Posted on 03/05/2009 8:25:56 AM PST by SonOfDarkSkies
President Barack Obama is meeting strong Democratic Party resistance to his proposal to reduce tax deductions enjoyed by upper-income Americans and could be forced to drop or modify the idea.
Mr. Obama in his budget blueprint last week proposed a cap on itemized deductions for mortgage interest and charitable donations to help pay for his health-care overhaul. The plan would cost wealthier taxpayers about $318 billion in new taxes over 10 years, according to government estimates.
But after objections from Democratic lawmakers, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared to suggest at one point Wednesday that the administration was willing to consider dropping or modifying the proposal.
The resistance from Mr. Obama's own party -- focusing on a single element of the president's tax plans -- could foreshadow broader troubles for the rest of his proposed tax increases.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
It's a finger pointing political blame thing isn't it.
The reason the charitable deduction cutback on high earners is so obnoxious is that you have to give to the government in order to donate to charity. It is added insult and corrosive to the social compact.
Careful, you may be offending a fellow FReeper by comparison...:)
Thank God. My family income is not yet at $250,000, but it conceivably could be by the end of Obama’s term.
Even though my husband was laid off for 2 months this year, if the Bush tax cuts expired tomorrow we’d still lose $5-6K a year.
I’m surprised only 1.2% of American families make more than $250,000. In the San Francisco Bay Area, and I know in the DC area too, it is quite common for the wife and the husband’s salaries together to be that, or near that.
The world would certainly be different (and far better) if this Pissant was in the oval office.
Capping charity write offs and mortgage interest deductions, while hurtful to the economy, are not the most damaging. The bull in the china shop is the proposed cap and trade legislation and excise taxes on domestic oil production. If these go into effect we are in for a long period of economic woes.
That we would, but it might still be embarrassing to have the cops called over to the White House at 2 AM because of the drunken brawls... :)
Good analogy.
Even Bloomberg knows that a tiny percentage pay most of the taxes and that if you piss them off, they just might stop doing what they do to earn the money that pays the taxes or they might move to a different country.
Obama just doesn’t care. His whole plan is one of equal outcome, even if that means that everyone will be equally poor and miserable. Well, everyone except the elite liberals, of course.
In Obamabizarro World, it is better that 99.5% of the people be poor and miserable and 0.5% be wealthy, than for 5% to be rich, 80% to be in the middle class and comfortable and 15% be poor.
Headline:
“American people re-think election of Obama”.
My bi-weekly federal withholding LAST PAYDAY 246.54 THIS PAYDAY 215.77
Extra on my bi-weekly paycheck + $ 30.77 or 61.54 a Month
BUT I just got a letter from my mortgage company that my Escrow is increasing $117 a months beginning April 1st due to increased taxes on my property.
MY NET LOSS each month $55.46. Thats Right, this middle class well below 250K worker, in fact below 100K, WILL BE PAYING MORE TAXES.
Funny. He may be a tap dancer but he's no Bill Robinson.
That's not our FR pissant!
If he rethinks tax hikes is he also going to rethink the enormous proposed spending increase?
I sure would like to see the new deficit numbers for:
No tax hikes
Reduced tax revenue
Significantly higher spending
Bailouts galore
He wanted the sun and moon - he asked for the sun, moon, stars and planets and when people said "that's too much" he responded by saying "OK - we'll drop the stars and planets".
Obama continues to fail. DOW down..... -228.
Agreed! I just hate to see your great screen name besmirched by comparison...
I would think that auditing the rich would accomplish the same. Apparently, by Obama’s appointment record, it is acceptable for the wealthy to ignore the tax code and pay far less than is due.
My CPA said the IRS has been heavily auditing the earned income poor and leaving wealthy clients alone.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.