Free Republic

It´s been more than 10 years since President Bush signed his first round of tax cuts into law. And in the years since, those cuts have been the source of constant attacks. [snip] But a decade of debate and discussion has managed to shed little light on what the Bush tax cuts actually did. So as the debate heats up once again as part of the "fiscal cliff" negotiations, it´s worth taking the time to highlight some of the things most people never knew about the Bush-era tax cuts.

President Obama often talks about the need for a "balanced" approach to deficit reduction, by which he means tax hikes in addition to spending cuts. At the recent presidential debate, for example, he said, "We've got to reduce our deficit, but we've got to do it in a balanced way. Asking the wealthy to pay a little bit more along with cuts." The only problem with this approach is that the massive projected deficits over the next 10 years aren't the result of too few taxes. They are entirely the result of too much spending. Here's the proof.

Americans would shell out as much as $5,700 more a year if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire at the end of 2012, according to a new analysis that highlights the perils and political consequences of the nation's fiscal cliff. Connecticut residents would get rocked the worst, with an additional cost of $5,783 a year while New Yorkers would get hit $5,542 on average, the study from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation states. Mississippi residents get the least impact, at $1,310 on average, but 29 of the 50 states will see taxpayers get hit at least $2,000. Find out...

(CNN) — A top adviser for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign said Sunday the president was entirely dedicated to ending the so-called Bush tax cuts for the wealthy at the end of this year. “He is 100% committed to it,” Robert Gibbs said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Obama signed a bill in 2010 to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, citing the need for economic stimulus at the time, but has since vowed he would not permit another extension. The tax breaks are set to expire in what’s known as the “fiscal cliff,” a package of spending cuts and...

(Candidates follow partisan playbook, with some twists) Four years ago, John Kerry and George Bush launched their general election campaigns in Wisconsin by talking about jobs and the economy, pitting a Democratic message of fairness and change against a Republican message of tax cuts and trade. If that sounds familiar, it should. Because something very similar has happened in 2008. Democrat Barack Obama's first visit since clinching the nomination came this month in Kaukauna, where he touted "middle class" tax cuts and bashed the Bush administration for rewarding wealth over work. Republican John McCain's first visit as de facto nominee...

President Bush’s tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 helped spur growth after 9/11 and the dotcom bust. Unfortunately, liberals want to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, thus creating the largest tax increase in American history. If Congress does not vote to make the tax cuts permanent, American families could be facing a tax hike of $280 billion dollars every year. I don’t need to tell you how damaging that tax hike would be in terms of jobs and wealth creation. Please help us convince Congress to make the tax cuts permanent, so that our economy can grow and...

Last year was a record for the nation's home building industry . The Commerce Department reported Thursday that construction of single-family homes and apartments totaled 2.065 million units last year. The increase of 5.6 percent over 2004 pushed overall residential construction to the second highest level on record, exceeded only by 2.357 million units built in 1972. Meanwhile, single-family home construction hit an all-time high for the third straight year, rising to 1.714 million units, up 6.4 percent from the previous record of 1.611 million homes built in 2004. The record-setting performance came despite the fact that housing activity dropped...