Quiz Challenge: Key Issues Facing Congress

With Congress returning from recess next week, we’ll post a quiz each morning this week on a key issue facing lawmakers this fall. Today’s topic: President Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which are due to expire at the end of this year.

We’ll post the answers each afternoon. If you keep score on your own and send an email to [email protected] at the end of the week with your score, we’ll send you one of our newly-designed Center on Budget T-shirts.

Here’s today’s quiz:

1. What are the “high-income” Bush tax cuts?

   a. Tax cuts for the two percent of people with the highest incomes

   b. Tax cuts for the five percent of people with the highest incomes

   c. Tax cuts for the ten percent of people with the highest incomes

   d. Tax cuts for the fifteen percent of people with the highest incomes

2. How much federal revenue would be saved in 2011 by letting the high-income tax cuts expire?

   a. $5 billion

   b. $15 billion

   c. $25 billion

   d. $40 billion

3. How much would extending the high-income tax cuts add to budget deficits over the next ten years?

   a. $200 billion

   b. $400 billion

   c. $600 billion

   d. $1 trillion

4. True/False The average middle-income household receives the highest dollar benefit from the middle-income tax cuts.
5. True/False An extension of the high-income tax cuts would mostly benefit small businesses.