It's official. The tax cut extension deal has passed.
What does this mean? It means all of the Bush tax cuts will remain another two years for all brackets, including the ultra-rich. In exchange, the unemployment benefits extension will be extended an additional year, and the payroll tax for Social Security will also be temporarily reduced. The price tag for all of this? $858 billion dollars. And with no spending cuts to offset it. Just what we need, more deficits.
How did such an asinine "compromise" even pass in the first place? The Democrats, including President Obama, wanted to let all the tax cuts remain for everyone except for those in the top two brackets (the top 2%). Which makes sense given the bad economy and the already soaring deficits. But the Republicans in Congress threatened to hold hostage any extension in unemployment benefits (obviously the worst time to do so) if the tax cuts on the top 2% were allowed to expire. That alone shows who the Republicans really care about above all else, regardless of who they pay lip service to.
Thus the elites got their way yet again, and future generations will have to pay for their mistakes.