It's about time to call Congress and demand that at the very
least they pass the Bush Tax cuts extension for those making
less than $400,000.

Democrats and Republicans already agree on it.
Pass it now and then work on the spending cuts next year.

There is no need to risk another market meltdown like in 2008
or the idiotic game of chicken with the debt ceiling which cost
us credibility and a credit rating downgrade.

But I'm afraid there will have to be some serious phone calling
of Representative and Senators before they get off their cans
and act.

Washington doesn't create solutions....only more problems

People I hope are starting to figure that one out!

Everybody knows that. So at least preserve the lower tax rates
for us! Sheesh.

Just don't pay them.

I think everyone should just refuse to pay taxes and refuse to let their employers withhold their money all year without paying interest on it, then threaten that refunds might be late.

Income tax is voluntary. It has always been voluntary. Don't pay it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/us/politics/next-move-is-obamas-after-boehners-tax-plan-fails.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — President Obama, conceding that a “grand bargain” for deficit reduction with Speaker John A. Boehner is unlikely, called Friday for Congress to approve a stripped-down measure by year’s end to prevent a tax increase for all but the richest taxpayers and to extend aid for two million unemployed Americans.

Mr. Obama, backed by Congressional Democrats, is proposing as he has for four years that the Bush tax rates be extended permanently for all income below $250,000 a year. In negotiations with Mr. Boehner he had tentatively agreed to raise that threshold to $400,000, and Congressional Democrats on Friday said they would go as high as $500,000 if it would seal a deal with Republicans.

It's a lifeline.
Jump at it!!!

Do you really think that if they get the tax rate extensions for 400,000 or whatever # it is, that they would really truely do anything about spending cuts later down the road?

Who knows? But I want to know that my taxes will NOT be going up.
Period.

Deal with the cuts required by the lower revenues ASAP in 2013.

But Plan B’s demise doesn’t ensure we’re going over the cliff—it simply narrows the options. And two bits of good news are embedded in the failure. First, if we do go over the cliff, a resolution will arrive sooner than it would have otherwise. That’s because Plan B’s biggest effect, had it passed, would have been to inoculate Republicans against the charge that they blew up the economy to protect “millionaires and billionaires” from tax hikes. Now that they’re vulnerable to that charge, public pressure will be much more intense and likely to elicit a quick concession.

Second, it’s now clear that the only way to avoid the cliff is through a bipartisan bill that can pass the House, probably with substantial Democratic support. The GOP’s self-defeating revolt will shift the center of gravity to the left. Here’s where things get tricky: Boehner has said he won’t bring a bill to the floor unless it has the support of the majority of his caucus. Lost in Thursday night’s disarray was that the overwhelming majority of House Republicans—all but 30 or so of his 241 members—supported Plan B’s tax hike on millionaires. So it’s not impossible to imagine him gaining the support of 121 Republicans (he may need fewer because of vacancies) for a deal that raises taxes on households earning, say, $400,000 or $500,000, especially if that deal also contains cuts to entitlement programs and removes the dreaded sequester.

But gaining that support is far from a sure thing. It’s what Republicans and Democrats are now frantically trying to gauge. If Boehner can’t get a majority of his caucus on board, then he’ll truly be facing the end of the world—or at least the end of his speakership. The conservatives I polled Thursday night agreed (contra some media chatter) that Plan B’s failure doesn’t threaten Boehner’s job. But they also thought that if Boehner were to pass a cliff bill without a majority of his caucus, he’d be doomed.

In a drama Aaron Sorkin might have scripted, Boehner may soon be faced with the choice of holding firm and hurtling everyone into the abyss or saving the country from chaos by passing a Democratic-friendly bill with only a minority of Republicans—at the cost of his speakership, which (more Sorkin drama) is up for a vote on Jan. 3.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-21/dont-panic-fiscal-cliff-chaos-is-good-news#r=read

I think spending is the problem.

I agree that spending is the problem. That is why I do not want them
to have more of my money. Pass the d@mn Bush tax rate extensions NOW.
Those making over $400K/yr can pay 2% more and Obama has said he will
sign that.

Avoid the immediate crisis and assure us of having a reasonable tax
rate for 2013.

Tackle the spending issues with those dollars in 2013 and stop
screwing around already.

Trying to make idiotic political points while throwing our taxes and
spending into disarray over something that almost everyone has
already agreed upon is just completely stoopid.

Just like the masochistic faux-debt-ceiling crisis which hammered our
credit rating and cost us billions and billions of dollars in interest
rate points for no reason whatsover when our commitment to honoring
our debt was called into question.

This manufactured crisis is not good for us or our country and I'm
sick of it already. It is like watching a bad sitcom.

I think that it is time that we wake up and actually see how much and how many taxes that we pay. Look on your pay stub, look on your receipts, look on your bills. Americans work over 6 months per year just to pay taxes. Cut the spending.

Meanwhile , F O R W A R D ... over the cliff.

Nah. Just let all the tax cuts expire. I make over $100K/year and the extra few grand won't make that much of a difference, considering the deficit will just pile higher and higher each year. The cuts will hurt, too, but so will the higher payments and devaluation in the future.

I've heard Republicans ***** and moan about the dire effects from the Clinton Tax hikes back in the 90s, just before the economy soared for the next seven years until the dot-com bomb. Tax rates are not tied to economic growth--at least not with the mechanism the Republicans would have us think. People with money usually just try to keep it. People without money often spend all they can get. A tax cut will just make rich people richer and let poor people spend more. A tax hike causes rich people to find ways to avoid taxes, like through investment or tax shelters. It's always that way.

I think the best bet would be to not raise rates, but eliminate loopholes, and possibly cap certain other deductions. (Romney's idea) Otherwise, just let the Bush Era Tax Cuts expire.

A better bet would be to default on the IMF debt, abolish income tax (it just pays the usurious interest on the IMF debt anyway), abolish the Fed and have the treasury print the people's money directly, much as Lincoln did with the Greenback, and as Kennedy wanted to do just before he was assassinated.

Letting the tax rates for those making over $400,000/yr will fund government for how long?
Not even 1 day. So what's the sense in that?
The problem is spending, that's why you won't see an elected official touch it. Why do you think we haven't had a budget in over 3 years?

There is absolutely no reason not to extend the tax cuts. It won't
fix the spending problem. But at least they will have less of our
money which will continue to force the issue. Then they will have to
work on the spending next.

Less taxes is less to fund this stupidity.

Obama has said he'll sign it. Just do it today and stop being ridiculous.

this and take away fido's doggie treats if they don't do something soon. I truly believe Fluffy, Fido and mitsy are more important to them than we are

Yeah. No more doggie treats!
They will have to get by on fewer of my doggie treats!

Maybe the House could start by getting their lame non-voting absent
azzes back to DC and work over the weekend to fix it.