All temporary taxcuts should be allowed to expire.

[Yo_Mama]

46. It doesn't, though

It just reduces the deficit, i.e. we borrow less.

Directly raising taxes will not produce more spending. The last two fiscal years we ran deficits each year of almost 1.3 trillion, or about 2.9 trillion total.

Unfortunately, we are going to hit the wall on this tactic in just a couple of years.

One way to look at raising taxes is that since it raises more revenue, it will prevent larger spending cuts in the future. That's legitimate - public policy should be the policy that will work best over the long term.

But inflation, a bad employment situation etc have already been cutting per capita income this year, and if we raise taxes too much next year on most people we will most assuredly tip the country into another recession. It may go into recession even if we don't.