Congressional Republicans shouldn't give President Barack Obama the tax increases he wants without getting something in return.

Many of the Republicans strongly opposed to tax increases believe Obama won the election because of voting irregularities in some states. They might find a tax increase more acceptable if the legislation were accompanied by appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of voting irregularities.

I don't know how valid the allegations are or if the actions could actually have changed the outcome of the election. However, ignoring these allegations won't make them disappear. Those who believe the allegations are valid will treat the failure to investigate as a cover up and wait for an opportunity to bring the subject up at a later time.

Any tax increases should include extending the Social Security tax to apply to all income received from an employer rather than just the first $110,000. The tax would apply to the incomes of employees like athletes and tv actors as well as employees like business executives. If lower income employees can afford to pay the Social Security tax on their incomes, then higher income employees can afford to pay taxes on the income above that normally subject to the Social Security tax. This tax would not be applied to business owners whose personal income and business income are the same. The tax would only apply to paid employees.

An option would be to add a temporary surtax that would be in effect until the deficit fell below some stated amount. Other tax increases could also be temporary with the duration and rate depending on the size of the deficit.

Congress should consider a temporary suspension of all tax credits with the duration of the suspension depending upon the size of the deficit. Many federal grant programs to state and local governments should be suspended as long as the deficit is too high.

Congress should stop talking about Medicare and Medicaid fraud and do something about it including hiring more investigators to the job and making executives in companies that engage in fraud subject to criminal prosecution.

Someone needs to tell those who don't want an investigation of election allegations that ignoring questions of scandal can make the scandal seem worse than it is. The Watergate burglary during the Nixon administration wasn't that big a deal, but the cover up made it a major scandal. Public opinion polls conducted in early 1973 [before Senate hearings] and early 1974 {after Senate hearings] indicated no change in what people believed happened but there was a change in how people viewed the significance of the scandal. Politicians never seem to learn that attempting to cover up "scandals" only makes the situation seem worse.

The recent election attracted a lot of support from various financial interests. A major scandal involving the financial interests who supported Obama would demonstrate a motive for "stealing" the election and increase the perception that the election was stolen and Obama is a crook.

I'm concerned about the potential for protests about the election turning violent. This has happened in other countries when governments have ignored complaints about election fraud.

I remember the sixties and would rather not go through something like that again.