The Senate tax bill is just that — a tax bill. It would extend the Bush tax cuts for a year for all but the top 2 percent of households, and limit the deductions they can take. It would bring the estate tax back to its 2001 level with a $1 million exemption and 55 percent rate. It would raise taxes on capital gains and dividends from 15 to 20 percent — which is really 23.8 percent when you include the Obamacare surtax. And that’s it. It wouldn’t extend the payroll tax cut. It wouldn’t extend unemployment insurance. It wouldn’t undo the sequester. It wouldn’t do the doc fix. It wouldn’t start any new infrastructure projects. If you add up all of the things it doesn’t do, it comes out to about 1.8 million fewer jobs in 2013 than in a world without the fiscal cliff.

dio777: For ten years we have been told that the Bush tax cuts applied mostly to the rich. Now it is imperative that we extend them further or the middle class is going to take a big hit.