Showing posts with label Fiscal Cliff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fiscal Cliff. Show all posts

Friday, September 20, 2013

Heritage Action: Today’s vote is a victory for the American people, who should not be forced to spend another dime on Obamacare.

◼ You mad, bro? @BarackObama throws snicker-worthy tantrum over defund Obamacare vote - Twitchy

◼ Rep. Steve King said Friday that if the government shuts down, it will be “the equivalent of a political tantrum” from President Barack Obama. - Politico

◼ Republicans are in for a rude awakening. House Democrats want a government shutdown they can blame on Republicans. And they see a clean, Senate-passed Continuing Resolution as giving them exactly that. - Conn Carroll/Washington Examiner @conncarroll

◼ With Two Weeks to Go, 36 States Can't Say How Much Obamacare Will Cost - KevinC/Ricochet
◼ Pricing Glitch Afflicts Rollout of Online Health Exchanges - Wall St. Journal
at Labels: , , , , ,

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Get A Bill Passed, Mr. Speaker

◼ link - Hugh Hewitt/Townhall

There are at least three more showdowns with the president ahead, one of them in the immediate future as the debt limit looms. The president began this round last week, and was backed up in his posturing by Chuck Schumer. The president says he won’t negotiate over the debt limit. Schumer says “Yeah, that’s the ticket. No negotiation, unless taxes go up.”

Mitch McConnell has replied for the Congressional GOP and has done so forcefully, stating bluntly the tax hikes are over.

The Speaker has been silent and his leadership team has adopted his reticence.

The clock is ticking. The president and the Senate Dems are racing out to the same sort of lead that Alabama established last night. The House GOP has to get into the game, and soon.

Speaker Boehner has committed the House to return to “regular order.” I discussed this last week with Congressmen John Campbell and Paul Ryan and Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul and yesterday with Senator Pat Toomey.

“Regular order” means that the House will pass a bill, send it to the Senate and wait for its return in a wholly different form, or with slight amendment, and then summon a conference of House and Senate negotiators to hammer out the details pending final votes in both houses and then referral to the president for his signature or veto.

The promise to return to “regular order” comes as the Republicans in Congress prepare to confront the president over the country’s out-of-control spending binge. The president wants to raise the limit on the country’s credit card –the “debt ceiling”—and the Republicans won’t do that unless spending reforms are put into place, specifically, reforms of entitlement spending.
at Labels: , , , , , , , ,

The bill had tax breaks for “everyone but the American people.”



◼ From Terri Hall, Examiner: "[Last night] Pat Caddell, committed Democrat and political film consultant, received a standing ovation from a room full of Texas conservatives. - Breitbart

Women on the Wall hosted an awards banquet honoring Texas women activists on the eve of the Texas legislature convening in Austin, and Caddell headlined the event. He perfectly articulated what’s broken in politics today: government no longer operates by the consent of the governed, it’s rigged against the ordinary citizen by lobbyists, special interests, and corruption, and as a Gallup poll announced today, two-thirds of Americans believe Congress cares more about retaining their power, even to the detriment of the country, than they do about serving and preserving the country.

Caddell called such sentiment a “pre-revolutionary condition” and said, “this country is on the verge of an explosion.”
at Labels: , , ,

Monday, January 7, 2013

For High Income Earners, Time for a ‘Tax’ Divorce


◼ Of all the known reasons for getting a divorce, we bet you never heard this one before. You both make too much money to stay together! - JACQUELINE LEO/The Fiscal Times

Sounds ridiculous, right? But the new fiscal cliff tax law that saved 99 percent of the country from massive tax hikes made a beeline for love-struck yuppies.

The new law raises taxes on couples making more than $450,000 and individuals making more than $400,000. When their accountant told them they may have to limit their deductions because of their joint incomes as well, they asked her to run the numbers and come up with an alternative.

At their next meeting, she presented them with two options—file as a married couple and pay the piper, or divorce and file as “single.” As it turns out, George and Martha would save over $27,000 a year if they divorced. And so they did. But they’re still together, in some ways closer than ever.

They started their own business geared to couples like them called “MisMatch.com.” They analyze people’s taxes based on marital status, types of investments, etc., and try to save people a bundle. George and Martha’s next step—design new software to compete with the big tax programs for people at all levels of the tax code….and be able to change it on a dime.
at Labels: , ,

Friday, January 4, 2013

#WhyIsMyPaycheckLessThisWeek

◼ Why is my paycheck less this week? A hashtag reality check for perplexed Obama voters - Twitchy













◼ Workers making $30,000 will take a bigger hit on their pay than those earning $500,000 under new fiscal deal- Hayley Peterson/Daily Mail

◼ Hope and less change: Americans cringe at first paychecks of 2013; Stunned lib asks, ‘What happened?’ - Twitchy

◼ Ha! Big Labor tries to hijack #WhyIsMyPaycheckLessThisWeek, gets hashtag wrong - Twitchy

The hashtag trended for much of Friday, making it irresistible to Big Labor Obama apologists eager to put their left-wing spin on smaller paychecks and Obama’s broken promises. But oopsie! They tried to hijack the wrong hashtag.

Working America, an AFL-CIO allied organization, published a post titled “The Answer to #WhyMyPaycheckIsLessThisWeek (Warning: Contains Facts).” Yep, the “is” is in the wrong place in that hashtag. But that didn’t stop the geniuses at SEIU and AFL-CIO from rushing to promote the post.







Awwww. Twitter is so hard. Better luck next time, guys.

◼ Crushed unicorn dreams: Why is my paycheck less turns to Obama vote regrets, ‘I should have voted Romney’ - Twitchy

at Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Political parties and movements sometimes have to limit the damage that a different course of action would entail; they cannot make “limit the damage” their slogan and battle cry.

◼ Limiting the Damage - The Editors/National Review
Taxes are going up on almost everyone. The government is trying to extract additional revenue from the economy in the most economically damaging way possible, with tax-rate increases that undermine incentives to work, save, and invest. This is happening at a time when economic growth has been weak, and when many credible observers are concerned that its trend level has permanently declined. The federal debt, meanwhile, is sure to keep rising, largely as a result of the out-of-control growth of entitlement programs. Elected officials are barely trying to restrain that growth, let alone succeeding.

Conservatives have every reason to be dismayed by this picture, and to seek to change it. It would be a mistake, however, to regard the fiscal-cliff deal that has just passed Congress as an important cause of these destructive trends. The deal actually makes federal budget policy slightly less disastrous.
On the plus side:
The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts were set to expire at the end of 2012. Most Democrats campaigned for office saying that they would refuse to extend these tax cuts in their entirety, but would instead extend only those for people making less than $250,000 a year. Voters unwisely gave those Democrats control of the White House and Senate. After the last few weeks of wrangling, Republicans nonetheless got the Democrats to agree to extend the tax rates of the last decade for people making between $250,000 and $400,000 a year — indeed, to extend them indefinitely, with no scheduled expiration date.

The scheduled increase in tax rates put Republicans in a difficult position that gave rise to legitimate tactical disagreements. For the last two months it has often seemed that at any gathering of ten conservatives there would be twelve positions on what to do. But conservatives should not confuse disagreements over tactics with ones over principle.
On the other hand:
Mark Levin: "I feel confident the Bill Buckley I grew up watching, reading, & admiring would be appalled by NRO's editorial today"
at Labels: , ,

Why the House Couldn’t Amend the Deal

◼ A lot of conservatives in the House wanted to add spending cuts to the Senate deal and spent hours trying to figure out if they could pass a version of the deal that included them. They failed, though, for the same reason Speaker Boehner’s “Plan B” failed. - Ramesh Ponnuru/National Review

You may recall that Boehner wanted the House to pass a bill that blocked income-tax increases for everyone making less than $1 million a year but allowed scheduled increases to take place for people who make more. He couldn’t get such a bill through the House, though, because Democrats wanted a bigger tax increase and a lot of Republicans didn’t want to appear to be endorsing tax increases for anyone. Republicans especially didn’t want to vote “for tax increases” since Boehner’s bill probably wasn’t going to become law. From their perspective, they would be sullying their voting records for nothing.

A deal-plus-spending-cuts bill faced the same hurdle. Republicans had to find 218 votes from their ranks alone; Democrats weren’t going to supply any votes for a bill to the right of the Senate deal. And a lot of Republicans didn’t want to vote “for” tax increases — bigger ones than many of them had rejected when Plan B was being considered. Again, they especially didn’t want to do that when the bill had a good chance of dying in the Senate.

In short: A lot of Republicans wished the deal included more spending cuts without being willing to vote for a deal with more spending cuts. That’s why this effort failed. (Comments at the link)
at Labels: , ,

Bringing in the New Year


◼ Branco Cartoon – Winning - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion
◼ A.F. Branco Political Cartoons


Via Lucianne

at Labels: , ,

Among the Seven Deadly Sins, not even Lust is more important than Envy when it comes to electing Democrats

◼ All-Purpose Scapegoats: Fiscal-cliff deal won’t end the Democrat war against “the rich.” - Robert Stacy McCain/American Spectator

Good-bye, “tax cuts for the rich.” If the legislation passed on New Year’s Day means nothing else, it should at least put an end to a rhetorical trope that Democrats have been pounding for the past decade. This has been the essence of the Democrat party’s economic message since the enactment of the “Bush tax cuts” in 2002: Everything that is wrong with the economy — and with the federal budget — can be attributed to the fact that the rich aren’t paying enough taxes....

Americans have been repeatedly told in recent years that “the rich” (however that term is defined) are not paying “their fair share” of taxes, and that this greedy unfairness is the explanation of anything that needs explaining. Did the local factory lay off workers? The rich are not paying their fair share! Is your daughter struggling to repay her student loans? The rich are not paying their fair share!

Especially in the “swing states” during last year’s election campaign, voters heard this Democrat message so often, in so many iterations, that it must have seemed like the universal panacea, a sort of snake-oil miracle cure. Whatever your problem — obesity, dandruff, halitosis, chronic flatulence — the Democrats promised to cure it by finally forcing the rich to Pay Their Fair Share. This message proved to be amply satisfactory to people too stupid or too lazy to bother themselves with arithmetic. Perhaps it is not entirely a coincidence that comparatively few of those math-deficient voters are themselves rich....

Sen. Rand Paul explained this in a New Year’s Eve floor speech before he voted against the deal. “Mark my word, you will raise tax rates and you’ll feel good because you went out there and you got those rich people,” the Kentucky Republican told his colleagues before they voted 89-8 in favor of the bill. “You campaigned against rich people and you got enough envy whipped up in the country, and you’re going to stick it to those rich people. But guess what? You may not get any more revenue. You may not get any more economic growth. But you can say, ‘I stuck it to the rich people.’”
at Labels: , , , , ,

Senate Received 154-Page Bill Only 3 Minutes Before Voting on it...

◼ The bill is 154-pages and includes several provisions that are unrelated to the fiscal cliff, including repealing a section of ObamaCare, extending the wind-energy tax credit, and a rum tax subsidy deal for Puerto Rican rum makers. - CNS

◼ Report: Senators received 154-page fiscal cliff bill 3 minutes before voting on it - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin
at Labels: , ,

MONEY'S NO OBJECT: Obama heads back to Hawaii -- at taxpayer cost of $7 million...Left town without signing bill!

◼ Obama Returns to Hawaii at an Added Cost of Over $3 Million - White House Dossier
In a move that is rich in irony, President Obama agreed Tuesday night to sign an emergency deficit reduction bill that does almost nothing to rein in spending and then jetted out to Hawaii to resume his vacation at an extra cost of more than $3 million to taxpayers.

The price tag is in addition to more than $4 million that is already being spent on the Obamas’ Hawaii idyll, bringing the total cost of the excursion to well over $7 million.

The added cost was incurred because by the time the Obamas return from Hawaii – whenever that is – the president will have used Air Force One to travel to Honolulu and back twice.
◼ Obama In Hawaii, Fiscal Cliff Standoff Behind Him - CBS/DC

◼ Deal Means Higher Tax on 77% of Households...FEW SPARED: Average tax increase will be $1,635... - Bloomberg
More than 80 percent of households with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 would pay higher taxes. Among the households facing higher taxes, the average increase would be $1,635, the policy center said. A 2 percent payroll tax cut, enacted during the economic slowdown, is being allowed to expire as of yesterday.

The heaviest new burdens in 2013, compared with 2012, would fall on top earners, who would face higher rates on income, capital gains, dividends and estates. The top 1 percent of taxpayers, or those with incomes over $506,210, would pay an average of $73,633 more in taxes.
◼ Bosses: Don't blame us for smaller paychecks...

◼ CBO: 'Fiscal cliff' deal carries $4 trillion price tag over next decade - The Hill

◼ Paul Ryan votes 'yes'; Cantor 'no'... - yahoo



◼ GOP torn in half... - LA Times

◼ Reminder: Most Americans’ taxes are still going up - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin
While President Obama is taking credit for saving the middle class from tax increases, what isn’t being trumpeted across the land is that the Biden/McConnell deal did not include an extension of the payroll tax cut. This means that this year over three-quarters of earners will be paying — you guessed it — higher taxes... And let’s not forget to add the new Obamacare taxes to the mix — the same ones that even Democrats who voted for the law have admitted will be job killers. There will be no unaffected taxpayers.
at Labels: , , , , ,

Though Congress and the President have known for two years that they would have to do something about all the expiring tax rates, they waited until after the deadline had passed. This resulted in lawmaking for which “irresponsible” is not a strong enough word.

◼ Taxes to Rise on Most American Workers - Amy Payne/heritage Morning Bell

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called it “a happy start to a new year.” That probably tells you all you need to know about the fiscal cliff deal that passed the House last night.

The bill—which President Obama has promised to sign, though he took off for Hawaii again after the vote—has a 10 to 1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts. This is the President’s version of a “balanced” approach.

In addition to tax increases on Americans making more than $250,000 a year, the bipartisan deal will actually raise taxes on the vast majority of American workers. How? The payroll tax “holiday” has ended. The Wall Street Journal calculates that the “typical U.S. family earning $50,000 a year” will lose “an annual income boost of $1,000.”

Meanwhile, the higher tax rates will hit small businesses and investors—which is grim news for a country in need of new jobs.

“It is the small businesses that employ the most workers who will pay the higher rates,” explains Heritage’s Curtis Dubay. “These tax hikes on investment will further dampen investment and result in even less job creation. This is more bad news for the 12 million unemployed Americans.”

While the President touted a “balance” of tax hikes and spending cuts, the truth is that the bill increases government spending by about $330 billion.

Though Congress and the President have known for two years that they would have to do something about all the expiring tax rates, they waited until after the deadline had passed. This resulted in lawmaking for which “irresponsible” is not a strong enough word.

The Senate voted without knowing the cost of the bill—the Congressional Budget Office had not even had time to go through it.

The legislation passed both chambers of Congress within a 24-hour period on a holiday, which meant that Members of Congress—much less the American people—did not have time to find out what was in the 157-page bill....More at the link.
at Labels: , ,

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans who voted for the unsatisfactory package and ensured its passage knew that the alternative was a devastating tax hike for all Americans that would harm the economy

◼ Cliff Win May Be Obama’s Last - Jonathan S. Tobin/Commentary

President Obama got the best of both worlds with the passage of the deal to prevent the country going over the fiscal cliff. He got the massive tax hike on wealthier Americans that he wanted and paid for it with no spending cuts. Though he acted throughout the crisis as if he might prefer the political advantage that he would gain by a Republican refusal to pass these measures, the avoidance of the cliff prevents the economy from going into a tailspin that would blight his second term. And he accomplished all this while making his Republicans looking bad with the passage of the compromise being accomplished despite overwhelming opposition from the House majority caucus.

But the president’s claim that he wouldn’t have another with Republicans about taxes and spending in the future was a hollow challenge. House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans who voted for the unsatisfactory package and ensured its passage knew that the alternative was a devastating tax hike for all Americans that would harm the economy and hurt their party for years to come. Though liberals have often claimed that it was the GOP and its Tea Party faction that was holding the nation hostage, this time it was the Democrats who were the ones with a gun to the heads of the nation. It was either vote for a tax increase for some and no spending cuts or see middle class America pay a terrible price. These circumstances won’t apply in the coming months when the debt ceiling and other budgetary measures must be passed. Though the cliff bill was a win for the president, he isn’t likely to have one like this again....

Far from silencing the Republicans, this debate will ensure that the House majority will be even more determined in the future to oppose the tax increases that the president has said he will push for in the future. Nor will they allow him to get anything passed without addressing the one thing that he has refused to contemplate in any serious manner: entitlement reform. He also won’t be able to count on dividing the GOP caucus as he did this time as Speaker Boehner’s desire to do the right thing by the country estranged him from not only the Tea Partiers but much of his own leadership team. If there’s anything Obama should expect it is that this is the last time Boehner will allow House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to outflank him with most Republicans siding with him against the speaker...
at Labels: , ,

DRUDGE HEADLINES

◼ REPUBLICAN HORROR NEW YEAR - Washington Post
◼ PLAYED: $1 IN CUTS FOR EVERY $41 IN TAXES... - Matthew Boyle/Breitbart
◼ Deal Means Higher Tax on 77% of Households... - Richard Rubin/Bloomberg
◼ CBO: ADDS $3.9 TRILLION MORE TO DEFICIT... - Peter Schroeder/The Hill
◼ HOLLYWOOD GETS BREAK... - Breitbart News
The Senate passed legislation meant to end the "fiscal cliff" crisis in the wee hours of the morning. And it seems Hollywood's rigorous backing of President Barack Obama and his Democrat peers in the waning months of 2012 paid off.

Section 317 of the freshly approved legislation includes an extension for "special expensing rules for certain film and television productions." Congress first enacted production tax incentives favorable to the domestic entertainment industry in 2004, and extended them in 2008, but the deal was meant to expire in 2011.

The fiscal cliff deal extends the tax incentives through 2013--even as payroll taxes rise on ordinary Americans....AFTER RECORD BOXOFFICE YEAR
◼ NASCAR PARTY FAVORS BURIED IN BILL... - Joel Pollak/Breitbart
◼ MILLIONS FOR RUM PRODUCERS... - ABC
‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Also Doles Out Millions for Hollywood, Railroads, Rum Producers
$59 million for algae growers...
◼ BREAKOUT: CANTOR MAKES HIS MOVE... - Politico
◼ Harry Reid: 'Everyone's just as tired as I am'... - Politico
◼ Krauthammer: Cliff deal 'surrender'... - Politico
◼ Kristol: Say Yes to the Mess... - Weekly Standard

Twitter:


at Labels: ,

Obama is already blathering about more tax increases, because when you’re spending like an insane Roman Emperor, then you’re going to need a lot of tax hikes to at least make it look to your supporters like you’re not completely insane. None of these tax hikes have even come close to reducing the deficit, instead we’re looking at a 20+ trillion dollar deficit before too long.

◼ Three years ago, when Pelosi held the Senate, Democrats were sneering at the Senate as the “House of Lords”. Now the House of Lords has delivered a bill chock full of spending and short on spending cuts, and the House of Commoners appears to be holding the line. - Daniel Greenfield/Front Page Magazine

This battle is a good thing and it may end up doing for the Republican Party in 2014 what the ObamaCare debate did in 2010 by giving the Republican Party renewed energy and fight after a loss. And Obama’s obnoxious behavior may be backfiring by leading to the backlash ahead of schedule...
at Labels: , , , , , , ,

ALL TAX, NO CUTS...330 BILLION DOLLAR BUST

◼ Deficit 'fiscal cliff' bill actually spends $330 billion more - Washington Times

◼ SEE What tax hike really means for budget...Putting America's Tax Hike In Perspective - Tyler Durden/Zerohedge

◼ Frustration mounts Politico

“The Speaker said what’s been painfully obvious to us for a long time: the President wants to go over the fiscal cliff and he’s going to get his way,” said Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas)....

“This is disgusting for everybody involved” said Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio). “I think we have to have some spending cuts and the fact that the President won’t challenge his party on spending cuts is disgusting, the fact that we’re not where we need to be on the revenues is disgusting…and it’s just disgusting.”

◼ OBAMA DECLARES VICTORY... - Politico

"At this make or break moment for the middle class, the President achieved a bipartisan solution that keeps income taxes low for the middle class and grows the economy," the statement says. "For the first time in 20 years, Congress will have acted on a bipartisan basis to vote for significant new revenue.

◼ UNCERTAIN FUTURE IN HOUSE... - CNN

◼ House GOP opposition to fiscal cliff bill grows

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/senate-clears-fiscal-cliff-deal-89-8-85640.html#ixzz2GldRzJ9P - Politico

House Republicans now seem almost certain to tweak the legislation and send it back to the Senate because they believe it lacks sufficient spending cuts. But that would require the Senate to reconsider the measure before the new Congress is sworn in on Thursday, something officials say is all but impossible because any member can object to an effort to schedule a quick vote.

◼ House Leadership Statement on Senate Agreement

WASHINGTON, DC - House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) issued the following statement on the Senate agreement:
“The House will honor its commitment to consider the Senate agreement if it is passed. Decisions about whether the House will seek to accept or promptly amend the measure will not be made until House members -- and the American people -- have been able to review the legislation.”

◼ The good, bad & ugly of the ‘fiscal cliff’ deal - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner @philipklein

The Good

At the start of 2013, income taxes were scheduled to go up on nearly every American, but if this deal becomes law, roughly 99 percent of taxpayers would be protected from those tax hikes. For over a decade, Democrats opposed the Bush tax cuts and prevented them from becoming permanent. Now, they have voted overwhelmingly to preserve about 84 percent of the dreaded cuts, which for years they demagogued as only benefitting the very rich....

The Bad

Taxes are still going to go up. Even with the cut off at $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families, the deal is still going to suck more money out of the economy and hit small businesses. And this is on top of the Obamacare tax hikes already slated to go into effect in 2013 – an additional Medicare tax, higher taxes on investment income and a tax on medical devices.

The ugly

Taxes are still going to go up. Even with the cut off at $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families, the deal is still going to suck more money out of the economy and hit small businesses. And this is on top of the Obamacare tax hikes already slated to go into effect in 2013 – an additional Medicare tax, higher taxes on investment income and a tax on medical devices.

Also, the deal doesn’t represent actual movement toward a simplified tax code with fewer deductions and lower rates. Instead, it extends a whole lot of special interest tax benefits.

Also, the deal doesn’t represent actual movement toward a simplified tax code with fewer deductions and lower rates. Instead, it extends a whole lot of special interest tax benefits.
at Labels: , , , , , ,

"And you got enough envy whipped up in the country. And you’re going to stick it to those rich people. But guess what? You may not get any more revenue."



“Mark my word, you’ll raise tax rates and you feel good because you went out there and you got those rich people. You said you were. You campaigned against rich people. And you got enough envy whipped up in the country. And you’re going to stick it to those rich people. But guess what? You may not get any more revenue. You may not get anymore economic growth. But you can say, “I stuck it to the rich people.”"
at Labels: , , , , , ,

$41 in tax increases for every $1 in spending cuts

◼ US Senate passes bill to avert fiscal cliff; $41 in tax increases for every $1 in spending cuts; Conservatives say, ‘Thanks for the crap sandwich’ - Twitchy
at Labels: , , , , ,

“Of course, many Americans will be relieved in the short term that their taxes won't go up. However in the long run, they will be hurt when employers pass on to them one of the largest tax hikes in decades. Furthermore, this deal just postpones the inevitable, the need to solve our growing debt crisis and help the 23 million Americans who can't find the work they need.”

◼ U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today issued the following statement after voting against the so-called deal to avert the fiscal cliff by imposing job-killing taxes and failing to solve America's long term debt problem:

“I appreciate all the hard word that went into avoiding the so-called 'fiscal cliff'. I especially commend Senator McConnell's efforts to make the best out of a bad situation. Nevertheless, I cannot support the arrangement they have arrived at. Rapid economic growth and spending reforms are the only way out of the real fiscal cliff our nation is facing. But rapid economic growth and job creation will be made more difficult under the deal reached here in Washington.

“Thousands of small businesses, not just the wealthy, will now be forced to decide how they'll pay this new tax and, chances are, they'll do it by firing employees, cutting back their hours and benefits, or postponing the new hire they were looking to make. And to make matters worse, it does nothing to bring our dangerous debt under control.

“Of course, many Americans will be relieved in the short term that their taxes won't go up. However in the long run, they will be hurt when employers pass on to them one of the largest tax hikes in decades. Furthermore, this deal just postpones the inevitable, the need to solve our growing debt crisis and help the 23 million Americans who can't find the work they need.”

◼ Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Richard Shelby, Charles Grassley, Michael Bennet, Tom Carper, Tom Harkin Voted 'No' to Senate Deal - Newsmax

Late Monday, Sen. Rubio tweeted: "How can @BarackObama call his proposal a #deficit reduction package if it uses #taxincrease to fund more spending & it increases the #debt."

Rubio told reporters he "just couldn't vote for" the compromise.

“I ran for office because I wanted to be a part of solving these big problems, and time and again we're faced with options here that don't really do that," he said.

"The real fiscal cliff is the one that awaits us, and nothing happened tonight to avoid that.”

Sen. Lee, had a similar take, tweeting: "Even the best #fiscalcliff deal will leave 99% of a dysfunctional system intact."

From the Iowa GOP: Senator Grassley was 1 of only 5 Republicans to vote "NO" (the right way) on the so called fiscal cliff deal that raises taxes $41 for every $1 in spending cuts. Call Senator Grassley, thank him for showing leadership and standing up Iowa taxpayers (202) 224-3744

Statement issued by Senator Grassley
“It'd be one thing to raise taxes to reduce the deficit, but that’s not what this deal does. It's a fiscal farce to raise taxes and hurt economic growth only to fuel more government spending with record deficits and debt. People at the grass roots want Washington to spend less, not more. Failure to deal with spending lets them down. Spending restraint ought to be more than a wishful new year’s resolution with no way to be certain it’s kept.

I support preventing tax increases on Americans by extending the tax cuts I authored in the Senate in the last decade. After the election, Republican leaders in Congress offered revenue increases as part of a balanced deal that would also take on Washington’s spending problem. Instead, the President focused on raising taxes and missed a significant opportunity to tackle spending. Washington has a spending problem, not a taxing problem, and this deal doesn’t do anything about the spending problem.

This legislation contains a lot of things I support in addition to preventing a tax increase, including an extension of the farm bill, preventing tens of millions of families from being subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax that was never meant for them, repeal of the CLASS Act from the 2010 health care law, and the extension of the wind-energy production tax credit that I authored in August. Nevertheless, the fiasco was a major missed opportunity to take on Washington’s spending problem. The President focused on increasing taxes and failed to provide the presidential leadership needed to put Washington on a new path for fiscal discipline.”
at Labels: , ,

While you were sleeping—or ringing in 2013—the Senate voted to raise taxes.

◼ Tax Hikes to Start the New Year - Amy Payne/Heritage Morning Bell

After missing the midnight deadline, Congress and the President have technically sent the nation over the fiscal cliff, meaning higher tax rates are already in effect for all income tax brackets. But the Senate’s deal, brokered by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) and Vice President Joe Biden, would target the tax increases on those making more than $250,000.
The Senate voted 89-8 to limit deductions for taxpayers making more than $250,000, which would raise their taxes, and to hike tax rates for those making more than $400,000....

Meanwhile, the United States also ran up against the debt ceiling yesterday. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said the Treasury would do some short-term creative accounting to make sure the country doesn’t default on its loans, which will buy two months before lawmakers have to fight it out again over increasing the debt limit.
The deal does nothing to address the reasons that the U.S. budget is out of control. Its focus on tax hikes rather than spending cuts is completely the opposite of what the country needs....

Hiking taxes simply isn’t a solution. Until Congress and the President pursue serious spending cuts, the country and the budget will keep chugging in the same direction. And that’s certainly no cause for celebration.

◼ Here's The Deal On The Fiscal Cliff Deal - Rick Ungar/Forbes

Early this morning, the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 89 to 9, passed a bill designed to back the nation away from the fiscal cliff—potentially averting a critical challenge to the nation’s economic recovery and forestalling a feared negative reaction from the stock markets upon opening Wednesday morning.

While the last minute and intensive negotiations led to success in the upper chamber of Congress, the battle is far from over as it remains to be seen whether the House of Representatives will approve the bi-partisan agreement or, for that matter, whether the bill will be permitted to even come to the House floor for a vote....

But it isn’t all just about taxes as the Senate bill addresses a number of additional and parallel issues that fed into the fiscal cliff fiasco—including passage of a nine month extension of the farm bill, temporarily removing the threat of a radical rise in the price of milk.

Here’s a roundup—
◼ Unemployment benefits are extended for an additional year benefiting approximately 2 million out of work Americans.

◼ Tax credits for college tuition, created by the 2009 stimulus package, are extended for five year, benefiting some 25 million low income families.

◼ The “doctor fix” is included meaning that Medicare providers will not face a serious cut in pay.

◼ The Alternative Minimum Tax problem is permanently fixed removing a potential tax danger for middle class families.

◼ A number of existing business tax benefits will remain in place for another year, including renewable energy tax credit which is extended for an additional year.

◼ The $900 per year salary raise recently signed into existence by President Obama for members of Congress is revoked.
Not included in the agreement is an extension of the payroll cut meaning that payroll taxes will rise by for 2 percent for all American wage earners.

Also not included is a rise in the debt ceiling. The nation actually reached its debt ceiling yesterday and, while the Treasury Department says that it can continue to pay outstanding debt obligations and other bills for another two months, there will need to be an all new debt ceiling battle in Congress beginning in February to allow the nation to continuing making payments on its debt obligations.

Which brings us to the sequester...

Today, the bill will face the vagaries of the United States House of Representatives where, as we have learned, anything can happen.

To get an early sense of where this is all going, you will want to watch for a fundamental call to be made by Speaker John Boehner based on the result of a GOP caucus vote on the Senate originated agreement.

◼ Senate passes massive tax cut which raised taxes over $600 billion in middle of night without reading the bill - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

There are too many metaphors here applicable to the Senate’s 89-8 passage of a “fiscal cliff” bill in the middle of the night (around 2 a.m. this morning).

The bill raised taxes by over $600 billion, in addition to Obamacare taxes already coming on line, yet the Senators can claim it was a massive tax cut because the vote took place after midnight, so technically the Bush tax cuts already had expired.

The basic details are in ◼ last night’s post. The index to the bill ◼ is here, and the ◼ full bill here.
at Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)