Hi Barbara,

You wrote: "doing away with the tax cuts will increase our tax liability from 25% to 31%." This greatly overstates your savings under the Bush tax cut. You don't save anywhere near 6% (the difference between 25 and 31) on your taxes. Those numbers refer to your MARGINAL tax rate - the rate you pay on the final portion of your taxable income. Your savings might be more like 2 or 3 percent in total. Our children are being saddled with that savings. You, me, and virtually everyone we know have low and middle incomes. Those savings are applied to those relatively small numbers. The truly rich got a higher percentage tax break, applied to hugely larger incomes. They are laughing all the way to the bank over how they've fooled so many Americans into thinking this is a good thing for them.

A robust progressiveness must be retained in our tax system, or the low- and middle-classes or going to have to pay much more, even, unless you truly want to "drown government in the bath-tub." In that case, say goodbye to the USGS and thousands of other important services provided by government, to all of us, that make life in the U.S. worth living. That latter alternative, by the way, simply represents another, indirect, tax increase on the masses.

Michael Williams
Arroyo Grande, CA USA