WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Some Democrats are getting cold feet about raising taxes for the wealthy as the economy deteriorates, observers say.
Just a month after vowing to make renewal of the tax cuts under the administration of former President George W. Bush an election issue, some in the congressional leadership are reconsidering, The Washington Post reported.
The tax cuts are set to expire in December. Republicans want to extend them all while President Barack Obama maintains the country cannot afford to keep tax breaks on income over $250,000 a year for families and $200,000 a year for individuals.
Increasingly, Democrats, alarmed by signs of a faltering recovery, are calling for permanently extending tax cuts for the middle class and renewing breaks for the wealthy through 2011.
Economist Mark Zandi, who has advised both Republican Sen. John McCain and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, supports a one-year extension in part because deficit fears are keeping Congress from passing any other form of stimulus.
But progressives argue that extending the tax breaks even temporarily would send a bad signal about rising U.S. debt.
Extending all the tax cuts would add $3.9 trillion to the debt over the next decade, says the Congressional Budget Office. The upper-income cuts account for $700 billion of that figure.
