling, Michelle Bachman, (R) Minnesota is known as a champion of spending cuts. However, true to the conservative bait and switch style of politics, she increased the costs of her staff by more than 25% in 2009. Who pays for this? That’s right – we do. It isn’t her first trip into the conservative territory of fiscal hypocrisy.
While she is disgusted by all that big government and wasteful spending, she apparently wasn’t disgusted enough to turn down the quarter of a million dollars in federal subsidies for her very own family farm
Bachman, who was said to be an embarrassment by a majority of her constituents has linked swine flu to Democrats, claimed she refused to fully complete the US Census, and has said that there is not one study that shows carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.
Her hipocrisy is only rivaled by her idiocy and quest for attention.

How about we let the Bush tax cuts lapse. They obviously didn’t work.
Then let’s sit down and take a good hard look at the tax laws, and strip off all of the fat and loop holes.
The whole system is a disgrace.
Unemployment comp. has nothing to do with taxes and should be treated as a separate issue.
What’s being voted on is a “free money for everybody” bill which is all on the credit card. Let’s let our kids and grandkids pick up the tab.
It’s party time!

Our President vowed not to support PORK! What they say and what they do are two different things. Once they have obtained office anything they may have promised during their election campaign may or may not be upheld. I believe their actions after they have won office is what really determines their worth as a leader of this country. Unfortunately what can you do about it if they turn out to be nothing by liars once in? Our government landscape is rough terrain, we need a huge steam roller to flatten it out again.

The president and the republican leadership compromised to get this deal. No one likes it. Unfortunately the politicians did not really totally accept it and many continued to politic to advance their partisan positions. It seemed that votes still needed to be bought and various extraneous additions were added to the compromise to obtain vote of specific legislatiors. If that is necessary to obtain votes to pass controversial legislation, like Obomacare, we will never get our budget under control. Costs will always go up. The deficit will always increase. Does anyone in Washington care? I hope the tea party can help change priorities in Washington and help change the culture to eliminate the partisan games that are played to obtain votes.

this is going to be another “health care” abomination with pork and bribes, etc. the Republicans should vote against it and then rewrite it in January when they take over. In this 2010 election they vowed not to support PORK!

I agree with J.M.R. All bills should be short and sweet, no bull in them, passing the Bush extensions should be just that, don’t add you will fund Gov. Until Sept. which includes Obama care. Yes the Bush extensions should take place on their own merit. And yes for all it is the ones that maybe make over 250,000 dollars that are the employers of this nation. It will only increase revenue for Gov. because more people will be working, and they should be permanently extended, with no earmarks, or if this than that.

Unless everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY takes part in making the recovery happen, it will drag on. Businesses are not hiring because of unclear regulations from the government. In a recession prices and income should come down, but they are not. Unemployment benefits are giving people reason to NOT take employment at an otherwise lower income level. Something has to give. And the left wing doesn’t want to make a deal because it “doesn’t help the deficite.” Here’s something for them to try… STOP SPENDING. Cut pork entitlements and spend within the budget of the lower income. That’s what households have to do.

The more the deficite is financed with borrowing, the more interest that has to be paid. Cut wasteful spending, reduce the borrowing, stop giving people reasons to turn down jobs, holding out for ones with wages the economy can’t support and reduce regulations that make business less profitable. Simply get government regulation out of our lives and let people be productive. We are regulated out of work.

every bill should be passed on its own merit no add ons, not you kiss mine i’ll kiss yours later so it will pass.

Both sides need to swallow their pride and just pass the damn thing. Give and get is the nature of compromise, and if we can’t have that in our governing body, then we will never have legislation that comes close to reflecting the will of America.

Instead of each side focusing on what they can be happy about, they both look at what’s not attractive to them and demand that it be changed. They are not legislators, they are children in a school yard.