Posted on 06/27/2011 1:45:09 PM PDT by quesney
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday that a "significant" deal with Republicans on cutting government spending and raising the nation's debt limit is still possible, even as the administration hardened its stance on the need for increased tax revenue to be part of any agreement. President Barack Obama made his first direct foray into the deficit negotiations Monday. He met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Oval Office for about 30 minutes Monday morning, and planned to meet with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in the early evening. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama's meeting with Reid was "constructive" and the president concluded that there are still opportunities for a deal to be reached. But he said the only way to achieve that objective would be to include tax increases or the elimination of tax breaks for big companies and wealthy individuals.
"It's the only way to get it done," Carney said. The White House has proposed raising about $600 billion in new tax revenue, including ending subsidies to oil and gas companies, an idea that failed in the Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“Tax government employees 10-15% of their paychecks as a “debt reduction act””
I’d support that...as well as taxing the 43% of Americans who are paying NO INCOME TAX AT ALL. It’s time to apply the tax laws equally!
$600,000,000,000!!! That is $2,000 for each LEGAL man, woman, and child in this country.
Can you afford another $4,000 in taxes for you and your wife?
Are the Dems smoking crack? No new taxes. That is the starting point. Cutting spending needs to go with tax cuts. Simple, easy to understand and hard for Dems to fight against.
Under the Bush’ tax cuts’, billy gates used the new capital gains reduction to pocket more than a billion off of stox he suddenly divested of. Such tax breaks if eliminated are in fact tax increases, but frankly, they’re called for in our current crisis state. The reason democrats began screaming tax cuts for the wealthy is because it was true (odd that democrats would actually say something true, but there it is!) ... and in our current crisis these sorts of cuts should be stopped. [That’s your cue to scream ‘who determines which people are the wealthy. You don’t want to miss you chance to confuse the issue even further, dude.]
Are you taking anti-depressants?
If not, you might consider it.
Only the depressed would believe that a tax increase could pass.
Obama can talk about tax increases til the cows come home.
All MM and JB have to do is to point out IT CANNOT PASS.
End of discussion.
You haven’t seen that thread?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2729261/posts
It’s a hoot! You’ll be so mad you could spit wooden nickels after reading it.
This is reminiscent of the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 where Hitler and Goering and Goebbels, et alia, were able to assume control for a time by saying that the elected leaders had agreed to grant it to them, when they were really in a backroom being held at gunpoint.
Your timing is off. What you said about previous generations is not correct. My parents, from the roaring twenties, were the parents in the depression of the thirties. I have done much better than they. My children have done better than me. My grandchildren are looking for jobs with a mountain of college debt. The solution is jobs. If industry does not hire in this country then government is the only alternative. Now that’s a sad commentary on today. Things went quite well for my generation working in private industry. People really don’t want to depend on the government. A working middle class supported Reagan. An unemployment middle class supported Obama. As for taxes, end spending on the rest of the world would go a long way in making money available to Americans.
Ahhh raising taxes while the economy is teetering on the brink of recession. Brilliant!
I also love how they don’t like calling them tax increases anymore, just “changes in revenue” or somesuch orwellian nonesense.
That's not necessarily true. We may have them in a ratchet situation of our own - we're going to swing even more conservative in 2012. If we play it right we might be able to get more of the rinos out in the primary season. Right now most of our team hasn't been there long enough to get leadership positions. That will change if we improve our position again. If not, apres moi le deluge.
“The White House has proposed raising about $600 billion in new tax revenue, including ending subsidies to oil and gas companies, an idea that failed in the Senate.”
These people do not understand “NO” new taxation, “NO” more borrowing, “NO” more freeloading, or even “NO” spending more than revenue or simply “REDUCING” spending. They need to be reminded of torches and pitchforks, tar and feathers, and rides on a rail out of town.
You are so right about taxes. Of course the next step is asking if a balanced budget will help the people or not. Will the benefits end up with the banksters? I do think we could balance this budget in one year of belt tightening and sacrifice, but then what? Our manufacturing is still being done in Communist China and the GOP is against any tariffs.
The GOP needs to wake up. The tea party movement is about to leave their uselss butts in the dust. Most of them are going to get sent home if they don’t adopt fiscal responsibility and stop allowing the democrap machine to dole out anything the unions demand. Manufacturing is dirt cheap in foreign countries because our unions have driven the labor costs (not just wages, retirement and medical, etc are throught he roof) beyond reason. Congress could devise incentives for manufacturing to come back to the US but there must also be accompanying changes in union thggery demands. ... Don’t hold your breath. We The People are purposely being made into a services nation, rather than have the manufacturing strength to tell the rest of the corrupted socialist world to go pound Saudi sand.
Moreover, we thought America had seen its best days back when the communist Carter was in office. They kept telling us so. But then here come Ronald Reagan, mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm. He told us that liberals weren’t really ignorant, they just knew so much that just wasn’t so. And that it was Morning in America. And so it was.
Everybody in Washington know that the long-term deficit problem is so huge that it can only be solved in one of two ways: either we make major cutbacks in entitlement spending, or we raise taxes substantially so that everybody with an income above $50K pays at least 40% of their incomes to the federal government through a variety of taxes, to pay for the current spending plans for Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, Medicaid, etc. Huge tax increases are not possible politically because the majority of voters won't accept them, so everybody in Washington (except maybe Pelosi) knows that eventually entitlement spending has to be cut back substantially through higher age requirements, means testing, and other methods. The only question is when will those cuts in entitlement spending finally be made, and will it take another economic crisis and a collapse of the treasury bond market to build the political will to make those spending cuts.
The White House, run by the Obamas, Jarrett, Geithner, and other dim-witted socialists, just wants to continue piling up more debt and delay the inevitable entitlement spending cuts until after the 2012 election. The tax increases they propose on business are not nearly large enough to even begin to solve the deficit problem and are simply a trick to try to fool some Republicans into voting for tax increases, so they can pick off a few fools in the 2012 election. So don't fall for it. It would be far better to vote for a 1-year extension of the debt ceiling and just say this is the best we can do while communists run the White House and senate, and we're going to have to take control of the White House and Senate next year to really solve the debt problem without huge tax increases.
Why doesn’t the Republican Leadership demand another massive cost saving move? Why dont they demand a Government wide EFFICENCY EFFORT!!!! Evaluate each Government Employee’s posiition and work production and eliminate every Government Employee that isn’t worth their salt!!
Could start with the Elimination of the entire Department of Energy! heck, that department didn’t exist until that worthplie of crap, Jimmy Carter, created it. My bet is that each Department could be cut by at least 50% with a resultant increase in the quality of life of every single American Citizen!
If I recall correctly, the federal rate on long-term capital gains is 15% at this time. When you add in an effective state tax rate of 4-6% in many states, you’re right around 20% total tax rate, which is certainly high enough in the current high risk economic climate. A lot of people don’t want to hold any stock positions for over a year to qualify for the long-term rate because of the volatility and risk in our financial markets. If we raise the capital gains rate, that would cause even more people to cut back on long-term investing, with a serious negative impact on the US economy.
High capital gains tax rates also lead to overinflated prices of stocks that have had large long-term gains, because investors hold onto the stocks to avoid paying taxes. That results in undervaluation of smaller stocks and less capital flowing into the most productive growth areas of our economy. We want to see people like Gates selling some stock and reinvesting the gains in small growth companies. We don’t want them hanging onto the stock of big companies to avoid paying capital gains taxes.
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