How did working people back in 2000 make it without the taxcuts now in effect??

[kentuck]

Were the taxcuts substitutes for pay increases? Did no one's pay increase by 5% over the last 10 years? Why are the taxcuts so vital now but not so important back in 2000?

Did working people no longer see the need to ask for pay raises because they were getting the same or better pay raise thru the tax code? Now, that the tax rates are supposed to disappear, working people are desperate?

Would it have been better to jawbone employers into giving their employees a 2% increase in pay rather than cutting the payroll tax cut? Are you going to feel the pain when the payroll tax cut is re-instituted? Would you prefer that they take this two percent from "general revenues" and not put it into the SS fund?

Have Democrats become dependent on taxcuts rather than pay raises?

I think we need to ask these questions of ourselves.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Yes, the cuts were substitutes to pay increases

Salaries are mostly flat, inflation is not.

[MADem]

2. Wages were not stagnant under Clinton.

People could afford to buy stuff, there was much more optimism and many more jobs. Companies were actually WOOING workers with little perks--signing bonuses, covered parking, a company car! Nowadays, it's "Don't be late, parking is five bucks a day, we dock your pay if you use too many paper clips!"

[Lionessa]

3. In 2000, the mortgage soon-to-be-bubble was giving a different

type of income enhancement, by increasing equity and supposedly "personal wealth". That's no longer allowing folks to feel as if they are moving forward in spite of poor employee position.

[rzemanfl]

4. Gas was a buck a gallon. A week's groceries for us cost about $80. n/t

[kentuck]

5. So we need another tax cut?

Maybe? What else could we ask for??

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. A new federal minimum wage

Preferably a living wage. That will push salaries up, and will stimulate the economy.

We used to understand this shit.

[kentuck]

7. True

dat.

[rox63]

8. We need a pay raise, not a tax cut

Try squeezing some money out the corporations instead of the people and the govt.

[kentuck]

10. Bingo!

The President could have stated that before he cut SS fund. (to be replenished from general revenue, of course)