Tax squabbling earns Congress failing grade

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — If members of Congress were taking a tax policy course, chances are good they’d get an “F.”

With 29 days left in the year, Democrats and Republicans are still posturing over the Bush tax cuts, the biggest of the major tax issues they have left to the last minute.

“If I was going to be nice I would give them an incomplete. But that is way too nice,” said Rosanne Altshuler, a professor at Rutgers who specializes in the economics of taxation.

Nearly all the big tax issues that were on the docket at the start of the year are still on the docket. That in turn has bred a high level of uncertainty among taxpayers.

The fate of the expiring Bush tax cuts is just the most high-profile item. There’s also the fate of the estate tax, a host of “usual suspect” tax breaks like a research and development credit, and a temporary fix to prevent the Alternative Minimum Tax from hitting more than 20 million taxpayers.

Read the full article here: http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/02/news/economy/bush_tax_cuts/index.htm