Reply #2: "middle-class" tax cuts were part of the bush package. obama's cuts are an addition.

[Hannah Bell]

In June 2001, Congress passed a large package of tax cuts that President George W. Bush pitched on the presidential campaign trail. Not only did the legislation reduce income taxes for nearly all Americans, it sent $300 or $600 rebate checks to every taxpayer. The legislation also phased out the estate tax, reduced the "marriage penalty" for couples filing jointly, increased the threshold for the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), and raised the child tax credit that parents could claim on their annual returns.

Despite the $1.35 trillion price tag, which some Democrats complained was too expensive, Bush and Congress would go on to pass five more tax-cut packages over the next seven years, with the biggest breaks coming in 2003. In that bill, Congress trimmed taxes on capital gains and dividends; accelerated most of the 2001 cuts that were scheduled to be phased in; temporarily erased the "marriage penalty" for couples filing jointly; again increased the child tax credit; and made another AMT fix. That price tag in 2003: $330 billion.

Subsequent years saw more fixes to the AMT and extensions for the marriage penalty break, capital gains and dividend cuts, and other targeted measures, which were all originally short-term fixes. All together, the Bush tax cuts cost just north of $2 trillion.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/29/battle-looming-over-bush-tax-cuts-what-it-means-to-you/