Ever wonder what life would look like come January if Congress and the President failed to avert the now famous "fiscal cliff?" Remember the classic Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life?" The main character, George Bailey, is brought back from the brink by his guardian angel after a glimpse of what life would look like if he'd never been born. A remake may be in order. This time the plot falls in DC where Congress and the President get to see what their family, friends and many communities across the country would look like if they don't extend the current tax rates and find meaningful spending reductions.
Would you believe a 47-year-old farmer from Des Moines, Iowa would see a $1206 tax increase next year? Economists and labor experts at The Heritage Foundation have the numbers on how your family budget and community (click here for interactive map) would be affected.
Raising taxes on any income level is a lose-lose situation for our economy. According to the Department of Treasury figures, 1.2 million Americans who employ people are earning $250,000 or more a year and paying their taxes through the individual income tax. They would be hit head-on. The amount that their taxes would go up could be roughly equivalent to one employee's salary, meaning that's one person they can't hire in the new year. A study by Ernst and Young estimates that these tax hikes would kill 710,000 jobs.
The nation cannot afford the massive tax increases and continued levels of spending initiated under President Obama. The nation's workers cannot afford the sustained additional upward pressure on unemployment that would follow from raising tax rates. The problem is government spending. President Obama and Congress should focus on the problem and forget these destructive tax-hike obsessions.
