The problem is the congress hasn't made the needed cuts in order to pay for the Tax decrease. We are borrowing 1.5 trillion a year. The national debt is over 15 trillion.
The question is how far do we want to put our nation, and future generations in debt. The other problem is inflation caused by the debt. It is shrinking the dollars value. That twenty dollars will be worth less every year. Tell Congress to stop the deficit spending. Cut the size and scope of the Federal Government.

I don't relish the idea of losing money to taxes, but let's face it, it was a temporary measure. I'd rather lose the money now, than leave our children facing trillions of dollars in debt in the future.

The U.S. IS EXPORTING OIL. WTF stop exporting our own oil and drop the price of oil and gas back to $1.00 Gal. Let the countries that we are exporting to, Buy thier oil from Pakistan. And if we ever go to another country to help them in thier war let them pay for our participation in that war. We need to lower the deficit and that is one way to do just that. ( denpp420@aol.com )

Oil is a fungible commodity. As such, there is no difference between Iraqi oil and US oil. The global market consumes the global supply. We consume the cheapest oil we can get from the global supply.

$20 a week would mean $40 a paycheck for me, as well as an additional $40 a paycheck from my husband. Our total household grocery/cleaning supplies/pet food budget for the month is $150. Yes, you read that correctly: $150. Food, beverages, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, tasty kibbles for my kitties and litter too. All for $150. If we remove $80 a month for each me and my husband, that's a total of $160... MORE THAN OUR MONTHLY GROCERY BUDGET!
Ramen noodles, here we come!

Congress got a raise again this year.
Congress is on the verge of giving itself a bump in its annual budget — even as local governments, families and businesses across the country are tightening their belts in the worst recession in decades.

Under a House-Senate conference measure, approved by the House last week and poised for passage in the Senate on Wednesday, spending for the legislative branch will increase 5.8 percent this year, boosting Capitol Hill’s annual budget to $4.7 billion.

The measure includes a hodgepodge of new funding for lawmakers: a $500,000 pilot program for senators to send out postcards about their town hall meetings, $30,000 for receptions for foreign dignitaries and $4 million for consultants —

Gee Joe I thought those were your people !!!!! Put a tax on the millionaires they have had 8 years to provide those jobs the GOP wants to protect

The tax reduction came from robbing the social security trust fund investment for the year. We can not put this debt on our children and grandchildren. Let the SS tax reducation expire, increase taxes on the wealthiest 5% and buy American. Ask not what the country can do for you but rather what you can do for your country. Did we stop teaching history 30 years ago?

While I know this was supposed to be a temporary tax cut I pay enough taxes as it is already. How about cutting spending for once....

This is not a tax cut. This is taking money out of the SS trust fund, which we've been told is already paying out more than it is taking in.

If you want to give people a tax cut, take it out of income taxes.

Since the national debt is already MORE than the GDP (all the money that everyone in the country makes) adding taxes will not help. You could tax EVERYONE at 100% and we would still be in debt.

We must have some cuts somewhere.

How about the $375 per hour (was $475) paid to BCWA attorney Ms. Mack?

Ms. Mack's exorbitantly high hourly rates are a cause of BCWA's excessively high water rates.

The Kent County Water authority pays it's General Counsel, Joseph McGair $160 per hour, and they are happy with his services. This is less than half of Ms. Mack's rate.

So a poll question should ask why the BCWA directors are paying Ms. Mack an excessive $375 hourly rate (was $475), when Kent County Water Authority is only paying it's General Counsel $160 per hour

Tax the rich! They have had 10 years to "create jobs" and all they have succeeded in doing is create record unemployment!

You can "tax the rich" but eventually, you run out of their money. Who exactly is "rich" anyway? There is no tax on wealth, but on income. At what percentage is it simply not fair to confiscate someones earnings? 40%, 50%? More? Why should anyone have to pay more than half of what they earn to the government?

I say, tax everyone at 10% (corporations included) with the only deduction being a $40,000 deduction everyone gets.

It means the Republican leadership doesn't care about the middle class. It means that they'll scream and cry and draw lines in the sand when it comes to protecting the rich, but they're willing to play politics with the middle class. The middle class standard of living hasn't increased since 1972, while the standard of living of the top 5% has skyrocketed. It means that the Occupiers were right all along. It means that the buying power of the country's chief consumers is reduced--again. It means that the economy will remain stagnant.

The tax rate on the rich will never be 50%+... that is pure propaganda put out by right wing commentators. If things stay as they are, the likelihood that a hard working middle class person will get to that tax bracket is slim to none (unless of course winning lottery numbers are involved). The middle class is what sustains this country... we are the true consumer class. Take the money from them and we see the crumbling of our economic system and the rich will continue to prosper while the rest of us suffer. No one (including the Democrats) are looking to tax the rich at 50%+... they are just looking for a more equitable system where the rich are not getting richer on the backs of the working class.

The middle class works harder and makes less:

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speedup-americans-working-harder-charts

US workers are making less in real dollars than they were thirty years ago, while the gap between the rich and the middle class has more than doubled. In effect, the middle class are the people who are making the rich even richer.

http://www.businesspundit.com/wealth-distribution-in-the-united-states/

The vast majority of supporters of the Republican part and the Tea party are members of the middle class. Every vote in their favor is like bending over and saying, "Thank you, sir. May I please have another."

Once they squeeze all the money they can out of the richest folks who do you think they will come after next? Stop spending $ you don't have. I'm expected to do that why are the morons on Capital Hill not?? Both sides are to blame they don't need multi million dollar personal staffs. They want a campaign manager or cheif staffer they should pay for it themselves. They don't accomplish jack anyway...

Nothing to do with protecting anyone. Those who are voting for this "tax cut" are raiding social Security.

The simple facts are that we cannot tax our way out of this (and if you add federal and state taxes together 35% fed, %5.99 RI - 40.99 you're getting close to 50%).

Let's tax the top 1% of wage earners:

If the National GDP in round numbers is $15 Trillion, then the top 1% must make $150Billion as a whole.

If we increase their tax rate by 10%, that's another $15 Billion in tax revenues.

We are currently, $15 Trillion in debt.

If this money was ONLY used for paying the debt, it would take 1000 years to pay it off.

@Math Major: Where to begin...

First, the top 1% account for much more than 1% of GDP. Using your math, the bottom 1% also represent 1% of GDP. Your math makes no distinction between the basic definition of "top" and "bottom."

Second, GDP bears no relation to personal taxable income. GDP measures total market value of all goods and services produced. No one is taxed on the GDP, people are taxed on their income.

Third, the top 1% account for about 23.5% of America's income (2007 figure, the latest I could google up on short notice). With U.S. total personal income at $12.3 Trillion (2010 figure from U.S. Dept. of Commerce), then 23.5% of 12.3 trillion is roughly $2.9 Trillion, and increasing the tax on those top 1% by a marginal rate of 5% would yield roughly $145 Billion per year.

Fourth, the 15 trillion debt figure you cite is not the amount that actually must be paid. That figure is closer to 10 trillion, the difference being debt held by the U.S. government itself. Essentially it’s money we loaned to ourselves.

So, applying the additional $145B revenue from the top 1% to the $10T debt would result in elimination of the debt in a time frame of decades, not centuries as your math indicated.

And, applying the Clinton-era tax rates on the top 1%, COMBINED WITH applying prudent cuts to Federal spending (see, I'm for a shared sacrifice solution) would eliminate the debt in a fiscally responsible time frame, being sensitive to economic consideration.

For a manufacturing economy to exist, it must have two things: producers and consumers. Crippling the buying power of the middle class reduces demand for consumer goods, which in turn reduces the profits of the producers. This is a symbiotic relationship--the producers cannot exist without the consumers and vice verse. In the last thirty years, the buying power of the middle class has been, on average, stagnant. In their zeal to raise corporate profits and personal income, the producers and their political supporters have cut their own throats--or have they? If you look at the last thirty years as equivalent to a generation, this "generation" of producers have raked in the cash. They're not worried about the next generation. Bottom line, if people want the United States to have a manufacturing economy, our leaders MUST find a way to increase the buying power of the consumers, the middle class. This "stimulus" can come from the private sector, by hiring more employes and paying higher wages, or from the government sector, by creating federal jobs programs, raising the minimum wage, or raising taxes on the producers to fund lower taxes for the consumers. I just don't see this happening from the private sector, which means the government needs to step in.

$20 is enough to have some fun at the Foxy!!! See you there...

The Bush tax cuts were also temporary.

Buy American! It will revive the economy, result in increased employment and increased tax revenues. And tax Internet sales. Do not rely on Washington to fix a problem that we created by purchasing cheap imported goods.

Buy American Shop Local. God Bless America!

shop responsibly. support local business. don't support companies or brands that employ sweat shop conditions or child labor. don't support companies that treat their employees badly (WALMART) and are the reason for all the imported goods and lost american jobs in the first place.