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(Reuters) - The U.S. budget deficit this year will jump nearly 40 percent over prior forecasts, mostly due to the mammoth tax-cut package brokered by President Barack Obama and lawmakers last month, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday.

The CBO said the fiscal 2011 deficit will hit $1.48 trillion, up from last August's $1.07 trillion estimate, which was crafted before Bush-era tax rates were extended at a cost of $858 billion over 10 years.

The CBO "estimates that the act (renewing tax cuts) will increase the deficit by $390 billion in 2011, by $407 billion in 2012 and by $120 billion in 2013," according to the report.

.......


Some Republicans looked at the CBO report as further evidence of the need to cut federal spending, ignoring the impact of the tax-cut extension.

"Today's CBO projections underscore what Republicans have been telling the Obama administration and its allies in Congress: The pursuit of a big government agenda is reckless, irresponsible and unsustainable," said Representative Tom Price.

The House Republicans' first major technology initiative is about to be unveiled: a push to force Internet companies to keep track of what their users are doing.

A House panel chaired by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin is scheduled to hold a hearing tomorrow morning to discuss forcing Internet providers, and perhaps Web companies as well, to store records of their users' activities for later review by police.

One focus will be on reviving a dormant proposal for data retention that would require companies to store Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for two years, CNET has learned.

Tomorrow's data retention hearing is juxtaposed against the recent trend to protect Internet users' privacy by storing less data. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission called for "limited retention" of user data on privacy grounds, and in the last 24 hours, both Mozilla and Google have announced do-not-track technology.

A Judiciary committee aide provided a statement this afternoon saying "the purpose of this hearing is to examine the need for retention of certain data by Internet service providers to facilitate law enforcement investigations of Internet child pornography and other Internet crimes," but declined to elaborate.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20029 ... z1CiDqetlR" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ibanez wrote: In my opinion, an acceptable comprimise would be pornographic sites, sites that sell munitions and hate groups.

Ibanez wrote:On another note, now that Obama has continued Bush's tax cuts, does this mean he no longer can recieve any criticism from the left for the cuts?

Liberals Livid As Obama 'Surrenders' On Tax Cuts

Liberals' frustrations with Obama boil over after deal

blueballs wrote:Don't you just love how liberals frame it as "lower taxes cost..." but never that "runaway spending, bureaucracy, and waste cost..."

JMU DJ wrote:

blueballs wrote:Don't you just love how liberals frame it as "lower taxes cost..." but never that "runaway spending, bureaucracy, and waste cost..."

They both "cost", people/politicians need to quit putting partisan BS behind it and actually do something about it.

blueballs wrote:

JMU DJ wrote:

They both "cost", people/politicians need to quit putting partisan BS behind it and actually do something about it.

Wrong. The income earners of this country are not undertaxed. The problem lies entirely with the politicians' thirst for power and control and our collective tax dollars are the capital they use to obtain, expand, and retain that power and control.

The politicians need to quit spending so wildly and shrink the size, scope, and cost of government. Period. That would be "doing something about it."

kalm wrote:

blueballs wrote:
Wrong. The income earners of this country are not undertaxed. The problem lies entirely with the politicians' thirst for power and control and our collective tax dollars are the capital they use to obtain, expand, and retain that power and control.

The politicians need to quit spending so wildly and shrink the size, scope, and cost of government. Period. That would be "doing something about it."

The income earners of this country have never had it so good.

blueballs wrote:

kalm wrote:
The income earners of this country have never had it so good.

... as it should be. Actually, it should be better. If government would coagulate their feces we could cut taxes on the achievers even further.

JMU DJ wrote:Better start printing more money to continue devaluing our currency....

(Reuters) - The U.S. budget deficit this year will jump nearly 40 percent over prior forecasts, mostly due to the mammoth tax-cut package brokered by President Barack Obama and lawmakers last month, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday.

BDKJMU wrote:

JMU DJ wrote:Better start printing more money to continue devaluing our currency....

That 1st sentence right there tells me that article is baloney. There were NO income tax cuts passed in Dec. NO One is getting a fed income tax cut. What Obama and Congress were debating were to either:
-Keep taxes the same
-Have a massive tax increase.

Congress and Obama chose to keep income taxes the same. That doesn't cost the govt a dime.

The only tax cut that was passed was a temp reduction in the Payroll tax.

OL FU wrote:Calling tax cut costs are simply political speaks. Tax cuts aren't costs.

On the other hand, the middle class does get the worst of our tax code (depending on how many kids you have and how big your mortgage interest is). The 25% bracket starts at $34,000 for a single person without kids. So basically ever dollar about $40,000 in income is tax at damn near 50%. 25% fed, 15% SS and medicare and 6% (good average) for state taxes.

kalm wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:
That 1st sentence right there tells me that article is baloney. There were NO income tax cuts passed in Dec. NO One is getting a fed income tax cut. What Obama and Congress were debating were to either:
-Keep taxes the same
-Have a massive tax increase.

Congress and Obama chose to keep income taxes the same. That doesn't cost the govt a dime.

The only tax cut that was passed was a temp reduction in the Payroll tax.

Sweet! So Bush didn't really cut taxes, he just restored them to 1980's levels.

BDKJMU wrote:

kalm wrote:
Sweet! So Bush didn't really cut taxes, he just restored them to 1980's levels.

Uh, no, Bush cut taxes. Obama and Congress last month kept taxes the same.

BDKJMU wrote:

OL FU wrote:Calling tax cut costs are simply political speaks. Tax cuts aren't costs.

On the other hand, the middle class does get the worst of our tax code (depending on how many kids you have and how big your mortgage interest is). The 25% bracket starts at $34,000 for a single person without kids. So basically ever dollar about $40,000 in income is tax at damn near 50%. 25% fed, 15% SS and medicare and 6% (good average) for state taxes.

And like I just pointed out, there were no income tax cuts enacted last month. Tax rates are staying the same.

With the 15.3% SS and medicare I believe thats what you pay if your self employed?

Not self employed 7.65% SS and medicare for employees half. 25% fed + 7.65% SS and medicare + 6% avg states= about 39%. Now you could also say that the 7.65% matching payroll taxes that your employer pays is $ that you would otherwise see in the form of higher wages. Add on that and all the other taxes (property, sales, utility, gas, local, etc) then yeah, could be over 50%

blueballs wrote: The problem lies entirely with the politicians' thirst for power and control and our collective tax dollars are the capital they use to obtain, expand, and retain that power and control.

The politicians need to quit spending so wildly and shrink the size, scope, and cost of government. Period. That would be "doing something about it."

kalm wrote:

blueballs wrote:
... as it should be. Actually, it should be better. If government would coagulate their feces we could cut taxes on the achievers even further.

And it's putting us further in debt and diminishing the middle class. We have different ideas of what's good for the country I guess.