In December 2010, yielding to political pressure, you signed a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts. At the time, you called the extension ” a package of tax relief that will protect the middle class, that will grow our economy and will create jobs for the American people.” Those cuts are set to expire a few weeks after the November presidential election, causing taxes on ordinary income, dividends, and long-term capital gains to increase by trillions of dollars.
What, if anything, will you do before the election about the expiration of the Bush tax cuts? What do you believe to be the likelihood that a lame-duck Congress will pass an extension of the tax cuts sometime between the election and the end of the year?
What do you calculate to be the impact on the economy of letting the tax cuts expire? Of signing another two-year extension? Of signing a long-term extension?
If you win a second term, do you believe you’ll have the ”flexibility” to let the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year?