An Idea about "extending bush tax cuts"... don't bring it to the floor.

As I understand it from Rachel Maddow they are set to expire. Not bringing them to the floor keeps them from renewing.

TOO SIMPLE!

Here is what our Dems will do.

They will tell us they MUST bring it to the floor so they can extend the tax breaks to the $200-$250 thousand dollar range of individuals. It will sound so noble.

Here is what will happen... they will take to the floor and love-fest the upper middle class (their big donors) and then the magical 14 or 18 or 10 or 2 what ever name you want to give them will INSIST that all the tax cuts get extended.

Instead they should be out there explaining that "BUSH did this through reconciliation and was only able to do that by offering the expiration as a means to not increase the deficit which the rules insist on."

Then they expire —which is supposedly what Bush intended, so they would just be honoring his word— then they can introduce a separate bill to help their donors.

Let them expire. Do nothing.

wrong thread....

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day 10 men go to a restaurant for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If it was paid the way we pay our taxes, the first four men would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until the owner threw them a curve. Since you are all such good customers, he said, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20. Now dinner for the 10 only costs $80.

The first four still eat for free. The restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same percentage, being sure to give each a break, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so now the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of $59. That's fair, right?

But then, something happens. Previously, the owner validated the parking tickets, so it ended up being free for the customers. Since the owner now has less money, he stops validating the parking. Poor and rich alike pay $2 to park. This is no big deal for the top 30%. Seventh is just where he was. Eighth is still up a $1, Ninth up $4 and the richest is better by $5. The other 6 though, are actually in worse shape.

The richest guy starts hinting that he may not come back. He doesn't think it's fair because he pays the most. So, the owner offers to take another $10 off. It's divided much like the first break.

To further economize, the owner stops giving the free bread basket to diners. The top four really didn't need it anyway, because they were already ordering an appetizer, entree and dessert - plenty of food. Five and six are okay too, because they're getting big sandwiches with salad or fries, and the portions are still pretty generous. The bottom four however, had been ordering just a small salad or soup. They were kind of counting on that bread to help fill up. They walk away from the table not quite satisfied.

Under still more pressure from the wealthy, the owner further economizes by firing one of his staff. This leads to longer waits for and more griping from everyone about the pace of service.

LESSON: Tax cuts do not pay for themselves. They must be matched with spending cuts or increased service fees to avoid deficits. In most cases, those are going to affect the most needy the hardest.

the owner takes everyone's money and gives it to the richest guys at the table.

then he turns to the other customers and tells them they are out of luck because they don't have the money to pay for their meals.

They can't even afford cat food.

That seems a lot more like what is going on than the learned analysis presented earlier.

who supplies the restaurant?

It's amazing how so many RW allegories can only work in a totally closed system.

:evilfrown:

and the second richest runs the parking garage...

make each and every one of the "Bush Tax Cuts" have to be voted on individually?

Starting with the "tax cuts" for the lowest earners, and working their way to the top earners ...

And you can't have an unrecorded "voice vote" ... this has to be entered into the record as saying "Senator X, Party-State: Yea/No."

I think you're reading of the situation is spot on.