Dear White House, please explain your plan for handling 'The Bush Tax Cuts'

It is nice to see that the White House is acknowledging that they have lost touch with 'the people'.

President Obama said today that he believes he lost a direct connection to the American people in his first year in office because he focused too heavily on policymaking.

"If there's one thing that I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are and why we have to make sure those institutions are matching up with those values," Obama told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview at the White House. - ABC News

Looking at his comment above, it is all about their failure to speak to the people. This kind of highlights a huge problem for this Administration in that they are not listening to the people. For me, I do not think the President and his team were ever listening to the people. At least not since Obama's disastrous encounter with 'Joe the Plumber'. Really, how is it possible to lose touch with the people in under a year. Given that the White House has held parties every third day since moving in, you'd think that they would be well in touch with the people. (clearly, they are inviting the wrong people to their parties... Me, I'm available.)

But OK, now they claim to be listening. Well one issue that I would like to see them get resolved is the 'Bush Tax Cuts' which are set to expire at the end of the year:

The central provisions of these landmark tax bills are scheduled to expire over the next five years, which means that taxes will rise dramatically for most taxpayers. Between now and January 1, 2011,

* Tax rates will rise substantially in each tax bracket, some by 450 basis points;

* Low-income taxpayers will see the 10-percent tax bracket disappear, and they will have to pay taxes at the 15-percent rate;

* Married taxpayers will see the marriage penalty return;

* Taxpayers with children will lose 50 percent of their child tax credits;

* Taxes on dividends will increase beginning on January 1, 2009;

* Taxes on capital gains will increase, also beginning on January 1, 2009; and

* Federal death taxes will come back to life in 2011, after fading down to nothing in 2010.

- Heritage.org

In light of the election defeat in MA, and the ongoing problems with the economy, I think the President needs to change his stance on extending the 'Bush Tax Cuts' instead of his BS excuse that by not extending them he is not raising taxes because they were set to expire prior to taking office. This basically puts the blame on Bush (again) and Congress for not enacting permanent tax cuts.

However, that excuse is not going to wash with voters when their take home pay is cut because they have to pay more in taxes. And nobody is going to blame anyone but the Democrats in power, including the President.

This is yet one more issue that both Congress and the White House need to be confronted with.

I would like to see this resolved. We are looking to buy a house this year. Having our taxes go up next year just makes affording a house that much more difficult.

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