The Fiscal Cliff... What is it and what does it mean to you?

[Warph]

House Passes Crap Sandwich Fiscal Cliff Bill...

The GOP majority House just voted to raise taxes on 77% of American households.
The tax this year would increase by two percentage points, to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent,
on all earned income up to $113,700.

The fiscal cliff deal passed by the Senate and House would increase deficits over the next decade by close to $4 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But that's relative to where deficits would otherwise be if Congress were to let all the Bush tax cuts expire and keep much if not all of the other tax hikes and spending cuts under the fiscal cliff in place.  Under that scenario, only $2.88 trillion would be added to the debt over the next decade.


Oh... that sound you heard was Reagan rolling over in his grave.

"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that
it bears a very close resemblance to the first." ...Ronald Reagan

Rand Paul for President!

[Patriot]

The specific increase of which you are writing is the return to FICA rates prior to Obummer's 'tax holiday' game.  Given that the tax funds Social Security, it was a stupid cut in the first place.  Now employees and employers are back to each providing equal contributions.  The bigger travesties in this 'deal' are the income tax increases, the absence of spending cuts and the added pork spending that was attached.  Check out these perks that were preserved in this 'deal':

    $430 million for Hollywood through "special expensing rules" to encourage TV and film production in the United States. Producers can expense up to $15 million of costs for their projects.

    $331 million for railroads by allowing short-line and regional operators to claim a tax credit up to 50 percent of the cost to maintain tracks that they own or lease.

    $222 million for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through returned excise taxes collected by the federal government on rum produced in the islands and imported to the mainland.

    $70 million for NASCAR by extending a "7-year cost recovery period for certain motorsports racing track facilities."

    $59 million for algae growers through tax credits to encourage production of "cellulosic biofuel" at up to $1.01 per gallon.

    $4 million for electric motorcycle makers by expanding an existing green-energy tax credit for buyers of plug-in vehicles to include electric motorbikes.

While no conservative Kansas representative in the House appears to have voted for this, it seems our two "Republican" senators have defected to the compromising socialist side of the isle.  As for the rest of the House vote, here's a link that lists the non-conservative RINO's who joined Speaker Bonehead in voting with the Demoncrats on this scam:    http://www.scribd.com/doc/118633397/House-Votes-Yes-on-The-Senate-s-Fiscal-Cliff-Bill

The really sick & twisted part:  CBO estimates this 'deal' will increase the deficit spending by $3.9 Trillion over the next 10 years.  Face it America, Republicans bent over (again) and you're gonna take it up the backside.

[jarhead]

Patriot,
Sometimes I think you are too conservative, my friend. You need to read / watch , MSNBC news and get the REAL news that REALLY effect our lives. News like" Kim Kardashian is pregnant and is not experiencing morning sickness----LiLo spent New Years eve locked in her hotel room snorting coke and getting drunk'rn a waltzing piss ant with family and friends." The judge might be more lenient with her if she is a good girl. Now that is news, not that fiscal cliff crap, the people don't want to hear about---------------wink---wink.

[jarhead]

Well, wahh, wahh  Christie. Why don't you go hug around on your buddy Obama---again---and maybe he will, open his fat wallet for you. I love this quote from some east coast former firefighter-----
"They're quibbling about $60 billion? That's nothing as far as the federal budget goes. They should come down here and see what the beach looks like. They want to wait? We need repairs before the next hurricane season."---unquote

It is this kind of thinking that has us in deep doo doo now. I like how he wants repairs now before the next hurricane season so he can collect again next year .Rep Issa hit the nail on the head. The libs in the senate loaded the bill with pork then blaming the GOP for not passing it. If Christie and King are so ignorant to not see it then maybe they should switch parties



"'Shame on you, Congress': Republicans in Sandy-hit areas blast House GOP for delay on relief

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie blasts House speaker John Boehner for delaying a vote on funding Superstorm Sandy clean-up efforts, and New York Rep. Michael Grimm discusses the continuing fallout.
By Tracy Connor, NBC News
The House GOP came under a blistering bipartisan assault Wednesday for punting on Sandy relief, with Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie complaining he couldn't even get Speaker John Boehner to return his calls.

Fallout from the surprise vote pullback on a $60 billion aid package mounted by the hour with cries of outrage and calls for revenge.

By late afternoon, it seemed like the onslaught was having an effect. The House scheduled a Friday vote on $9 billion in flood insurance funds, to be followed by a Jan. 15 vote on another $51 billion in assistance.

It was unclear if the larger allocation would pass – or if the belated vote would mollify the New York and New Jersey politicians who unleashed unusually personal attacks against Boehner and other House Republicans.

Earlier, New York Rep. Pete King said his Republican colleagues had exposed a bias against the blue states of the Northeast and that anyone from the area who donates money to them "should have his head examined."
"They can't count on any vote from me now," he said on MSNBC.

Christie, who has been touted as a possible White House contender, put the blame for the delay squarely on Boehner and marveled that he called the Ohioan four times before he would take his call.
"Shame on you, Congress," he said, adding that he has received no explanation for the "disappointing and disgusting" decision.

The $60 billion request for assistance for to victims of Superstorm Sandy has been passed by the Senate, and House supporters were pushing for a Tuesday night vote.

Instead, King said, Boehner "just walked off" the floor and had an aide break the news that there would be no vote. The House adjourned on Wednesday without considering the measure; lawmakers are back Thursday for an hour before they gavel in the 113th Congress.

While some Republicans have criticized the aid package for funds not directly linked to Sandy, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said the speaker is "committed to getting this bill passed this month."

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., blasts Speaker John Boehner and Congress for delaying action on a bill that would provide aid toward Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

That promise didn't quiet the fury.

"Totally obscene," said Tom Jordan, a former firefighter whose house in Rockaway, Queens, was flooded by the storm that killed 120 people and damaged almost 400,000 homes.

"They're quibbling about $60 billion? That's nothing as far as the federal budget goes. They should come down here and see what the beach looks like. They want to wait? We need repairs before the next hurricane season."

Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican who represents parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn, called the delay "a personal betrayal." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand dared Boehner to visit Staten Island, then added that she doubts "he has the dignity nor the guts to do it."



"They're a bunch of idiots," Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, a Conservative, said of House Republicans. "There's no other logical reason they'd be doing this."

In a joint statement, Christie and New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, accused the house of a "dereliction of duty."

"When American citizens are in need we come to their aid," they said. "That tradition was abandoned in the House last night."

But it was King who really let his Republican colleagues have it.

"The fact is that the dismissive attitude that was shown last night toward New York, New Jersey and Connecticut typifies, I believe, a strain in the Republican Party," he said on the House floor.

"I can't imagine that type of indifference, that cavalier attitude being shown to any other part of the country," he added.

"We cannot believe this cruel knife in the back was delivered to our region... This is not the United States of America! This should not be the Republican Party. This should not be the Republican leadership."

Although he said he is not thinking of switching parties, King suggested New Yorkers should hit House Republicans who don't support the bill where it hurts – in the campaign coffer.

"These people have no problem finding New York when it comes to raising money. They only have a problem when it comes to allocating," he fumed.

In an address to fellow lawmakers in the House of Representatives, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., blasts Speaker of the House John Boehner for failing to hold a vote on Senate-passed legislation that would provide relief for victims of Superstorm Sandy.
"If this is not delivered and very quickly...anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to congressional Republicans after this should have their head examined," he added on MSNBC.

Boehner is supposed to meet with Republican members of the New York and New Jersey delegations on Wednesday to reassure them that the relief bill will be passed.

But King expressed skepticism about a quick vote, noting a majority of House Republicans don't support the bill and Washington will be soon be preoccupied with the inauguration and the State of the Union.

President Obama called on the House to bring the bill to a vote immediately and "pass it without delay for our fellow Americans."

It's unclear what impact the vote delay with have. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency testified this month that it had enough funding to "respond to the immediate needs."

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) defended Boehner's move, blaming the Senate for padding the relief package with non-essential funding.

"The Senate didn't do their job. They sent us a bunch of pork, and then left town," he said on "Fox and Friends."

[Warph]

Taxes to Rise on Most American Workers

Hey Obuma, you dumb Son-of-a-Bitch... and I mean that literally, look at what you are about to recreate!!!!



























(Congress Bitch)Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called it "a happy start to a new year." That probably tells you all you need to know about the fiscal cliff deal that passed the House last night. (If she had half-a-brain, she would be dangerous!)
The bill—which President Obama has promised to sign, though he took off for Hawaii again after the vote --at tax payers expense -- has a 10 to 1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts. This is the President's version of a "balanced" approach.

In addition to tax increases on Americans making more than $250,000 a year, the bipartisan deal will actually raise taxes on the vast majority of American workers. How? The payroll tax "holiday" has ended. The Wall Street Journal calculates that the "typical U.S. family earning $50,000 a year" will lose "an annual income boost of $1,000."

Meanwhile, the higher tax rates will hit small businesses and investors—which is grim news for a country in need of new jobs.
"It is the small businesses that employ the most workers who will pay the higher rates," explains Heritage's Curtis Dubay. "These tax hikes on investment will further dampen investment and result in even less job creation. This is more bad news for the 12 million unemployed Americans."

While the President touted a "balance" of tax hikes and spending cuts, the truth is that the bill increases government spending by about $330 billion.

Though Congress and the President have known for two years that they would have to do something about all the expiring tax rates, they waited until after the deadline had passed. This resulted in lawmaking for which "irresponsible" is not a strong enough word.

The Senate voted without knowing the cost of the bill—the Congressional Budget Office had not even had time to go through it.

The legislation passed both chambers of Congress within a 24-hour period on a holiday, which meant that Members of Congress—much less the American people—did not have time to find out what was in the 157-page bill.

Business Insider notes that all of the new tax rates are "'permanent,' meaning that Congress would have to agree to change them. This is a big deal. Almost every fiscal agreement reached by Congress since the Bush tax cuts of 2001 has been scheduled to phase out at a future date."

After all the damage this deal has done, Congress isn't through yet. Well, this Congress is—the outgoing lawmakers make their exit on Thursday, and the new Congress will be coming in. It will face the real consequences of the across-the-board budget cuts to defense known as sequestration, which this deal postponed for two months.

It will also face the U.S. debt limit. President Obama said last night that he is in no mood to get into another debt limit fight—even though that is inevitable.

"While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether they will pay the bills they've already racked up," Obama said.  (You got it wrong, A$$hole... you mean, '...bills that YOU racked up!')

But that debate is coming. This time, rather than grandstanding, Obama must deliver on his promise of a "balanced approach," now that he has locked in his class warfare tax hikes. That means reforms to rein in entitlement spending in particular. The $650 billion fiscal cliff distracted from the $48 trillion looming fiscal crisis—the long-term funding obligations of Social Security and Medicare.

Without spending cuts and real entitlement reforms, that fiscal iceberg remains dead ahead.

[Warph]

Oh Yes... the JOKE is on us, Mr. President Clown.

                         


Mr. President Clown wants 'shared sacrifice' as he is off to continue his Hawaiian vacation at an additional cost to the taxpayer of $4 Million USD in addition to the original $7Million.

Austerity for the masses, perks for the privileged, gain for the politicians, LOSS FOR THE CITIZEN! 

Yep, the joke is on us.... While we pay and tighten our belts... they are raping and looting the nation for all they can get before it is too late.

BASTARDS!

[Warph]

Congress stayed up late and voted 257 to 167 in the House to approve the Fiscal Cliff compromise.  And the good thing is that since taxes automatically went up for everyone when the day began, with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, Congressmen could keep their no-tax-hike pledges because their action was now a tax cut; that is, for everyone except those who make over $450,000. Also, people making over $250,000 may no longer claim the personal exemptions on their tax forms, so their taxes will go up slightly, allowing President Obama to keep his campaign promise.

BUT....

Obuma lied to us again... (so what's new in that).  Obuma is WRONG when he says no one under $250,000 will be taxed.  This 'cliff' deal still raises taxes on the middle class. Taxes will rise on the middle class because it doesn't include an extension of the payroll tax holiday.  That means that the paychecks for more than 160 million Americans will be 2 percent smaller starting in January, as the payroll tax will jump from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent.  And a huge number of those hit will be middle class or working poor.  For an individual earning the maximum 2013 cap of $113,700 or more, the increase would be nearly $200 per month.  Overall, the expiration of this stimulus would cost working Americans $125 billion a year."

Opposing the legislation in the Senate were Democratic Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Michael Bennet (D-CO) along with Republican Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Richard Shelby (D-AL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Marco Rubio (R-FL).  The vote went 89 for, 8 against.


Here is a useful summary of what's in the new law according to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/01/wonkbook-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-fiscal-cliff-deal/?hpid=z2


— 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, which Obama had lifted this week, will be re-imposed.

— The 2009 expansion of tax breaks for low-income Americans: the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit will be extended for five years.

— 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.

[Warph]

                             

McConnell, Boehner saved most of the tax cuts

By: Allan H. Ryskind
1/4/2013 10:47 AM

Here's a question for many conservatives: Whom would you rather have negotiating a business deal for you–Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell or those House Republicans who would have had us sailing over the cliff rather than accept any compromise with the president?

Personally, I'd hire the Minority Leader. Since the deal, middle class workers and businessmen have been happier, the stock market has soared, retirement accounts are going up and most of the Bush tax cuts that affect people like me have been preserved.

The Over-the-Cliff folks, alas, would have deprived the nation of every one of these good things because they didn't want to raise a single penny on those making over $1 million a year–as if the increases would have seriously affected their incentive to work or their entrepreneurial spirits.

Even McConnell's detractors should concede that he was not dealt the best of hands on November 6. A re-elected Obama won the popular vote, the electoral vote and virtually all of the battleground states. His party picked up two seats in the Senate after the pundits claimed a GOP gain there was a slam dunk.

The GOP's majority in the House was diminished as well. Obama didn't have much of a mandate, but he had pledged–over and over and over again–that he was determined to repeal all the Bush tax cuts benefitting the "wealthy," described by him as households and small businesses making as little as $250,000 annually. And he never let up on that demand after his victory.

The President then made a very tempting offer to his fallen foes. Allow me to paraphrase: "I'll let you keep virtually all of the Bush tax cuts, 96 percent of them, cuts which we Democrats have endlessly demagogued against as favoring the wealthy and ballooning the national debt. But if you refuse to accede to my generous offer, all of the Bush cuts, even for lower income earners, will automatically expire on January 1. That will mean, according to your own Heritage Foundation, about a $4,000 tax increase for the average U.S. family. And you Republicans, as the polls happily reveal, will be badly blamed. Your party's brand as the champion of tax cuts will be tainted or ended. And the media, of course, will be taking my side of the argument. So, do we have a deal?"

Over in the House, Speaker Boehner responded first, giving a firm "No"–against the advice of many good conservatives like Rep. Tom Cole, who thought conceding was the better part of valor and that conservatives should be concentrating on spending cuts instead.

But Boehner, in back-and-forth negotiations with the White House, finally moved a seemingly immovable chief executive to give a bit on entitlements and a lot more on taxes. The $250,000 figure, Obama surprisingly conceded, was no longer set in stone and he would be willing to extend the Bush cuts to those making as much as $400,000 annually, thus salvaging the cuts for millions of more folks.

As a huge fan of those cuts, a godsend to the economy and a gusher for the Treasury, I thought, hey, Boehner is putting up a decent fight for people who think like me.

He's not letting Obama roll him, even though the president clearly has the upper hand. And he even got Obama to toss in some spending cuts on both Medicare and Social Security, which the Democrats had said had to be off the table in the lame duck session. When Boehner could get no more spending cuts from the president, however, he ended negotiations and came up with Plan B, which would have extended the Bush tax cuts to those making over a million dollars annually. The "Over the Cliffers," however, wouldn't go along, saying that all of the tax cuts had to be preserved, even though the author of the GOP tax pledge, Grover Norquist, was giving Boehner a pass. The Speaker then abandoned the field of battle, telling McConnell that it was up to him to save the day.

McConnell, however, had been politically weakened when Plan B, which would have provided him some leverage, was blocked from going over to the Senate. Unlike Boehner, McConnell was also operating from a chamber controlled by Democrats.

Moreover, the cliff deadline was fast approaching. In the teeth of all this, the Minority Leader pulled off a small triumph, salvaging the overwhelming majority of the Bush tax cuts, ending the Alternative Minimum tax increase threatening to engulf some 30 million folks, preserving most of the existing estate taxes which the Democrats were eager to send skyward and even securing the "doc fix." He accomplished all this while holding not much more than a pair of deuces. The deal was hardly perfect, of course, and non-Bush taxes will be going up on plenty of individuals. But they won't be nearly as onerous as if the majority of the Bush tax cuts hadn't been kept.

There were, of course, no spending cuts to speak of, but whose fault was that? Obama and the Democrats, who showed no real interest in major entitlement reforms during the lame-duck session.

But it's not as if the Republicans won't get another crack at putting a major proposal on the table to significantly cut the deficit. The sequestration law, postponed for two months, provides for nothing but automatic spending cuts of a trillion dollars.

There's no reason Republicans can't build on that piece of legislation. That's the time, one would think, for the GOP to bring out a well thought-out plan. There will also be the ongoing battle to lift the national debt ceiling, which provides a riskier debt reduction opportunity.

In the meantime, McConnell and Boehner, with major obstacles from both Obama and the "Over the Cliffers," should be honored for the very tough fight they've been waging on behalf of us taxpayers. Their harsh conservative critics, in my humble view, have not yet outlined a coherent case against them.