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Senate Votes to Raise Taxes on Small Businesses
Heritage Foundation ^ | 7/26/2012 | Amy Payne

Posted on 07/26/2012 7:38:05 AM PDT by IbJensen

Yesterday, the Senate narrowly voted (51-48) to raise taxes on 1.2 million small businesses, which will likely kill more than 700,000 jobs at a time when nearly 13 million Americans are out of work. Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Jim Webb (D-VA) joined all Republicans in bipartisan opposition to the tax hike.

This is President Obama’s economic plan. This is what he asked Congress to do. And he recently told a fundraising crowd that his economic plan has been working.

“Just like we’ve tried [Republicans'] plan, we tried our plan—and it worked,” he said.

But Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, said yesterday that “the economy is not growing fast enough,” acknowledging that “unemployment is very high.” “The institutions with authority should be doing everything they can to try to make economic growth stronger,” he said.

The President’s plan, now endorsed by the Democratic majority in the Senate, has little chance of going anywhere in the House of Representatives. But it has put the 51 Senators who want to raise taxes on record.

Perhaps the biggest lie in the tax debate is that this vote affects only “the rich.” That’s simply not true. Many small businesses, known as flow-through businesses, pay their taxes through the individual income tax. Ernst and Young estimates that these types of businesses “employ 54% of the private sector work force.” This tax hike squarely hits 1.2 million of these businesses that hire workers and have incomes above $200,000.

Rather than punishing just “the rich,” as Heritage’s Curtis Dubay notes, “By pinpointing his tax increase on incomes over $200,000, President Obama has maximized the detrimental impact that his tax increase would have on job creation.”

The Ernst and Young study on the impact of this tax hike showed that it could kill more than 700,000 jobs. This isn’t surprising, since the businesses it targets are some of the country’s most robust job creators. But it is surprising that a majority of the Senate would go along with this plan when the country is suffering from 8.2 percent unemployment.

As if that weren’t enough, the Senate’s actions would also raise the death tax from 35 percent to 55 percent. This confiscatory rate would hit small businesses and family farms exceptionally hard. Dubay explains:

The death tax is often portrayed as a tax that only rich heirs pay. In reality, the death tax hits family-owned businesses hardest. These businesses are valuable on paper because they have many assets that they need to make and sell their products. But the businesses’ book values are not representative of the families’ liquid assets. When a family member passes on, these families often have to sell all or part of the business to raise the cash to pay the death tax. This slows the growth of these businesses and in some cases forces them to lay off existing workers.

The Senate’s vote means we are no closer to preventing Taxmageddon, the nearly $500 billion tax increase scheduled to hit Americans on January 1. It is difficult to imagine the economy sustaining such a blow. Families will be hit with an average tax increase of more than $4,100 next year if Congress allows this to go forward. Instead of preventing this calamity, the Senate voted to raise taxes. It simply boggles the mind.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 112th; 2012; bhofascism; businesstaxes; congress; deathtax; democratparty; democrats; dnc; dnc4taxes; dncrico; economy; elections; evildemocrats; evilobamaregime; fascism; hopeychangey; liberalfascism; liberalprogressivism; liberals; middleclasstaxes; nobama2012; nodemocrats2012; nojobs2012; notaxes4dnc; obama; obamatruthfile; progressives; smallbusiness; socialistdemocrats; specialdeals4all; stealthewealth; taxcheatparty; taxes; taxmageddon; unconstitutional; unemployment
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To: IbJensen

Small business owners should protest by laying off all registered Democrats on their payrolls.


21 posted on 07/26/2012 8:21:12 AM PDT by ponygirl (Be Breitbart.)
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To: traditional1

The dumbass populace does not realize that this was a tax increase on small businesses, and it will close and/or cause more lost jobs.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That is assuming they care about jobs or taxes or the USC or America.
Nearly half the country is takers.


22 posted on 07/26/2012 8:44:29 AM PDT by Leep (Enemy of the Statist)
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To: Leep

is = are


23 posted on 07/26/2012 8:47:36 AM PDT by Leep (Enemy of the Statist)
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To: IbJensen
Read up on Saul Alinski. He believed (and Oboma taught) that the best way to form a communist government is to destroy the middle class.
If the left could impoverish the middle class enough, the middle class would then join those who are totally dependent on the federal government, and the communist revolution would be complete.

This is why Oboma is saying his economic plans have worked. More people are dependent on the federal government under Oboma than any time in American history. This is the "change" he was talking about. This is his attempt to ceate the communist revolution the left has been waiting for since FDR.

24 posted on 07/26/2012 8:50:57 AM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal")
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To: rarestia

“but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.”

The Senate can propose an amendment on a bill originated in the House. They can’t propose their own.


25 posted on 07/26/2012 8:51:23 AM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: Svartalfiar

Amendments... I knew I was missing something. Thank you for the clarification.

So essentially, they can’t do what they did, but they did it anyway.

Is there a doubt in anyone’s mind that the Constitution means nothing to anyone anymore?


26 posted on 07/26/2012 8:53:22 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: traditional1; All
Coburn is a traitor, Manchin is a socialistic demonicRat partisan hack.

Please support John Raese for Senate.

27 posted on 07/26/2012 9:00:30 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: certrtwngnut

“At the age of 71 I was unable to find work. So I created a job for myself.
I purchased a failing franchise business called Goin’Postal. My son & I will run it & we will succeed despite what the gubmint does to us. This is still a free society where you work to succeed. So far.
I say SCREW EM.”

But you didnt build that.


28 posted on 07/26/2012 9:05:42 AM PDT by VanDeKoik
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To: SMARTY

I hope she has learned from this painful lesson. . .get her signed up to vote the communist out this November. We need ALL the help we can get!!


29 posted on 07/26/2012 9:07:19 AM PDT by AbolishCSEU (Percentage of Income in CS is inversely proportionate to Mother's parenting of children)
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To: SMARTY

It’s still Bush’s fault, right?


30 posted on 07/26/2012 9:16:41 AM PDT by txmissy
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To: txmissy

Certainly!!


31 posted on 07/26/2012 9:32:32 AM PDT by SMARTY ("The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings. "Henri Frederic Amiel)
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To: IbJensen

“And he recently told a fundraising crowd that his economic plan has been working.”


He’s actually telling the truth for a change. His plan IS working. His plan is to completely destroy the US economy.


32 posted on 07/26/2012 9:34:39 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: IbJensen

Actually doesn’t matter if they voted to raise them. If hey hadn’t, King Barack would have raised them anyway by executive fiat.


33 posted on 07/26/2012 9:38:43 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: SMARTY

Tell that hairdresser there’s one way to help get the government off her back: vote republican or libertarian


34 posted on 07/26/2012 9:40:09 AM PDT by lowbridge (Joe Biden: "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy.")
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To: IbJensen

Family farms are also on the Kings hit list. He wants to eliminate them.


35 posted on 07/26/2012 9:42:57 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: SMARTY

My mom’s hairdresser owns her own shop and has for a long time. She’s a confirmed Democrat and LOVES Obama.

Lately she is complaining about all the government interference with small business owners.

Also, one of the first things people curtail in hard times is ‘non essential luxuries’... like a trip to the hairdresser. Guess who’s business has suffered?

Too late NOW!


And she will vote for obama again even if she’s run out of business. Thats just how brainwashed they are.


36 posted on 07/26/2012 9:45:59 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: lowbridge

Right, but she’s your typical dyed in the wool Liberal.

She’s smart enough to by the half-a^%ed Liberal logic, but not smart enough to consider that alternatives exist or to challenge what isn’t working. It’s pathetic because she’s a really nice girl, otherwise.

It’s typical I think.

They have been so conditioned by Liberal BS that looking at things any other way (even IF alternatives would work FOR them) that they won’t consider another point of view.


37 posted on 07/26/2012 9:47:32 AM PDT by SMARTY ("The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings. "Henri Frederic Amiel)
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To: BitWielder1

Raising taxes does NOT bring in more government revenue. That’s the Big Fallacy all along.


38 posted on 07/26/2012 10:07:38 AM PDT by ichabod1 (Spriiingtime for islam, and tyranny. Winter for US and frieeends. . .)
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To: ichabod1
Raising taxes does NOT bring in more government revenue. That’s the Big Fallacy all along.

Only if the rates are low. We are way past the point of diminishing returns. See the Laffer Curve.
Any talk of the government needing more "revenue" grates on me.
I despise that word, I think of it as "loot".
They are already taking much more than their fair share.

39 posted on 07/26/2012 10:21:12 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: IbJensen

Democrat-controlled Senate Votes to Raise Taxes on Small Businesses



40 posted on 07/26/2012 10:34:18 AM PDT by EdReform (Oath Keepers - Guardians of the Republic - Honor your oath - Join us: www.oathkeepers.org)
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