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The ObamaCare fiscal cliffBy: John Hayward 11/30/2012 02:34 PM While we’re busy listening to President Obama demand a $1.6 trillion tax increase on some people as the price for disarming part of a $1.2 trillion tax bomb aimed at other people, let’s not forget that he’s already detonated a $1.058 trillion tax warhead on all of us: ObamaCare. As the House Ways and Means Committee noted last summer, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision upholding ObamaCare, it contains 21 distinct tax increases, “a dozen of which target Americans earning less than $200,000 per year for singles or $250,000...

I was on Fox News with Tom Sullivan yesterday to discuss the housing “recovery.” Rick Sharga (formerly of RealtyTrac and now Carrington Mortgage Holdings) was the guest before me and said that we are witnessing the sustainable recovery of the housing market. I simply pointed out that the “recovery” thus far is dominated by hedge funds, corporations, cash transactions and foreign investors and not the traditional family purchase of housing. So, it may be a recovery, but not your father’s Oldsmobile (so to speak). And don’t forget the fiscal cliff and the large volume of foreclosed properties about to hit...

Reports are pouring out of Washington about the Fiscal Cliff negotiations. A lot of people observing the negotiations are outraged by what is going on. Instead of being outraged, and there is plenty of time for outrage; we should take a look at what is going on. If you analyze the negotiations, it tells you a lot about what is going on in Washington and what may happen. What is going on inside these negotiations?

[Nothing raises the ire of Republicans in Congress like the specter of Obama taking matters into his own hands. If the White House goes that route and raises the debt ceiling by executive order, Boehner and his leadership team would likely take immediate legal action to halt the debt ceiling increase, sources familiar with his thinking said.] -Snip- President Barack Obama made a demand of House Speaker John Boehner near the end of their first White House meeting on the fiscal cliff: Raise the debt limit before year’s end. Boehner responded: “There is a price for everything.” And with that...

Does Nancy Pelosi have any leverage in fiscal cliff talks?By Sargent and Greg Sargent The Washington Post Posted Nov 29, 2012 08:51 PM EST With John Boehner continuing to (publicly) rule out a hike in tax rates for the rich, Nancy Pelosi fired back today by drawing her own hard lines. She told reporters that another round of big spending cuts is unacceptable, and in an interview with NPR, she rebuffed the idea of raising the Medicare eligibility age. Which raises a question: Does Pelosi have any leverage in the talks to begin with? The Beltway chatter holds that she...

Washington (CNN) - After two years of endless debate and a national election, Democrats and Republicans on Thursday found themselves right where they started -- blaming each other for stagnant negotiations on taxes and government spending. This time, they face an imminent deadline of automatic tax increases and spending cuts in 33 days -- the looming fiscal cliff at the end of the year that economists fear could cause another recession. After meeting separately with President Barack Obama's point man on the talks, top congressional Democrats and Republicans said the failure to move forward was the other side's fault. House...

Word is slowly seeping out for Washington about a grand bargain being worked out between Barack Obama and John Boehner. As we hear about the negotiations, the obvious question to be asked is, does Boehner and the Republican leadership in the House even have a clue? What is going on that is so dangerous? The Republicans are going to surrender on taxes. According to published reports a deal is going to be made. It is your typical Republican deal. The GOP will agree to a trillion in new taxes and there will be spending cuts in the future. When will...

We apprehensively advance through this nail biting moment in history as a great Nation floats, uncertain, caught in a holding pattern, hoping its leadership will find wisdom enough to avert the so called Fiscal Cliff, even if most of us don’t fully comprehend what such a cliff entails, or even if such a thing exists. We’re too busy struggling, hanging on to whatever we have, hoping for stability, and hoping that tomorrow brings some relief to our stress.So let’s look for a little insight into what astute and gifted minds are really doing deep in the core of the...

We are cruising towards the fiscal cliff. The John Boehner leadership of the House is fighting Barack Obama and the Party of Treason. The issue is will some or all of the Bush tax cuts be extended and will there be cuts in spending or will the so-called “sequestration” kick in and force automatic and ill-advised spending cuts in key areas like defense. Is there an alternative to this mess? If there is, what is it? Here is the alternative. Do nothing. Will that be a good thing? Not really. It is simply better than the alternative. Why is it...

<p>Pete Peterson. Peterson founded, funded or supported most of the institutions in Washington devoted to publicizing the problem of the deficit, including ... documentary “I.O.U.S.A.”</p> <p>Bill Clinton. By the time Clinton left office, politicians were beginning to talk about perpetual surpluses, in exactly the same way that hucksters on Wall Street were talking about a perpetual bull market.</p>

Two weeks after raising its regular quarterly dividend, Brown-Forman (BFB n.a.) declared a special cash dividend of $4.00 a share on Tuesday as it looks to return money to shareholders ahead of the fiscal cliff deadline that could significantly raise dividend taxes. The maker of alcoholic beverages like Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, Southern Comfort, Korbel and Woodford Reserve said the special dividend will be paid on Dec. 27 to shareholders of record on Dec. 12. A slew of companies, including Wal-Mart (WMT), have been moving up the date of their dividend to save shareholders a bundle of money on taxes...

The Republicans keep putting new tax revenue on the table (capping deductions), Warren Buffet suggests increasing tax rates on households earning $500k and above, but President Obama and Democrats replied “Nyet.” It is always a risky proposition to raise taxes when the economy is so fragile. Speaking of a fragile economy, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index printed at -0.56 for October and a previous reading of 0.00 in September. A print of -0.56 indicates economic contraction. Meanwhile, down in Texas, the Dallas Fed’s Manufacturing Outlook Level of General Business Activity was expected to print at +2.5, but printed at...

Veteran political analyst Pete Davis offers up a list of possible impediments to a deal on avoiding the fiscal cliff: 1. President Obama insists on a tax rate increase on those earning $250,000 or more, and House Republicans balk; 2. President Obama and Democrats refuse to accept revenue increases that won’t be scored by CBO, i.e. that depend upon tax reform and/or upon an assumed increase in economic growth; 3. President Obama insists on a Making Work Pay tax credit to replace the lost 2% payroll tax cut for working Americans that Republicans won’t accept; 4. House Republicans insist on...

Two weeks ago a slight majority of Americans voted for more stuff from the government. There may have been other drivers, but that is the main one. Below is a quote whose origin is disputed, but it is particularly apropos: A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a...

Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo may have been the first person to use the term “austerity bomb” for the expired tax cuts and automatic spending cuts to take effect at the beginning of next year. Paul Krugman adopts the term in his blog entry "The Austerity Bomb" in the New York Times. Beutler wrote: “A giant austerity bomb is timed to go off at the beginning of next year, and the threat of significantly higher taxes and lower spending has Republicans running around the Capitol sounding more like John Maynard Keynes than John Boehner.” The term "fiscal cliff" makes...

Pundits, Politicians, etc are looking all over the map for a solution to the fiscal clift/sequestration problem. But the solution lies in what happened during Obama's first term. Under Bush/Congress the deficit increased 43% during his 8 year term (we had a real war, 9/11, and Katrina). Under Obama/Congress the deficit "doubled" during his 4 year term or "half" the time. Rather then us having to listen to threats to cut Social Security, Defense, or severe increase in Taxes shouldn't we go back to the problem that caused this Sequestration legislation to be passed in the first place? Should the...

According to The Hill, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) is optimistic that there is a deal to get beyond the fiscal cliff. Really? The fiscal cliff is simply the foothills of a much larger mountain (of debt) range, much like the Andes of South America. So, what Senator Corker is talking about is getting past the foothills right in front of us. President Obama’s preferred habitat of tax are households with adjusted gross income of $250,000 and above. He defines this group as “the rich” and wants them to pay their “fair share.” Households with adjusted gross income of $250,000 or...

As I've noted before, there is no "cliff" and January 1st is not a drop dead date. There are a few things that appear certain (but you never know with policy): 1) The top marginal tax rate will increase from 35% to 39.6%. 2) The payroll tax cut is probably going away. This was the 2% payroll tax reduction that workers received in 2010 and 2011. 3) The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) relief will probably be extended (it is every year). 4) Given that the top marginal tax rate will increase - and that certain politicians can't vote for any...

President Obama, claiming his election "majority" was a vindication of his fiscal policy, held firm Friday to his intention to include tax hikes for America's top earners in any negotiations with Congress to pull the nation back from the so-called "fiscal cliff." The president, in his first remarks from Washington since winning a second term, urged officials to "get to work" on the issue as he invited congressional leaders to the White House next week. He said he's open to "compromise," but did not appear to budge on what has been a central disagreement over the last two years --...

Just days after Tuesday’s presidential election, President Barack Obama invited Capitol Hill leaders to the White House for debt and spending meetings next week in order to discuss the country’s looming ‘fiscal cliff.’ On the election, he said that “the American people voted for action, not politics as usual.” “You elected us to focus on your job, not ours and in that spirit, I’ve invited leaders of both parties to the White House next week so we can start to build consensus around the challenges that we can only solve together.”