Employment is the Guiding Light

It seems like all the talk of stopping stimulus programs and letting tax cuts expire is being held in a vacuum. By what measure does Washington have the right to make any changes until the unemployment rate comes down to a less dire level, for sake of argument at least less than 8 percent. Certainly neither the stock market or GNP numbers are an indication of the health of our nation or more importantly its people.

Since neither side really shows a desire to tackle the deficits in a real way at this point, if the Democrats were smart they would tie leaving tax rates unchanged with a continuing active Stimulus program and continuing unemployment benefits.  With that premise the 8 percent unemployment rate (maybe a 3 month average to shake out loose numbers) would become the trigger to eliminate the tax cuts for those over $ 250,000 income and shut down stimulus programs.