Current tax rates’ continuing costs

There’s no question that when tax rates are lowered, the U.S. Treasury collects less money.

And everyone agrees that when taxes are cut in one place, they need to be raised somewhere, on on someone, else or spending cuts must be made.

Coming up with a way to do exactly that is the issue before Congress, the White House, every candidate running for every federal office this year and all of us taxpayers.

The counter below gives us an alarmingly graphic idea of how much money the current tax rates, enacted in 2001 under the Bush 43 Administration and extended by the Obama White House, are costing the country.

Now before you shoot off your angry emails, remember that the numbers are the numbers.

There’s no denying that the tax rates, whether you call them the Bush tax cuts or correctly make Obama share some of the blame (or tax-cutting credit, depending on your political affiliation), aren’t helping in the much ballyhooed effort to reduce the federal deficit.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Tax cuts, 10 years and counting
• ‘Fiscal Cliff,’ the biggest economic and tax disaster of all time!
• The $1 million tax rate threshold’s possible fiscal and political costs