Can you please explain how you believe we can afford to extend ANY of the Bush tax cuts, and how we can afford another 14 months of unemployment insurance payments?

What can we really afford????????????????

who will spend that money which will cause people to be employed at the locations where that money is spent placing fewer people on unemployment which will cause more money spent on transportation which will put more people into jobs for transportation and on it goes.

Give it to the government and they will spend it on grants to the dems groupies. Research in countries we care nothing about and on that goes.

LESS GOVERNMENT AND MORE INITIATIVE.

Extending unemployments allows people to rely on that freebie. The longer it goes the longer they sit on their butts.

Obama's economic adviser Lawrence Summers believes the economy will go back into a recession with if taxes are allowed to increase. Obama is pushing so hard to extend the tax cuts for his reelection bid.

Back into recession? We still have not left the first one.

Technically we have, even though many people's personal financial situation would suggest otherwise.

The official end period of the recession was June of last year. In other words the current stagnant recovery is squarely in Obama's lap.

Despite his campaign rhetoric demanding the repeal of ALL former bush tax cuts, when the reality kicked in during this recession even Lib Obama understood (finally) that increased taxes for even those under 250K meant negative gdp growth. And if it it meant this for those taxpayers below $250k then the same economic princicpal holds even more for the top 1% who already pay some 40% of all income taxes

Obama, the lib community organizer, as president, now has belately learned how economics actually works....

to the plate and correct their ideas as to how to get us out of this economic nightmare. They insist on raising taxes to pay for their wayward spending.

Excuse me, excuse me - who got us in this freaking mess in the first place, even with the Bush tax cuts FULLY IN EFFECT?????????????????????

How simple it is to have convenient amnesia! And aren't the Bush tax cuts in effect now; so how come the jobs have been disappearing?? Are you repugnicans then telling us that there is jobs hoarding going on just waiting to be released on the nation come Jan 1st., once the extensions are in effect?? If true, when did you folks lose your patriotism, you know, all the talk about putting country first?? Or is it that you punks would rather see the country go down than accept the fact that the president is a non-white blue-eyed blonde-haired guy???

"How simple it is to have convenient amnesia!"

Someone disagreeing with you does not mean they have amnesia.

"And aren't the Bush tax cuts in effect now; so how come the jobs have been disappearing??"

Jobs are disappearing because we are/were in a very bad recession. They are certainly not disappearing because of the Bush tax cuts that helped us out of the last recession.

"Are you repugnicans then telling us that there is jobs hoarding going on just waiting to be released on the nation come Jan 1st., once the extensions are in effect??"

It is well documented that many companies, small and large, have shelved growth plans until the tax situation is resolved. Right now nobody knows what the rules of the game are, so they are not playing.

"If true, when did you folks lose your patriotism, you know, all the talk about putting country first??"

Not sure where patriotism comes into play in this. This is about making business decisions with the best possible information available.

"Or is it that you punks would rather see the country go down than accept the fact that the president is a non-white blue-eyed blonde-haired guy???"

Huh??? Did you lose your way a little there??

"Or is it that you punks would rather see the country go down than accept the fact that the president is a non-white blue-eyed blonde-haired guy???"

That's all you will hear for the next 2 years, and there is no rebuttal because there is no truth to the statement...

voted to spend. The sitting Congress is who has gotten us into this mess and as the acting head of the Congress and all those who are in the dem party are responsible. Cut spending and the recession disappears. Stop giving money to those who should get off the lousy butts and go to work. They can find jobs sweeping floors, the Unions already cost them their jobs by not acting accordingly.

STOP SPENDING DEMS!!!!!!!!

...that beleives that as long as you still have checks in your check book, then you must have the money in the bank.

And just how many trillions of dollars in checks has the big O' admin. written to be covered by our children and great grandchildren?

no mas

Great question - so just like in your family, assuming you have one, when there is limited funds you apply it prudently. There IS NO EVIDENCE THAT EXTENDING THE TAX CUTS TO MILLIONAIRES WILL GENERATE JOBS TO PLUG THE UNEMPLOYMENT HOLE. If this were the case we would not have the level of unemployment now, given THE FACT THAT THE TAX CUTS HAVE BEEN IN EFFECT and have not been switched off!!! Accordingly, the middle class would seem to be the priority (acting prudently).

"Accordingly, the middle class would seem to be the priority (acting prudently)."

How is spending $3 trillion on the middle class tax cuts "prudent"?

besides, these are not tax cuts (for the most part, except for e.g. the payroll taxes); they are maintenance of tax rates already in effect

Under that theory we should curtail every government program in place in 2008, because they obviously didn't keep us out of a recession.

"Great question - so just like in your family, assuming you have one, when there is limited funds you apply it prudently."

Except in this case there are no funds. No funds to extend the middle class cuts, no funds to extend the rich folk cuts. That's the whole point. People are insinuating that we can afford the $3 trillion of middle class cuts but cannot afford the $700 billion of upper class cuts, when in reality, by just about any measure, we cannot afford either of them.

Extending the current tax schedule isn't going to "plug the unemployment hole". While it may reduce the unemployment rate on the margin, it won't bring it anywhere close to pre-recession levels.

Rather, the reason to extend the current tax schedule is because if you don't then the resulting tax increase will have a detrimental impact on the economy. At this point, the recovery is fragile, and a tax increase runs the risk of throwing us into a double-dip recession.

While the middle class should be the priority, most reputable economists believe it is bad policy to raise taxes on anyone in the midst of a weak economy.

1. keeping the same take home pay for all workers, including millionaires, allows our fragile recovery to continue rather than shocking it into a possible recession again.

2. Our economic problems is not because we all are taxed not enough but rather we spend too much. Less "phantom" revenue gained thru any tax increase will place more fiscal demands on congress to reduce rate of spending.

3. Bush was certainly an enabler of govt spending growth, but fact is that dem have controlled purse strings for four years now (INCLUDING SEN OBAMA). Not once do I ever recall any dem denouncing any bush budget for spending too much. Actually, it was the reverse. All dems beat up Bush during his last term for not spending enough.

4. The main reason for our recent economic dive was the bursting of the housing mortgage bubble. Thank dems and barney for giving us fannie and freddie when bush presented to them this pending issue and they ignored.