Obama's Economic Policies Given Test Run by D.C. City Council

ATR ^ | 2011-09-22 | Patrick Gleason

[92nina]

This week the notoriously dysfunctional and economically illiterate Washington, D.C. City Council rammed through an upper-income tax increase on District residents and small businesses. The measure, which passed by a 7-6 vote, raises the tax rate on incomes in excess of $350,000 by 5 percent, taking the rate from 8.5 to 8.95 percent, and leaving D.C. with the dubious distinction of having one of the highest marginal rates in the country. Foregoing normal legislative protocol, the proposal, which was hastily concocted behind closed doors, bypassed the tax and revenue committee and was approved without public input. Even the Washington Post editorial board referred to it as “D.C.’s irresponsible tax hike.” To borrow a tongue and cheek phrase from the Wall Street Journal’s erudite James Taranto, when you’ve lost the Washington Post editorial board, you’ve lost middle America. Councilman Phil Mendelson and Mary Cheh, the tax hike’s chief proponents, utilized the same class warfare and soak-the-rich rhetoric that the White House has perfected in recent weeks. Yet, as with President Obama, Mendelson and Cheh fail to realize the consequences of their actions. The fact is their tax increase on “the rich” takes its toll on small businesses, since the individual income tax system is the one under which they file. In fact, according to IRS data, over 52,000 small businesses in the District of Columbia pay D.C.’s income tax, which was already onerous and uncompetitive prior to this week’s events. Nearly 5,000 D.C. small businesses pay taxes on annual income in excess of $200,000, and a large portion of these employers will see a reduction in their job-creating capacity thanks to the misguided and opaque actions of D.C.’s corrupt City Council. In this gloomy and uncertain economy, it is unconscionable that lawmakers would do anything that...

Read more: http://www.atr.org/obamas-economic-policies-test-run-d-a6473#ixzz1YnS9D98r

[92nina]

Washington, D.C. does the opposite of tax reform

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious

[skeeter]

The Detroitization of America continues until the parasite suck the host completely dry.

Then the fun will begin.

[griswold3]

“Nearly 5,000 D.C. small businesses pay taxes on annual income in excess of $200,000”

I’d bet that the 5,000 in not the same year over year. In business, you do not have the same income yoy. When you do have a good year in times past, you would invest it in expanding/improving your business. Like John Boehner said, ‘Business is on strike!’

Capital Strike!