Posted on 01/03/2013 10:10:21 AM PST by LTC.Ret
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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