Would you be willing to give up your tax cut if it meant the top 2% didn't get theirs?

[jillan]

Poll question: Would you be willing to give up your tax cut if it meant the top 2% didn't get theirs?

I think I just might be at that point.

Very pissed off tonite because no one in this administration can find their
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4iWuUPiPLDY/TCD10rUcyHI/AAAAAAAAAnY/6qD-k3auYWw/s1600/back+support+pain-free.jpg

[Radical Activist]

1. Yes.

Fuck those assholes. It will hurt them more than me. I'm in a low enough income bracket that the tax cut is tiny.

[jillan]

3. That's how I feel - fuck them. They have all the wealth already anyway.

[TwilightGardener]

2. No, because the top 2% will ALWAYS get theirs--whatever it is.

Not going to shoot myself in the foot and voluntarily pay more to spite them, they're doing fine regardless.

[Hannah Bell]

4. most definitely. the middle-class tax cuts aren't all that anyway.

as always, the top benefits most. if you're in the middle of the middle class it's a few hundred dollars on average.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. I figure about $500

No problem. Won't miss it at all.

[Withywindle]

5. Yes, absolutely.

The amount of my tax cut may seem like a lot of money to me, but I don't think it'd cover more than 20 seconds of the pointless wars.

The money that the rich (remember, SUCH a smaller number of peoplenow than it was 10 or 20 years ago, who control an obscenely greater percentage of the wealth now) ought to contribute could make a much greater difference than the incomes of all the working-class/working-poor/lower-middle-class demographic I belong to put together. And they should pay their goddamn fair share. I wouldn't mind paying my own nearly as much as long as I knew that the same percentage applied to the highest of the high.

[OHdem10]

6. Those who always get.

[leftstreet]

7. Yes

Absolutely

[taught_me_patience]

8. This poll seems to automatically assume you're not in the top 2%

But many DUers are...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. Well, if they're traditional Democrats, losing their tax cut will be fine with them

If it's not fine with them, then the hell with them. They're elephants in donkey jackets who claim to be "Democrats" only because the Republicans have gotten too crazy and low-class for them.

[blondeatlast]

37. Really? How do you know this? nt

[Parker CA]

9. Absolutely. Letting all the tax cuts expire would help the deficit.

[hfojvt]

12. I still think there is probably a happy median

I have not tried any calculations, but I thought the old rule of thumb was 80-20, twice. That is, if you just let the tax cuts expire for the top 20% then you would get 80% of the money back, but also let 80% of tax payers keep their tax cut. According to news reports, extending the Bush tax cuts, all of them, for ten years will cost $4 trillion. Under Obama's plan the cost is cut to $3.3 trillion.

However, if you let them expire for incomes above $60,000 for singles and $100,000 for couples, the cost would probably be cut down to less than $2 trillion. Perhaps even as low as $1 trillion. AND 83% of US households make less than $100,000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States

Sadly, the level was set by Obama at $250,000 for political reasons. After all, since Mondale got trounced we can no longer tell people to "ask what you can do for your country."

[Cresent City Kid]

10. Read my lips, raise their taxes.

Hell, I'd even let the 2nd percentile off the hook if the top 1% was taxed at a rate that was fair considering the benefits they receive from our labor and the security and infrastructure that all of our taxes pay for. When I say taxed, I mean actually paying the full rate, not loopholing it down to nothing.

[hfojvt]

11. I already have - as a loan

but if they extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, then next year I am asking for it all back.

[denbot]

13. Yes, if it will help with the deficit, hell yes!

Fund veterans care, fund universal health care, and social security. Shit raise my taxes an additional one percent to help and I would say thank you.

[moondust]

14. If that's what it takes, yes.

I really can't believe there is a serious debate about borrowing another $700 billion to give to the idle rich.

If Republicans succeed in resetting baseline tax rates to the Bush tax cut levels, just wait a few years and they'll do it all again. And again and again and again until they're no longer paying any taxes. It's what they do.

[Ozymanithrax]

15. I'm willing to give up my tax cut because if deficit reduction is really necessary...

and a clear and present danger to our long term economic survival, then we should pay more now.

Whether or not the top 2% get theirs is irrelevant to the issue to me.

[TheKentuckian]

16. They all should go back minus the bottom bracket. Those at the bottom need their money

to try and get by. A 50% increase after the asswhopping they've endured is cruel.

The assholes sucking up every cent should not only revert to Clinton era levels but need a sizable increase.

The wealth and income disparities are crackhead on a ten strip of acid driving a train full bore down hill with no brakes and a hundred load cars out of control.

[era veteran]

17. Hell yes

Cheap unpatriotic stingy fucks who should pay even more. They don't fight in wars either just profiteer on them.

[inna]

18. absolutely, it's not even a consideration.

(and it's NOT about "spine" for this administration; it's about the constituency that they represent.)

[Dr.Phool]

19. Yes, I fucking would!

Let them ALL expire.

And hammer home every day, that the republicans, Bill Gates, The Walton Family, Warren Buffet, George Soros, and Paris Hilton, are fucking you.

[Bolo Boffin]

20. Absolutely.

I love my country. I don't mind paying my taxes.

This country was growing by leaps and bounds when the upper tax bracket was 90%. You know why? Because they were forced to invest their money to try to avoid taxes.

Bring back the 90% tax bracket!

[era veteran]

21. perfect n/t

[BzaDem]

22. Personally, of course I would. The problem is that in the aggregate, having the middle tax cuts

expire would be a 3.1 trillion dollar hit to the economy among people most likely to spend it if they had it.

Republicans would love this, because it would significantly hurt the economy and damage Obama's re-election chances.

[eridani]

23. I'm assuming you are all letting the White House know this at least once a day

Right? RIGHT!!

[WinkyDink]

26. I suspect he knows the mood and sentiments of actual Democrats.

[Motown_Johnny]

24. yes, the deficit hurts just as badly as slightly higher taxes (IMO)

a stronger dollar would help offset some of the loss from higher taxes


raise the damn taxes no matter what it takes

[WinkyDink]

25. ABSOLUTELY, FOR THE GOOD OF THE NATION.

[OnionPatch]

28. Yes, I would.

Because my tax break is a pittance. Theirs is the difference between our country surviving or dying.

[treestar]

29. No.

And no way would the average voter of the middle class do it. They care about their own pocketbooks. No way do they care so much about the rich not getting a nonpermanent cut. No way.

[adamuu]

31. Yes, and I just sent an email to Pres Obama to that effect.

I would be willing to let my Bush-era middle class tax cut lapse if it means the richest 2% lose their gigantic tax break, too.
I know that would mean a broken campaign promise, for you. But I am also aware that it is the Republicans who are holding the middle-class part of Bush's temporary tax break hostage in order to force you into signing a $700B unfunded tax break for the rich. I'd rather you stand on your principles than keep every campaign promise to the letter at all costs.

[Caretha]

32. I voted No and here is why

As far as I can see the working class has given up everything already and the rich just keep getting richer.

Somewhere there has to be a line drawn, even if I have to be my own single party of NO. Compromise doesn't work for me anymore and hasn't in ages.

[adamuu]

33. okay, assuming you don't have that choice?

[Caretha]

35. Hahahaha

There is no "assume" about it. Of course I don't get a choice. The only choice I get is in this DU online poll.

[Nye Bevan]

34. No. Allowing *all* of the tax cuts to expire would be too risky for the economy

If the only way to extend the middle class tax cuts is to extend all of the tax cuts, then unfortunately that's what needs to be done. As other DUers have pointed out, elections have consequences.

[blondeatlast]

36. Yes, indeed. nt

[Owl]

38. Yes, absolutely.