If it seems unbelievable that Republicans would ignore the deficit and hold extension of the tax breaks for middle income people hostage, try to wrap your head around what Mitt Romney is proposing. Blogger Kevin Drum's analysis can be found here: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/08/mitt-romneys-plan-screw-middle-class Are Republicans thinking that we won't believe they'd increase the tax burden on middle income Americans to off-set the cost of tax breaks for the super-rich?
From the Congressional Research Service, July 18, 2012:
Compared with permanently extending all of the Bush tax cuts (with more than $7,000 billion in total deficits), (the Obama Administration's) proposal is projected to increase tax revenues by $312 billion over five years and by $789 billion over 10 years. The 10-year reduction in estimated debt service is $140 billion. In total, (the Obama Administration's) proposal could reduce budget deficits by $931 billion over 10 years.
The Obama Administration has proposed to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire at the end of 2012 for high-income taxpayers (single taxpayers with income more than $200,000 and married taxpayers with income more than $250,000—the richest 2% of taxpayers) and permanently extend the tax cuts for other taxpayers (the middle-income tax cuts). The specific proposals are to reinstate the 39.6% tax rate, reinstate the 36% tax rate for high-income taxpayers, reinstate PEP (personal exemption phase-out) and Pease (another phase out) for high-income taxpayers , and increase the long-term capital gains and qualified dividend tax rate to 20% for high-income taxpayers.
