OK, WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF FREDO'S TAX CUTS LAPSED?

I know the wingnuts, especially the tax freaks, will claim all sorts of REALLY bad things but the WaPo reports that effects on most of us are greatly exaggerated.

Here's what Fredo claimed:

"Some in Washington argue that letting tax relief expire is not a tax increase. Try explaining that to 116 million American taxpayers who would see their taxes rise by an average of $1,800..."

As usual, the truth is much different:

Here's another way of looking at it: the median American household will pay roughly $828 more in taxes in 2011 if the Bush tax cuts expire, according to the Tax Policy Center, a non-ideological think tank venture. The richest 1 percent of American households, in contrast, would have to pay an extra $64,154 a year when the tax cuts expire.

It would be a simple matter to confine the renewed taxes to the highest brackets and make up for the difference in revenue by raising the tax on hedge fund managers (and others) from 15% to 35%.