Max Baucus: “this is a stunt. It is a gimmick. It is not serious, and it is very sad. We are in very difficult times. The economy is…”

“this is a stunt. It is a gimmick. It is not serious, and it is very sad. We are in very difficult times. The economy is in recession, going out of recession. We are facing the prospect of what to do about the so-called Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2003. Those are massive tax cuts that were put in place in 2001 and 2003. They expire at the end of this year. It is a big question: What should the Congress do, what should the country do about those tax cuts? At the same time, we are facing terrific, unfortunately high deficits, very high deficits, almost as high as they were at the end of World War II--not quite but almost. The national debt now is approaching, as a percent of GDP, the levels that it was near the end of World War II--not quite. In fact, they were much higher at the end of World War II than they are today. But the main point is, these are very serious questions. They require deliberate thought. They require Senators to work together to find solutions that help our country, help us decide: To what degree should these tax cuts be extended? Which ones make sense? Which ones do not? We have several goals here. Clearly, people do not like paying taxes. But, clearly, Americans who are responsible know they must pay some taxes in order for our country to function. There are two extremes here. One is anarchy and the other States' outright total socialism. There is some balance in the middle for a civil society to function.”