Expiration date

Daniel Gross details the five things you need to know about the "debate" over the temporary Bush-era tax cuts.

1. They were designed to expire by the same people now wanting to extend them for the wealthiest 2% of Americans;
2. Republicans, when in control of the Exec and Legislative branches did nothing to make them permanent;
3. The same Republicans and some Dems who want to extend the cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans are constantly whining about the deficit*;
4. Raising taxes** on the "investor class" won't kill the economy. In fact, the economy's been zombie-like for the past ten years, since the implementation of the temporary Bush-era tax cuts;
5. Erasing the expiration dates requires legislation; Republicans don't want the Democratically-controlled legislature to legislate; so, the tax cuts for everybody are likely to expire.

* UPDATE 1: The same people who brought you two wars and an unfunded expansion of Medicare, costing, literally, trillions

** UPDATE 2: That would be marginal tax rates, I forgot to mention.