re: #152 recusancy

And the Congress could point to the CBO scoring on those 2001 and 2003 acts in those years and say that they’d result in a balanced budget.*

*CBO scoring assumes no other changes to the law, meaning future Congresses wont override provisions, AMT thresholds wont change, etc., and such assumptions are always underestimating the costs and overestimating the revenues (so Congress games the scoring to show “balance”).

Had Congress allowed the 2001/2003 acts to expire as promised after 2010, all tax brackets would have been affected. GOP got what they wanted - an across the board extension, putting this up for 2013, which may actually work against the GOP after the election. The cuts may expire across the board, or it may be altered by the upcoming Congress to lower rates for all but the top 2 tiers, etc. - but that too is adjusting the costs projected by the CBO away from what it expected when it scored the package at the outset.