Show of Hands

I want a new truck too but I have to pay more for health insurance and taxes are going up.

GM trucks cost too much.

Because the pool we elect our reps from is a slime pit. There are no more true Statesmen running for office. And if one tried you wouldn't even know. The only real difference between the two parties is where they shop. They both spend all the money! Broke is broke no matter who has our check book!!

Yeah, that was the part of the Bush tax cuts the dems truly despised, the cut in the death tax. Some of them blatantly state that when you die all of your money, property etc should revert to the gov. After all, your children didn't actually earn it.

I find the even split on this issue telling - though, of what, I'm not sure. I suspect many people don't feel like they have a fair grasp on what's really at stake here. Despite all I've read on it, I still don't. And I don't fathom why our reps on both sides always put politics over country.

This is not on Obama. He's trying. Selfish, stubborn, closed-minded republicans are the problem.

I'm more concerned about the approaching national debt cliff. It can't keep going up forever. Something's going to give sooner or later.????????????

And libertarian is right about taxes. We should do away with income tax and enact the Fair Tax.

Libertarian is right. We don't need 100,000 troops in Germany. Bring them home and put them on the border. Let Germany, Japan, and Korea police there own countries.

To bad, you can't have everything you want, it is both or none.

The spending cuts will do more damage To the economy than the tax hikes anyway.

None as I'm going to pay a couple thousand extra dollars in taxes. I could be saving that money for down payment for a new truck. So thanks to the Feds I won't be replacing my truck.

I'm proud of all of you who want to have lower take-home pay. Will you buy fewer things or save less?

Policing the world doesn't really count as defense. And if your military tells you that the way you approach military spending is stupid and wasteful, maybe we should listen to them.

Not really entitlements when every working taxpayer pays into them, are they?

Its funny how Reps can be so BLIND, l'm sure well meaning but also apparently dumb...

At this point I want the stuff most people agree on to get pushed through (not letting the tax cuts end for the middle class) and deal with the rest later. Stop holding that part hostage to get the rest of whatever you want. Also, it's disingenuous to call them tax hikes.

Everyone (the Republicans primarily) talk only about cutting entitlements on social programs, whereas so much more and better societal changes can be achieved by cutting back on military expenditures.... This should not include cutbacks on VA Benefit though!!!
The Vets GAVE of themselves for us all!

hey, I have no problem with congress losing some of what they've given themselves, but other federal employees haven't had a raise in years. and, a half of a percent? that's adding insult to injury.

@rj: I know teachers, police, and firefighters that would rather have that instead. Congress doesn't need anymore benefits, money, packages.

...a proper balance between tax increases and spending cuts that could balance the budget without triggering a recession or significantly slowing the recovery.

tjm, What I'm saying is that government spending creates artificial growth as well as real private sector growth. To be clear, I am not advocating further government spending, I am just explaining the true cost to the economy of different types of austerity measures. Personally, I believe there is..

wow. 1/2 of 1% raise after nearly 3 years of a freeze on ALL federal employees' wages.

because balancing the government budget and budgeting your personal income are two entirely different things.

give*

Now I heard Obama gave congress a raise!!! ALL of them...for what? he's fucking clueless..waiting all this time to negotiate, piss and moan because neither side won't budge..I'd Gove them a pay cut..

Rand Paul to be elected in 2016 because he is the only Republican that has a sensible foreign policy.

Not necessarily. A lot of our defense budget is spent on foreign aid, and keeping our troops over seas.

Both the Republicans and Democrats will keep spending our money over seas. Very few Republicans want to end foreign aid, and a minority of Democrats actually want to bring the troops home from places we don't need them (like Australia). Were screwed either way. Our best hope for the economy is for..

A whole lot easier said than done.

All we need is a low flat tax on all income, a low corporate income tax (no corporate income tax would be great) and cut spending by atleast $2 trillion a year.

Just to set things straight, the sequester cuts will NOT help the economy, they will hurt it. And not because they weren't big enough. If you take $100+ billion out of the economy in one year, it will slow growth. This isn't to say the tax hikes aren't equally as bad, but some post otherwise.

Depends if you are assuming the fiscal cliff cuts and hikes can be reversed soon after the new year. I think they can be. But assuming they can't, the effect would be a government inflicted recession, caused by drastic spending cuts and hikes on working poor and middle class. I would vote none.

It's funny how free liberals are with other people's money.
Pathetic!

But attjack you're wrong if you're suggesting Obama will end the military adventurism overseas. He's joined in his fair share of conflicts and there's no reason to suggest he'll stop anytime soon

Attjack is correct. Ending the foreign aid and the American Empire overseas will definitely help. It's going to end whether we want it to or not, so why not now?

It offense, not defense.

Listen dickhead, it's the TEA Party. Get it right asshole.

Did it ever occur to you that maybe folks in MS think differently than you do? ;)

The cuts are in the wrong places though. Too much from defense, not enough from places that shouldn't even be funded in the first place.

The problem is that the cuts don't address the real problem. The cuts disproportionately dig into the defense budget, but don't really cut any of the stuff that could, and should, be permanently cut, since it is not Constitutionally within the purview of the Federal government.

Not that there's anything wrong with any of those. But we need to stop going into debt both as individuals and families, and as a nation.

It's really quite asinine.

We should cut spending. No doubt.

Given how the cuts are distributed, I'd rather none. If it were a flat rate budget cut, say 25% across the board I'd say yes. But Obama wants to gut our defense in favor of stupid stuff that shouldn't be Federally funded in the first place.

My comments show that in this county, when over 40% of Americans are on a government handout of one kind or another that our standards of living are to high. Stop keeping up with the jones! You don't need a cell phone, you don't need a tv or the Internet, you don't need a 2000 sqfoot house.

Yes I am in the military and yes I think that there should be cuts to our military just like cuts to social programs. Being a recruiter, I have seen that one of the reasons people join the military is for the benefits, if you cut those we risk the lose of numbers. Is that the answer, I don't know?

I'm actually dreading it. I'm so glad I'm pcs-ing to Germany soon, hopefully I won't have to witness as much cutting of the budget/kicking out people left and right. Doesn't help here already when I can't even get a replacement kiowa engine till (projected) June '13. -army

All of the current healthcare benefits for current and retired military? Or the retirement benefits? How would you and your fellow armed forces service men survive then?

Sgthooah- many people are already subsisting on rice and beans, gotten rid of all extraneous expenditures and are still living paycheck to paycheck. Your comments show that you feel that all Americans are making plenty when we are not! I'm guessing by your name that you are military? What if we cut

They questioned this poll all wrong. My question was "should we let the taxes go up, or should we cut spending?"

At this point in our economy there is no legitimate reason to raise taxes as they won't pay down our debt. It will Blu hurt people in the lower and middle class.