Free Republic

During last Wednesday’s news conference, President Obama offered his plan for dealing with the looming fiscal cliff and expiring tax cuts. While the President claims he desires to work with Congress to reduce the deficit in a balanced and responsible way, he was clear that he intends to hold the middle class hostage in order to achieve his goal of increasing taxes on more successful Americans. How is the President doing this? By announcing that Congress must either bow to his agenda or send all Americans a higher tax bill. While Obama was busily pushing his ultimatum, he seems...

The Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of the group of deficit-fighting policies known as the "fiscal cliff." The big takeaway: completely averting the contraction that would occur in 2013 and 2014 would cost $1.16 trillion - entirely deficit-financed. There would certainly be some economic benefits to all of this, however. The CBO has a wide range of estimates for the positives - between 0.8% and 5% growth in real GDP, and between 1.1 million and 5.8 million new jobs. There are a lot of caveats here, as it's an incredibly wide range of estimates, but there would certainly be...

Sequestration is a terrible, horrible, no good idea. And we must let it happen. You know what you call $1.2 trillion in budget cuts? A good start. After last night it's clear that as presently constituted there is no electoral path to reducing the size and scope of government. Since we can not do that in an orderly and rationale way, we must use the tool we have at hand. The lame duck will feature a lot of talk about "grand bargains". No Just no. While the GOP and conservatives were crushed last night, the GOP still retains control of...

"Now Gov. Romney believes that with even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy, and fewer regulations on Wall Street, all of us will prosper. In other words, he'd double down on the same trickle-down policies that led to the crisis in the first place." -- President Obama in an ad released Sept. 27. This is Obama's core message. In one way or another, he says it all the time. It's his kicker on the stump. You cannot watch an interview with the president or one of his subalterns without hearing it. And yet, I don't think I've ever heard a...

If you listen to America's political hacks, mainstream media talking heads and their socialist allies, you can't help but reach the conclusion that the nation's tax burden is borne by the poor and middleclass while the rich get off scot-free. Stephen Moore, senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal, and I'm proud to say former GMU economics student, wrote "The U.S. Tax System: Who Really Pays?" in the Manhattan Institute's Issue 2012 (8/12). Let's see whether the rich are paying their "fair" share. According to IRS 2007 data, the richest 1 percent of Americans earned 22 percent of national...

Speaker of the House John Boehner has recently touted a list of 88 economists who warn against the expiration of tax cuts on high-income earners. These economists came together from some of the country's top universities, think-tanks and business organizations to write that the expiration of the tax cuts pushed by President Obama "will hurt the economy and must be stopped before it goes into effect." Speaker Boehner also touted a study from Ernst and Young conducted for the National Federation of Independent Businesses that found that allowing tax rates to go up on high-income Americans could destroy up to...

Today Barack Obama blamed his four years of trillion dollar deficits on the Bush tax cuts. From the president’s Weekly Address: You see, Republicans in Congress and their nominee for President believe that the best way to create prosperity in America is to let it trickle down from the top. They believe that if our country spends trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthy, we’ll somehow create jobs – even if we have to pay for it by gutting things like education and training and by raising middle-class taxes. They’re wrong. And I know they’re wrong because we already...

As of July 25, Federal withholding tax collections for the prior 10 business days were 3.2% greater than last year. The 10 day total is extremely volatile however, so for that reason I also look at the 4 week moving average. It is up by 6% year over year in nominal terms. This number must be adjusted for compensation inflation to derive a real rate of change. This chart compares current withholding tax collections with last year on the same date. It shows this year running well ahead of last year in nominal terms. The gap has been widening all...

This is based on 2009 numbers. As far as I've been able to find, 2009 is the latest there is data available on the combined AGI of the top 1%.

A new poll from Marist and McClatchy make the position of Reid and Obama even tougher. Contrary to Obama’s claim, a majority of registered voters want all of the current tax rates extended, even those of the highest earners: A majority of Americans want the Bush tax cuts extended for everyone, despite a strong push by President Barack Obama to eliminate them on higher incomes, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll. The poll found 52 percent of registered voters saying they want all the tax cuts extended, including the tax cuts for incomes above $250,000, while 43 percent want the...

Did you know that public uncertainty about federal economic policy is at a 30-year high? Economists at Stanford University and the University of Chicago have actually discovered a way of measuring how uncertain people are. They find that their measure of uncertainty correlates with such economic activities as deciding to invest, deciding how much to produce and deciding whether to hire more workers. One source of uncertainty is what will happen next January when American taxpayers will be hit with a large tax increase (mainly the expiration of the Bush tax cuts) and a major decrease in government spending (the...

With a second term for Obama, the world-leading America we have known and hoped to leave to our children will be gone. Last Friday's jobs report confirms that Obama is well on his way to transforming America into a third world country, with declining living standards and perpetual economic stagnation. Argentina enjoyed the world's fourth highest per capita GDP in 1929, on par with America at the time. But then the nation lost its way in embracing a leftist, union allied government, which took control of the economy and imposed wildly irresponsible taxes, spending, deficits, and debt. After World War...

In his remarks at the White House yesterday President Obama Called for extending Bush tax breaks for another year -- at least for certain taxpayers, those earning less than $250,000 per year. Apart from the continued exacerbation of class warfare in pitting "the middle class" against "the wealthy," a more deadly nuance lurked in his words. Twice in his brief speech he pointed out that we need to enact this cutoff because "we cannot afford to spend on tax breaks for the wealthy." Those words should frighten and arouse anyone who has an income. They are not ill-chosen words; they...

President Obama is threatening to veto any legislation that extends all the tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, as he presses Congress to extend those cuts only for families whose yearly income is less than $250,000 -- and raises taxes on everyone earning more. The veto threat sets the early tone for what is expected to be a contentious battle between Democrats and Republicans through the rest of the year as they seek to avoid the so-called "taxmageddon" -- the sudden increase in taxes on all Americans that will occur if Congress doesn't vote to...

Full title: Today President Obama launched a push to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class, but not for those making over $250,000. Do you agree?

President Barack Obama will call on Monday for a one-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000 a year, according to a White House official, seeking to spare the economy the impact of taxes going up on January 1. Obama, a Democrat, will make the request in a statement at the White House, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Republicans in Congress, however, are unlikely to be swayed, as they have consistently argued that the Bush tax cuts should be extended for everyone.

Washington - President Obama launched a push to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class for just one year as he seeks to shift the election-year economic debate from the dismal jobs market to assertions that Republican rival Mitt Romney protects the rich. Obama, in an address from the White House, called on Congress to pass a one-year extension of tax cuts for households making less than $250,000 a year. (Snip) The Bush-era tax cuts are due to expire at the end of the year unless Congress votes to extend them. Economists worry that across-the-board tax increases, along with

Can Any of These House Underdogs Survive? Stuart Rothenberg June 8, 2012 · 1:48 PM EDT Remember their names: Reps. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), John Barrow (D-Ga.), Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.), Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Robert Dold (R-Ill.). If any of these five House incumbents survive, it will surprise most dispassionate observers (including some in their own parties). But upsets happen, and each of these candidates has a scenario for victory. Moments after Bass was declared the winner in November 2010, most political insiders figured he would be doomed in 2012. But considering his past electoral success, reports of his political demise...

Yesterday, Bill Clinton got into hot water by making the radical suggestion that having a massive tax hike in a recessionary environment might not be such a great idea. Clinton walked that back later in the day after other Democrats attacked him and questioned his motives for, er, making economic sense. Those critics might be turning their guns on Barack Obama's first Director of the National Economic Council and a key architect of Obama's economic policies, who said the same thing earlier today on MSNBC's Morning Joe: Lawrence Summers said Wednesday that Congress should temporarily extend Bush-era tax cuts, making...

The White House is sticking by its opposition to an extension of the Bush tax cuts for wealthy Americans despite the increasing number of Democrats voicing support for it, including former President Bill Clinton. Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday that President Obama will not sign an extension. "He will not. Could I be more clear?" Carney said, according to the Associated Press.