While I don't want my taxes going up... It's time American's pay the bill for everything the government provides. In general, we have been taking advantage of government programs but not paying for them, the cost is pushed to future years. It's easy to use government services when you don't have to pay the full cost. Align taxes with the actual spending. Taxes will go up and then American's will have a clear understanding of the true cost.

In future elections... Americans will vote for the party that increases or decreases spending and taxes depending on the value that they experience.

There is no paying the bills, it has never been done before. Nonsense from people who think raising taxes = more government revenue = paying down the debt are completely duped. Spending never goes down, reduction in government programs never happens. Sadly, we have a President who succeeded in blaming others for the mess he made and intends to make in the furure.

No one likes to pay taxes. But I like living in a civilized country. I like to have good schools, streets, water, fire and police protection, library services, garbage pickup, clean air, medical services for all. I feel that the Republican party, although perhaps well-intentioned, has become the selfish party. I am blessed with a fantastic life and I'm willing to give back to help ensure it stays that way.

Stop the printing of money (40B per month - QE3 - 480B per year). Get out of Afghanistan (170B+ per Year). Withdraw our troops from other countries the the USA is in.. Just by doing those two or three things you can save more than you would by raising taxes.

Extend the extended federal jobless benefits but put various stipulation on the benefits - You must volunteer in your community on a daily basis. Clean the parks, Help at the Schools.

Yes, these people are looking for new work but it does not take 8 hours a day 5 days a week or 20-22 days per month. If they want to receive these benefits let them work for 4 hours per day and look for work the other 4 hours per day.

Instead of raising taxes on everybody making over 250,000 or $400,000 per year, why not just raise the tax rate on the house, senate and the president. They are the ones that have actually let us create the deficit.

Leave Social Security alone. It is something that we have paid into our entire working life. It is not an entitlement.

That's NONSENSE!! We already GIVE them hundreds of billions of OUR hard earned tax dollars and they manage to squander much of it on useless pet projects and PORK!! Washington/Springfield needs to learn to live within they're means, just like everyone else, but it's SO EASY to spend money that's not yours!!!

Couple of other things. The federal government needs to do a RIF (Reduction In workForce). Why should the federal government be so large? Why not finally have the federal books be audited? A private company does that yearly, why not audit them and find out where the money is really being spent

The Congress and Senate, both have nothing but millionairs running the country, and the vast majority pay no taxes, and use their politcal venues to get richer and educate their children. The tax hike would cut into their pockets and while they want everybody else to pay for our country and for their mistakes, they themselves want to eliminate themselves from the from the very fiasco they created!

Didn't Patch already run an article on this? Who cares at this point since the outcome has been decided.

Cool...there's that 47% figure again. Who'da thunk it!! Enjoy the ride!

We can't just keep spending money with no thought of what happens when the debt comes due. I wonder how many homes were lost by federal employees, compared to homes lost by the private sector. The government has become a big Ponzi scheme, paying for its programs with our childrens future, and keeping itself in office by buying everyone ice cream.

Don't you just love this poll? Appears almost half are voting for tax increases for others as long as they don't have to pay more.
Wonder how many people understand what spending and not paying for it does to us?
How we all will pay one way or another.
The middle class is the only place there is enough money to make a dent into Obama's spending.

Hey patch......thats not obamas plan.

His plan is raise taxes on 250k and no spending cuts. Cut the bs.

And thats not the the republican plan either.....nice journalism.

I agree 110% with Abigail and Dan!
When will this "sense of entitlement" stop?
Taxes are breaking the backs of small to mid-sized companies where the majority of new jobs are created.

Time to pay the piper in our country--let's start with having ALL eligible people be required to do some kind of work (unless they are truly handicapped, elderly, etc.).
Serious cuts are needed NOW in U.S. spending or we will never be able to get ourselves out of debt with our huge deficit.

Isn't the Patch owned by the Huffington Post? Kind of explains the BS, doesn't it.

It is going to cost me but let it roll over the cliff. We need to cut costs and raise taxes. Then we need to pass an amendment where congress cannot pass any legislation which exempts government workers including congressmen and senators.

Did you all hear that Obama gave Biden & Congress a raise? Does anyone care that they are being rewarded for their incompetence? Does anyone care that we have a lot of people in this country barely making ends meet? Certainly Obama & the rest of our government in Washington does not. If any of them accept this raise, they should be voted out the next time they are up for election. This is almost as bad as Nero playinv music while Rome was burning.

Cut your salary s and pensions should only be give for 2-4 yrs while in office You are all elected officials by our great nation under god. Or have you forgotten that greed kills and there's soo many homeless people out there how are you going to support our nation if we go into a recession?
Kim
Evanston ill

To complete my thought. If something isn't done about the outrageous spending in Washington, we might as well be Rome. I am disgusted with all our elected officials in D.C. They just don't care about the American people. SHAME ON THEM!! BTW when I post ftom my phone, my posts always have "Reject" on them.

I'm convinced that things will never change as long as we are led by politicians who don't actually have to sign checks and keep our acct. in balance. Hell, i might be different, too, if all i had to do was print more money and not worry about who was going to pay for it.

Obama plan= way more taxes and even more spending.

Repub plan= less taxes and much less spending.

Please fix the choices

Another recession, we are still in one for the last four years !!!!!

Get rid of taxes permanently.

Damage done by Hurricane Sandy demonstrates the need for investment in our infrastructure. This would also provide jobs which in turn provides revenue in the taxes paid by the newly employed workers. This is only one example of why we must invest in our country if we expect it to grow our economy. Spending cuts must be carefully selected. Remember Social Security and Medicare are not "entitlements". We have been paying into these programs of insurance all of our lives. Many of my family have died before collecting any "benefits" from their investments. Select cuts wisely. The proposed pentagon cuts are less than 10% of it's total budget which has doubled over recent years - this is not an unreasonable amount as spending on wars have diminished greatly.

If congress is consistant they will do nothing and default solves the problem through sequestration. What a sorry crew. http://www.schoolanduniversity.com/
After the recession eats up everyone's pension and the estate values of the wealthy drop three times what they could have paid in taxes congress might be urged to wake up. Until then hold on to your hats and prepare for a dive.

The tax rate hikes will not raise more revenue, look at California where their revenues are down after tax rate hikes. The mattress becomes a favored money place instead of spending or investing, since Obamacare fees, income tax hikes, and bad economy make for 1% GDP. Good luck with more unemployed.

The brilliance of sequestration has eluded our partisan news media. Why tinker with it?

Hey Glen.....

You haven't had your Kool Aid yet. Drink up !!! You mean annual GDP "growth" of about 2.5% isn't real growth when your government borrows and spends 8% of total GDP to achieve 2.5% "growth" ? Perhaps the missing 5.5% is lining the pockets of government employees and teachers etc... We're still in "recession"?

Next thing you're going to be telling me is that we will soon be seeing some hellish inflation and an economy that's dead in it's tracks.

You might want to Google "Depression" ....it will get you to Wickipedia which will detail how governments don't like to use the "D- word"...and that events like the TARP program which,in effect, nationalized all the banks, are seminal events which by their nature define a depression (vs. recession). Seems the "D-word" has a certain stigma attached to it.

But hey, who needs an education. Just look at the competency rating of District 219 grads. 60% or less. I hope Mr. Robert Silverman (school board head for 20 years now) and Ms. Nanciann Gatta (Niles West Principal, $299,000 annual compensation) are proud of their joint "accomplishments"

In the meantime, watch as the home foreclosures drag on...enjoy Illinois now 100 Billion unfunded pension programs and choke as Cook County continues to rob those of us who have not yet lost our homes (through property taxes, for those who have never owned real estate). First one out WINS !!!

For those who didn't vote BO ...enjoy the ride!

Hey Glen,

Let's just just pray the Public Sector gets clipped like the private sector and that those pensions fade into the twilight....hell you had mighty fine salaries while you were at it... our "public servants" and educators.

Why do companies keep complaining that graduates don't possess the skills they are looking for anyway?

For those who didn't vote BO ...enjoy the ride! This car doesn't have any brakes!
But hey, ain't Obama a "cool president". He needs a street name...

I suggest CC BO...for "cool and clueless".

Actually, I think 47% might have been a tad low.

Grover just rolled you over.