Tax Increases

The Bush tax cuts are about to expire, and Congress is planning on extending those tax cuts, at least for those who make under $250,000 a year. Democrats want to pass a law permanently extending those cuts for those who make under $250,000; Republicans want to extend those cuts for everyone, including the super-rich. Now it looks like the Democrats will give in to Republicans, and extend the cuts for everyone.

Why?

Why don't the Democrats present a bill extending tax cuts to everyone but the wealthy, and see if it passes? They can then present an entirely separate bill extending tax cuts to just the wealthy. Two separate simple bills. The result, of course, would be extending the tax cuts for the vast majority of us (with the support of almost all the politicians) but not for the super-rich. Any Republican who voted against a bill for tax cuts for the middle class because a tax cut for the super-rich isn't in the same bill would be (rightly) reviled.
Keep in mind that a tax cut to those who make under $250,000 is also a tax cut to the first $250,000 of the super-rich due to the way taxes are scaled.
Maybe they could compromise by extending tax cuts to those who make under $500,000 a year.

In any case, I don't understand discussions of giving people who don't know how many houses they own tax cuts. While we do need to control spending (especially for Medicare, Social Security and defense spending--the biggest costs), we also need to provide for more revenue coming in. Taxing those who can afford a little more tax seems like the best way to go.

Church's Stance on Immigration

Just wanted to make sure word got out about the church's recent statement about immigration. The link is here.

From the language of the Utah Compact, which the church supports:

"Immigration is a federal policy issue between the U.S. government and other countries — not Utah and other countries."

Too many members of the church favor Arizona-type immigration laws (including the man behind the Arizona laws). They should know their church doesn't agree with them.