Your tax bill would need to double to close the deficit

If you think the deficit should be closed in 2010, be ready to pay more than twice what your currently pay in taxes. That's what the nonpartisan Tax Foundation found in its new report. In order to close the 2010 deficit, joint filers would need to pay at tax rates of 24.3% to 84.9% versus the current 10% to 35% we actually pay.

"Assuming deductions, exemptions and credits were kept the same as they are now, Congress would have to raise each personal income tax rate by a factor of almost two and a half to erase the 2010 deficit," William Ahern, Tax Foundation director of policy and communications, wrote in his report titled, "Can Income Tax Hikes Close the Deficit."