re: #496 palomino

Actually, that’s exactly the position now. President Obama is doing nothing to demand Congress act on the expiring 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts (EGTRRA and JGTRRA). The expiration of the tax cuts would result in a 10-30% tax hike for nearly all Americans in the teeth of a teetering recession.

That’s on Obama. You can’t blame anyone else for that.

Well, actually, we can. We can blame Pelosi and Reid who have yet to formulate an alternative proposal to deal with the expiring cuts.

If Congress does nothing and the President has nothing to sign into law - those tax cuts expire, and everyone will see tax hikes.

If you think the current situation is bad, it’s going to get real ugly next year when everyone sees their take home pay cut because the tax hikes hit home.

And that is the real reason that everyone is sitting on the sidelines with their money. They don’t know what Congress is going to do with the tax policy and hunkering down with what money they have in hand is the best thing they can do because they’re going to have less income next year as those tax hikes take hold.

Businesses can’t set long term business decisions because they don’t know the tax rates and those that are acting are doing so under the worst case scenarios - the higher tax rates.