Paying for the Payroll Tax Cut?

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by Winter_Sucks

Yeah, Kennedy lowered the top tax rate to somewhere in the 60% range. I'm cool with that too.

Also, if tax cuts paid for themselves our national debt wouldn't have doubled after the Bush tax cuts were passed.

Government Taxes and Revenue Chart: United States 2001-2008 - Federal State Local Data

This chart shows that tax receipts went up after the Bush (now Obama) income tax cuts, although they have since dropped due to the deep, ongoing recession we are currently experiencing. There was a dip from 2001 to 2003 that can be attributed to the recession (very small) that occurred in late 2000 and the financial fallout from the terrorist attacks.

The increase in the debt occurred for the usual reasons, the failure to control spending. Of course, the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq played a part.

[Winter_Sucks]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Government Taxes and Revenue Chart: United States 2001-2008 - Federal State Local Data

This chart shows that tax receipts went up after the Bush (now Obama) income tax cuts, although they have since dropped due to the deep, ongoing recession we are currently experiencing. There was a dip from 2001 to 2003 that can be attributed to the recession (very small) that occurred in late 2000 and the financial fallout from the terrorist attacks.

The increase in the debt occurred for the usual reasons, the failure to control spending. Of course, the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq played a part.

Of course revenue goes up when we have economic expansion. We had consumers gorging on cheap debt and spending a lot of money/credit. The point is that if tax rates were left the same we would have had more tax revenue. The amount of tax revenue lost from the tax cuts was not replaced or eclipsed by the economic activity during those years. The CBO has said this and no credible economist will say that the Bush tax cuts have paid for themselves, it's the opposite, they have completely blew a whole in the budget. Which brings me back to my initial point, why is the GOP saying we need to pay for these tax cuts when in the past they never had a problem with not offsetting tax cuts?

[North Beach Person]

Maybe $13 trillion has made people reach a choking point and common sense and adulthood has set in. Or it could be politics as usual which both sides play.