Is the economy more affected by the size of the debt or by worrying about whether or not we will pay 3% more in TAXABLE income taxes?  That's an easy one for me.

The Bush administration implemented tax cuts and then tried to avoid raising taxes to help finance the war effort. They weren't the first to do the latter, and the argument is usually based upon the (mostly incorrect) notion that the wars will be short and not very costly, and can thus be easily incorporated into the existing budget. What was fraudulent was the argument that no financial sacrifice was necessary for this or future generations - by cutting taxes revenues would actually go up (and it just so happened that the taxes that supposedly had this effect were mostly paid by the wealthy supporters of those making the arguments). Anyone paying attention knew these arguments were wrong, that there was no empirical support for the idea that the Bush tax cuts would miraculously be self-financing, but people made the arguments anyway, and those on the right who knew better, those in a position to stand up and protest loudly and make a difference instead fell silent and allowed this fraud to be perpetuated. The inclination to minimize the political fallout from wars by taking a rosy view of the necessary budgetary implications is one thing. Dishonesty, willful ignorance, and enabling by silence is quite another.  All that being said, we need to start paying for the war efforts, even if it is after the fact.  Maybe if the American public had been more invested (taxed) in the war effort we as a nation would have paid more attention to where our money was going.

This link provides a good breakdown of tax increases at varying taxable income levels, single or married, under 2 scenarios: tax cuts expire and Obama's plan.  Keep in mind, taxable income is NOT the same as salary due to the various deductions for filers.  Get your calculator and you can easily see that someone making $40,000 will not be paying anywhere close to $200-$225 a month in additional taxes.  Especially when you take the standard deductions, etc. off of the $40,000.  Shame on you, Mike and Ben.  YOU LIE!!
http://www.smartonmoney.com/bush-tax-cuts-set-to-expire-in-2011-will-you-be-paying-more/