$3.3 Trillion Deficit Reduction Plan Set to Take Effect Jan. 1

One deficit plan that's not getting much attention, and one which can easily pass a Republican-controlled Congress, is the one that the Republican-controlled Congress approved in 2001 (and further augmented in 2003): The 2001-2003 Bush tax cuts.


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The 2001-2003 tax cuts that were signed into law (by a Republican Congress) came with a built in deficit-reduction measure. After 10 years, the tax cuts would expire, and the previous tax regime would take over. If Congress does nothing to disrupt the 2001-2003 deficit reduction package, the federal budget deficit will be reduced by $3.3 trillion (over the next 10 years.) As a comparison to the size of this reduction, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform ("Federal Deficit Commission") are pushing an ugly mess of spending cuts and Social Security and Medicare benefit reductions coupled with a smattering a revenue raisers that will reduce the deficit in the same time period by $3.9 trillion.


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Why Republicans are fighting like badgers to destroy their own $3.3 trillion deficit reduction package is beyond me, but the beauty of this particular plan is that it requires absolutely no action on the part of Congress and is set to kick in Jan. 1.

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