Posted on 01/03/2013 10:10:21 AM PST by LTC.Ret
Below is a message I received from our newly re-elected Rep. Mac Thornberry, along with my comments in brackets:
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: A Vote to Make Current Tax Rates Permanent Date: 2 Jan 2013 09:35:38 -0500 From: Thornberry Newsletter U.S. Congressman Mac Thornberry
Dear Friend,
I want to share with you my statement for the Congressional Record that explains why I voted for the American Taxpayer Relief Act on Tuesday night. [Along with only 84 other Republicans vs 151 Republicans voting against this tax and net spending increase.]
This was not an easy vote to make, and it was a decision made after carefully weighing the concerns many of you have voiced in phone calls, letters, and emails. [Wasn't that what you said when you voted YES for TARP, too, while most of us back home were begging you to vote NO?]
You can also find a summary of the legislation below my statement. [A "summary" --- did you folks in Congress read the whole bill before voting for it this time? It is reported that IF a member was awake when the bill first became available after the Senate vote, approximately 1:39 AM Tuesday, they would have to read an average of one page of dense legislative text every 8.6 minutes to finish reading the bill in the 22 hours between House and Senate passage. And didn't you break your 2010 "Pledge to America" to ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives?]
"Mr. Speaker,
It was the issue of taxes that led to me running for Congress in the first place. [Really? And have our taxes gone UP or down during the last 18 years --- including several years when Republicans held both Houses of Congress and the Presidency --- while you have been in Washington?]
The question of how much of your money the government forces from us is central to the relationship of the individual with government and to the freedom of the individual. [And the issue of HOW the government SPENDS the money it takes from us is a Constitutional issue. "There's lots and lots of pork in this bill," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), one outspoken opponent. Forcing the Federal government to live within its Constitutional limits, and within its means with a balanced budget, would do more than anything else proposed so far to correct our current economic situation.]
And in the past several years through calls, emails, and personal meetings, I have heard from many of my constituents about the necessity of having stability in the tax code. [Are those the meetings you have with select invited individuals throughout the District, and then the rest of us find out about it a few days later after you have come and gone? I seem to recall the last Town Hall meeting you had here, and that was a very, very long time ago.]
Making the current tax rates permanent for the vast majority of Americans, as this bill does, is a major accomplishment. ["Just recently, Republicans in Congress said they'd never agree to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans. We’ve now raised those rates, permanently, making our tax code more progressive than it’s been in decades,” President Obama said in a video to supporters.]
No longer will the threat of major tax increases because of an expiring law hang over the heads of taxpayers. [You truly believe that Obama is not going to ask for additional tax revenue through new taxes and tax increases in the next four years? You expect us to believe that you will actually say NO to him next time?]
Providing tax certainty for individuals and businesses has long been needed and will allow them to plan and make decisions. [This IS important, but government overspending is doing MUCH more harm to our farms and small businesses --- and this bill contained only a token $15 billion in spending cuts, offset by more than $330 billion in new spending!]
Hopefully, it will help the economy grow. [Exactly when in history has increasing the taxes on job creators grown an economy? Exactly when has increasing taxes resulted in a net overall increase in Federal revenue?]
And finally having an answer on the death tax, although I prefer to abolish it entirely, is also critical for every farmer, rancher, and small business person in the country.
The clearest reason to vote against this bill is because of what it does not do – limit spending. [What about voting against it because of what it DOES do --- actually increase Federal spending!]
Too much spending, along with low economic growth, is the reason that our debt is mounting and that our children’s future is in peril. [And yet you voted for this $330+ billion increase in spending anyway?]
This bill is a missed opportunity to take meaningful action to deal with that problem, and I supported efforts to have significant spending cuts included in this measure. But it is not our last opportunity. [Let me sum this paragraph up --- we didn't fix the real problem AGAIN, only kicked the can down the road a little farther for NOW. Florida Congressman Jeff Miller pointed out that the bill will add $4 trillion to the national debt, is chock full of pork and does nothing to ease his constituents’ worries about deep cuts to military spending through sequestration. “Sequestration was postponed for 60 days, but it’s still coming,” he said.]
It is always possible to justify voting against a bill for what is not included in it. [One of the BIG things NOT included in this bill was the payroll tax, which means that workers will immediate see a 2% tax hike. The Washington Post admitted that a little over half of the new taxes will come from a payroll tax increase by allowing the expiration of the payroll tax cut, which affects every American worker.]
One must go further and ask, 'What happens if this bill is defeated? Will the result be better or worse for the country?' ["Rapid economic growth and job creation will be made more difficult under the deal reached here in Washington," Sen. Marco Rubio, said in a statement, arguing that layoffs would ensue from raising taxes on the wealthy and small businesses.]
We also have to make a judgment on what is possible with the current cast of characters that the American people have elected to office. [NBC’s Chuck Todd said on Wednesday’s “Today” show, “They ended up helping Barack Obama raise taxes more than any Republican Party in a generation has helped anybody raise taxes, and they got nothing for it.”]
It does no good to imagine some ideal measure that could never pass the Democratically-controlled Senate or that President Barack Obama would never sign into law. I am a conservative, and I am also a realist. [So are Conservative principles relative? Negotiable? Shall we continue to go along to get along, bowing to bipartisanship, and caving to political pressure instead of standing our ground? And day by day, inch by inch, we are allowing our Republic to be pulled to the left. What happened to doing the right thing, the Constitutional thing, each and every time? What happened to honesty, integrity, and LEADERSHIP?]
The answers to those questions lead me to conclude that it is better to approve this bill at this time, understanding that we must use the next few weeks of discussion about the debt limit to find a way to significantly reduce spending and begin to get our economic house in order. [If you couldn't stand up to Obama and the Democrats now, why should anyone believe that you will be willing or able to do it next time?]
House Republicans do not have to accomplish everything in one bill, but time is running out for us to get spending under control. In coming weeks, we will need to consider every tool at our disposal to convince the White House and the Senate on the imperative of cutting spending. [Why, oh why, haven't you done that already? What, exactly, have you been waiting for this past 18 years you have been in Washington?]
Of course, there are provisions in this bill with which I disagree. For example, extending some of the tax credits from the stimulus bill and continuing to pay unemployment for an additional year discourage work and encourage further dependency on government. [You say you disagree, and yet you list that particular item in your Highlights Summary below. Which is it, pro or con --- you can't have it both ways.]
But they total about $100 billion out of a $4 trillion bill; the rest of the “cost” is due to extending tax provisions that have been in place for more than a decade. [No matter how long they have been in place, were they worth extending --- are they Constitutional, and in the best interest of the American people instead of some special interest group?]
Stepping back and looking at the whole picture, it seems clear to me that preventing a tax increase for most Americans and making all tax rates permanent is an important step for families all across the country and for the economy as a whole. [But you didn't prevent a tax increase for most Americans --- in fact, MOST Americans will see an immediate tax increase. There is still that pesky revenue generating Payroll Tax increase that keeps getting overlooked.]
Other provisions contained in this bill are important to the people in my district. One would extend the current farm bill for the remainder of the fiscal year, allowing farmers and their bankers to make decisions on planting. That provision also prevents the price of milk from doubling this week. [As Heritage clearly states, lawmakers would be hard-pressed to enact a set of policies that are more destructive to farmers, taxpayers, and consumers than the current farm policies. They are falsely promoted as saving the family farm and protecting the food supply. In reality, they are America's largest corporate welfare program, and are so poorly designed that they actually worsen the conditions they claim to solve.]
Another section prevents the 27% cut in Medicare reimbursement to doctors, which would have made it very difficult for Medicare patients to find a physician to treat them.
Approving this measure is just a step. [Yes, but in which direction. Myself, as well as many others that I am hearing from, believe that overall this was a step in the wrong direction.]
Next, we must do whatever is required to control spending, especially spending in mandatory programs that constitute nearly two-thirds of the budget. [You were not strong enough to face down Obama and the Democrats on this fiscal cliff situation that you sitting politicians created for yourselves, and yet you expect us to believe that you will be strong enough to tackle Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlements? Really?]
I continue to support comprehensive tax reform, which can ease the pain to taxpayers, help us be more competitive in the world, and give our economy a real boost. We do not have to do all of these things in one bill – and it would be a mistake to try – but we must do them for the sake of our country and our future." [The real problem is, YOU don't seem to be getting any of these things done in ANY bill.]
Highlights of H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012
Tax Relief
Tax Brackets – permanently extends the 10% tax bracket and the 25%, 28%, and 33% tax bracket on income at or below $400,000 for individual filers and $450,000 for those married filing jointly
Capital Gains & Dividends – makes permanent the 15% top capital gains and dividends rate up to $400k (singles), $450k (married); 20% rate for both above threshold.
Death Tax – permanently extends current policy on portability and unification with a $5M exemption indexed for inflation and a 40% top rate
Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) – permanently indexes AMT for inflation
PEP and Pease – permanent relief from the Personal Exemption Phase-out (“PEP”) and the itemized deduction limitation (known as Pease) for incomes under $250,000 (single), $300,000 (married)
Tax Extenders – extends several current business and energy tax policy provisions
Congressional Pay Raise Statutorily prevents any automatic pay raise for Members of Congress for 2013
Medicare and Other Health Provisions
Doc Fix – prevents the scheduled 26.5% cut to Medicare physician payments through December 31, 2013
Therapy Cap – extends the exceptions process for the Medicare therapy cap through December 31, 2013
Rural Health – extends current policy for rural health including the ambulance add-on payments, the payment adjustment for low-volume hospitals, and the Medicare-Dependent hospital (MDH) program.
Agriculture
Farm Bill – extends the current 2008 Farm Bill for 1 year at no additional cost to the taxpayer and reinstates the disaster programs for livestock, commodity, and specialty crop producers (except the SURE program) for 2012 and 2013
Sequester
Sequestration is turned off for two months and paid for with a reduction in discretionary spending cap for 2013 and 2014, and expanding eligibility for Roth conversion. The additional $1.2 trillion in spending cuts through sequestration will continue.
Unemployment Insurance (UI)
Includes a 1 year extension of current extended weeks for UI
[The Rest of the Story
Oh, and just a few of the items in The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 that Mr. Thornberry didn't feel like informing us of in HIS summary:
Tax breaks for Hollywood filming (an incentive that costs the country about $430 billion), tax breaks for NASCAR and amusement parks, wind energy tax credits, credits for ethanol producers, algae-based biofuels, etc., etc.]
You can read a more comprehensive summary of the tax provisions in the bill by clicking here.
As always, I am interested in your feedback and your suggestions on this topic or any other that matters to you. I hope you will contact me with your opinion via phone, email, letter, website, or Facebook.
Sincerely,
U.S. Congressman Mac Thornberry
we need fewer jellybeans in Congress
Overall, the Fiscal Cliff bill has positive bias IMHO.
Without it, taxes would have gone up for 100% of people by a lot. With the FC bill passing taxes will actually go down for seniors who are the most potent voting block. People earning on the lower end of middle class and lower, will pay more through expiration of the temporary 2% payroll tax reduction of last year. But most of them are Obama voters.
Congresscritter should be formally declared as THE definition for any sub-human piece of Obamastuff currently infesting D.C.
I shall leave it to the public as to how one chooses to treat a “critter.”
The Biden-McConnell deal:
— Tax rates will permanently rise to Clinton-era levels for families with income above $450,000 and individuals above $400,000. All income below the threshold will permanently be taxed at Bush-era rates.
— The tax on capital gains and dividends will be permanently set at 20 percent for those with income above the $450,000/$400,000 threshold. It will remain at 15 percent for everyone else. (Clinton-era rates were 20 percent for capital gains and taxed dividends as ordinary income, with a top rate of 39.6 percent.)
— The estate tax will be set at 40 percent for those at the $450,000/$400,000 threshold, with a $5 million exemption. That threshold will be indexed to inflation, as a concession to Republicans and some Democrats in rural areas like Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.).
— The sequester will be delayed for two months. Half of the delay will be offset by discretionary cuts, split between defense and non-defense. The other half will be offset by revenue raised by the voluntary transfer of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs, which would tax retirement savings when they’re moved over.
— The pay freeze on members of Congress and all other federal civilian employees, which Obama had lifted this week, will be re-imposed, .
— The 2009 expansion of tax breaks for low-income Americans will be extending, continuing a more generous Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit.
— The Alternative Minimum Tax will be permanently patched to avoid raising taxes on the middle-class.
— The deal will not address the debt-ceiling, and the payroll tax holiday will be allowed to expire.
— Two limits on tax exemptions and deductions for higher-income Americans will be reimposed: Personal Exemption Phaseout (PEP) will be set at $250,000 and the itemized deduction limitation (Pease) kicks in at $300,000.
—The full package of temporary business tax breaks — benefiting everything from R&D and wind energy to race-car track owners — will be extended for another year.
— Scheduled cuts to doctors under Medicare would be avoided for a year through spending cuts that haven’t been specified.
— Federal unemployment insurance will be extended for another year, benefiting those unemployed for longer than 26 weeks. This $30 billion provision won’t be offset.
— A nine-month farm bill fix will be attached to the deal, Sen. Debbie Stabenow told reporters, averting the newly dubbed milk cliff.
Is that you, Mac???
Nope, just an over-informed senior lol...
Wrote my republican senator that voted yes. First time I was ever disrespectful, didn’t address him as senator. told him I was ashamed of him, hold him responsible in the destruction of our country, that when my family faces a financial shortfall we cut expenses and he should resign his seat and open a porn website. Felt good at the time...not so much now.
Wrote my republican senator that voted yes. First time I was ever disrespectful, didn’t address him as senator. told him I was ashamed of him, hold him responsible in the destruction of our country, that when my family faces a financial shortfall we cut expenses and he should resign his seat and open a porn website. Felt good at the time...not so much now.
Congresscritter’s letter sounds like a small child trying to explain the presence of his hand in the coookie jar. Had he voted “NO” he could have sent out a simple, “You’re welcome”. Another untesticled coward in office...
1. Punishes a class too small to protect themselves
2. Punishes success
3. Continues to allow the STUPIDITY of the Bush cuts to continue to allow a huge class that pays NO tax at all or to speak of.
4. Simply kicks cans down the road
5. Lots of PORK for pubbie and rat friends
6. No cuts to speak of
We are well and truly screwed and have been for some time now. I don’t know why I bother to protest or comment. Trying to plug holes in a ship full of water is a waste of time. It really does not matter what the fools and traitors in washington do... it is all pretty meaningless now.
Admittedly, there were some good things in the bill as stand alone items, but it was the whole package we had to swallow to get them that make it not quite the good deal the spin wants us to believe, which is also the Wall Street Journal’s take on it:
“The Senate-White House compromise grudgingly passed by the House is a Beltway classic: The biggest tax increase in 20 years in return for spending increases, and all spun for political purposes as a ‘tax cut for the middle class.’
Senators stuffed their bill full of tax subsidies for special business interests.
It’s especially embarrassing that Republicans went along with this, given their 2012 campaign support for fewer loopholes in exchange for lower rates.
Keep in mind that this entire exercise was also supposed to promote ‘deficit reduction.’
He [Obama]also made clear that the price of any future spending cuts or entitlement reform will be another tax increase.
Having been cornered into letting Democrats carry this special-interest slag heap through the House . . . Mr. Obama has his tax triumph.”
Read the whole article at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323820104578215400767461788.html
That's not the way I've read the bill.........
We are no different than other countries before us.
All were seduced into socialism by (read my tag line) free stuff. Every one descended into the inevitable economic abyss.
Some woke up and embraced capitalism again...for example China which now has 147 Billionaires and one MILLION new millionaires. During their communist Mao’s heyday they had no rich people. Now their middle class is bigger by orders of magnitude. India, another huge country also woke up. So have some of the former Soviet satellites.
We are no different than others. History repeats itself. Just observe history and you will know where we are headed. We have a long way to descend. Just prepare for it.
The 2% payroll tax was going to go up anyway — and rightfully so — bill or no bill.
The unemployment benefit extension was a payoff to Obama voters — What is this doing in a Tax Bill???
The special interest tax credits to NASCAR, wind producers, rum producers, and Hollywood. Whose votes were bought with this pork???
The good thing is that sequestration remains in effect — two months away. Let it take effect.
Here is the crux of the deal. The pork was added later but does not affect taxes directly. Please show me where are the additional taxes on middle class (below $450,000 yearly) besides the expiration of 2% social security tax reduction enacted just recently as stimulus.
The Biden-McConnell deal:
— Tax rates will permanently rise to Clinton-era levels for families with income above $450,000 and individuals above $400,000. All income below the threshold will permanently be taxed at Bush-era rates.
— The tax on capital gains and dividends will be permanently set at 20 percent for those with income above the $450,000/$400,000 threshold. It will remain at 15 percent for everyone else. (Clinton-era rates were 20 percent for capital gains and taxed dividends as ordinary income, with a top rate of 39.6 percent.)
— The estate tax will be set at 40 percent for those at the $450,000/$400,000 threshold, with a $5 million exemption. That threshold will be indexed to inflation, as a concession to Republicans and some Democrats in rural areas like Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.).
— The sequester will be delayed for two months. Half of the delay will be offset by discretionary cuts, split between defense and non-defense. The other half will be offset by revenue raised by the voluntary transfer of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs, which would tax retirement savings when they’re moved over.
— The pay freeze on members of Congress and all other federal civilian employees, which Obama had lifted this week, will be re-imposed, .
— The 2009 expansion of tax breaks for low-income Americans will be extending, continuing a more generous Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit.
— The Alternative Minimum Tax will be permanently patched to avoid raising taxes on the middle-class.
— The deal will not address the debt-ceiling, and the payroll tax holiday will be allowed to expire.
— Two limits on tax exemptions and deductions for higher-income Americans will be reimposed: Personal Exemption Phaseout (PEP) will be set at $250,000 and the itemized deduction limitation (Pease) kicks in at $300,000.
—The full package of temporary business tax breaks — benefiting everything from R&D and wind energy to race-car track owners — will be extended for another year.
— Scheduled cuts to doctors under Medicare would be avoided for a year through spending cuts that haven’t been specified.
— Federal unemployment insurance will be extended for another year, benefiting those unemployed for longer than 26 weeks. This $30 billion provision won’t be offset.
— A nine-month farm bill fix will be attached to the deal, Sen. Debbie Stabenow told reporters, averting the newly dubbed milk cliff.
People earning on the lower end of middle class and lower, will pay more through expiration of the temporary 2% payroll tax reduction of last year. But most of them are Obama voters.
Read the last sentence once again.....
Of course Obama voters got some stuff. What did you expect? Obama & Reid to cave in completely? After winning the 2nd term in WH, and increasing their numbers in both Senate & House, I am truly shocked any positive came out of the FC bill....the most significant items being:
-Death tax threshold PERMANENTLY increased to $5/$10 million
That will save a whole bunch of small businesses going under after death of owner
-Capital gain & dividend tax frozen at 15% and not subject to expiration
-AMT reformed and indexed to inflation which will prevent 33 million middle class people from paying that tax in 2013
-Bush tax rates made permanent
All of above is very good news for the middle class. The top 2% are of course getting screwed, because elections have consequences.
I know what I wrote. What point are you trying to make?
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