Tag Archives: Bush Tax Cuts
Latest 2012 Presidential Polls – 10 Jul 12 Edition
Seventeen weeks until the November election and while President Obama’s gone on the offensive calling on Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone earning less than $250,000 per year, Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential wanna-be Willard Mitt Romney’s calling for the tax cuts to be extended for everyone, saying increasing taxes on the top 2% would hurt the “job creators” in America; only problem with Willard’s theory is we’ve had these tax cuts for more than ten years now, and seen very little return from the so-called “job creators”.
So, how does the GOTP candidate stand up against the President?
No new polls on current favorability of the candidates; however, according to the latest CNN/Opinion Research poll of registered voters conducted from 28 Jun – 01 Jul 12, shows the President with a 54% favorability rating compared to Romney’s 49%.
So, who’s more electable right now?
In the most recent viable’ poll(s) – which are any group other than FOX News, Washington Times or Rasmussen (which are generally always skewed not just to the right, but far to the right) – the most current Reuters/Ipsos poll of registered voters conducted 05 Jul – 09 Jul 12, if the general election were held today:
President Obama 49/Romney 43
The most current Gallup Tracking poll of registered voters conducted 01 Jul – 08 Jul 12, if the general election were held today:
President Obama 47/Romney 45
The most recent ABC News/Wash Post poll of registered voters conducted 05 Jul – 08 Jul 12, if the general election were held today:
President Obama 47/Romney 47
And finally, the most recent CNN/Opinion Research poll of likely voters conducted 28 Jun 12 – 01 Jul 12, if the general election were held today:
President Obama 49/Romney 46
If the general election was held today, Willard Mitt Romney still loses to President Obama in the general election.
How big would Willard lose? Well, if the General Election were held TODAY (note these are based on current poll numbers – not projections), the Electoral College totals based on all available current poll numbers:
Eventually taxes will be increased
We have a huge debt and deficit primarily due to ten years of war while cutting taxes; economics of war 101 is you can’t fight a war without paying for it; you either raise taxes amongst your own people or plunder the enemy – since we don’t plunder the enemy we needed to raise taxes, but we did neither. $2 billion dollars spent per week each in Iraq and Afghanistan x 572 weeks = $2,288,000,000,000 of pure debt with no offset whatsoever; coupled to that an infrastructure badly in need of repair, plus an economy devastated by eight years of mismanagement by the previous administration and you have our economic woes of today.
Conservatives need to give up the failed idea of voodoo economics – trickle down has never worked, it’s a nice rosy economic theory that doesn’t produce what it claims will happen; we’ve had tax breaks for the top 1% (the so-called job creators) for more than a decade, where’s the jobs and where’s the revenue?
There’s going to need to be tax increases – sorry, but that’s going to happen; if it’s going to happen it needs to start with those who can afford them most, and it may then be necessary to raise everyone’s taxes.
After that we’re going to have to cut spending, and the first place to do that is the military; we now spend more on defense then the rest of the world combined, we don’t need a huge active military force, we need sufficient to defend the country. After we’ve trimmed back the military industrial complex we can start on other programs including social programs.
Problem with today’s conservatives is they want to do it all backwards; let’s cut taxes for the wealthiest 1% even more while increasing taxes on the lower classes; next lets increase defense spending while cutting social programs.
GOTP House leaders agree to extend payroll tax cut?
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Republican Tea Party (GOTP) House leaders are “surrendering to political reality”, and doing “an about-face and said they were willing to extend a payroll tax cut for 160 million working Americans without insisting that it be paid for with spending cuts”.
Of course this shift isn’t because they’ve suddenly become compassionate and care about working America, it’s because the evidence is in, and they’re being pummeled in poll after poll over their decision to protect the uber-rich at the expense of everyone else, especially by blocking a tax break for the middle class.
It also means a huge legislative victory for the President, winning his top legislative priority for the year moving towards November’s election.
As the Times reports, Republicans have been arguing since November the cost of maintaining the tax cut had to be offset by spending cuts – especially cuts to everything they hate and despise, basically anything helping the poor and down trodden; a stance never gaining traction with a majority of voters, and an attitude allowing Democrats to hoist the GOTP on its own political petard, accusing Boehner and crew of rank hypocrisy, especially since the Bush tax cuts for the uber-rich have never – and I do mean never – been offset with spending cuts.
“This is not our first choice,” GOTP House Speaker John Boehner sobbed in a statement.
“In the face of the Democrats’ stonewalling and obstructionism, we are prepared to act to protect small businesses and our economy from the consequences of Washington Democrats’ political games”.
Wow, really? Democratic “stonewalling”? This from the man who hasn’t passed a single piece of legislation aimed at creating jobs in America, and from a party with a record number of filibusters in Senate? This is so blatantly false it’s absolutely laughable, and will no doubt come back to bite the Speaker.
There’s of course just one small problem with what the “leaders” of the GOTP Congress want to do – the Tea Party Caucus. Time and time again “deals” have been reached on various subjects only to be stopped dead in their tracks by the freshman class of tea baggers (a term created by the Tea Party movement to describe themselves until they were educated into what the term could mean) who block everything and anything that has even the appearance of the slightest approval of the White House.
So, while it great that the House GOTP “leadership” has seen the light, it remains to be seen if it can get its members to go along, and if it jumps that hurdle will Mitch McConnell and the GOTP Senate play ball?
But I Only Have $400,000 Per Year to Live On?
Who has two thumbs and is whining about only having $400,000 to spend for his very own? It’s Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Congressman John Fleming.
While appearing on MSNBC to try to explain why he opposes President Obama’s tax increase on those earning more than $1 million per year, Fleming became defensive to the point of stupidity when host Chris Jansing commented on the fact Fleming has an income of more than $6 million annually.
“The amount that I have to reinvest in my business and feed my family is more like $600,000 of that $6.3 million,” Fleming explained. “So by the time I feed my family I have, maybe, $400,000 left over to invest in new locations, upgrade my locations, buy more equipment.”
So, let me see if I understand this correctly congressman; you spend $200,000 per year feeding your family? How many kids do you have? Are you a polygamist? What the deuce are you feeding your family gold plated hot dogs?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Fleming owns a string of Subway sandwich shops and UPS store franchises through which he earned about $6.3 million last year.
Jansing tried to point out to the congressman that he was sounding more than a little petulant, “You do understand, congressman, that the average person out there who’s making maybe 40, 50, $60,000 out there, when they hear you only have $400,000 left over, it’s not exactly a sympathetic position,” she said. “You understand that?”
“Class warfare’s never created a job,” Fleming responded. “And that’s people that will not get jobs. This is all about creating jobs, Chris, this is not about attacking people who make certain incomes. You know in this country, most people feel that being successful in their business is a virtue, not a vice, and once we begin to identify it as a vice, this country is going down.”
Yes, of course congressman, it’s all class warfare – so, how is it class warfare when the President suggests the wealthy pay more taxes, but it’s not class warfare when you – clearly part of the wealthy class – want to slash programs that benefit the poorest among us, and when you want to allow tax cuts benefitting the middle class to expire?
Well let me point something out to you dip stick, we’ve had the Bush Tax cuts for more than a decade and we’ve seen almost zero job creation from all of you good old American “job creators”; you’re chance is up, you and your country club set of business owners now has to foot the bill for the Bush/Cheney ear of adventurism. If you approve/support two wars and you didn’t pay for them, well, the bill is now due; congratulations.
Congressional Republican Tea Partistas want to raise taxes?
Republican Tea Partistas (GOTP) in the Congress – specifically the House – want to allow a tax break to end 1 January 2012, but it’s not the tax cuts enacted by George W. Bush which benefit the top 2% of wealthiest Americans, it’s the tax cut that applies to – and helps – the 46 percent of all Americans who owe no federal income taxes but who pay a “payroll tax” on practically every dime they earn.
The explanation from the GOTP House is an interesting one, GOTP House members say their proposal to allow the cuts to end is perfectly consistent with their goal of long-term tax policies that will spur employment and lend greater certainty to the economy. By spurring the economy they mean continuing tax cuts to the wealthy – the so-called “job creators” who haven’t created very many jobs in the past decade of benefitting from Bush tax cuts – while removing tax cuts for the lower 46% of the population ala Ebenezer Scrooge.
“It’s always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn,” says GOTP Congressman Jeb Hensarling, “but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again.”
What the deuce does that mean? Not “all tax relief is created equal for the purpose of helping to get the economy moving again”? Removing tax cuts to the lower middle class and the poor, while keeping tax cuts in place for the rich is supposed to get the economy moving again? This is like a Monty Python sketch of 12th Century England with the nobles trying to work out how to tax the poor out of every dime by instituting a road tax, or a tree tax.
The crux of the issue is that workers – aka “those people” to the GOTP – normally pay 6.2 percent of their wages toward a tax designated for Social Security. Their employer pays an equal amount, for a total of 12.4 percent per worker. Well, last December – when Congress was still controlled by real people and not the prostitutes of the wealthy – Congress approved President Obama’s request to reduce the workers’ share to 4.2 percent for one year; employers’ rate did not change. The President would like to see Congress extend the reduction for an additional year. If the GOTP doesn’t extend the tax cut the rate will return to 6.2 percent on 1 Jan.
President Obama has asked the GOTP House to come up with measures to help the economy and create jobs. “There are things we can do right now that will mean more customers for businesses and more jobs across the country. We can cut payroll taxes again, so families have an extra $1,000 to spend,” he said.
Unfortunately, the GOTP House – which ran on the premise of creating jobs – has not submitted one bill designed to help the economy; but they have submitted more than 100 bills aimed at curtailing abortions in America.
According to the Associated Press (AP), Social Security payroll taxes apply only to the first $106,800 of a worker’s wages. Therefore, $2,136 is the biggest benefit anyone can gain from the one-year reduction. Of course the vast majority of Americans make less than $106,800 a year, and thus millions of workers pay more in payroll taxes than in federal income taxes. But we can’t have the vast majority of American workers benefiting – you can almost hear Eric Cantor whining, “Why do they need a tax break? They don’t create any jobs! We need to cut taxes further for the top 2%, the “job creators”, not the sniveling supporters of the Democratic Party.”
GOTP Congressman, like David Camp, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and a member of the newly created House-Senate “uber-committee” tasked with finding new deficit cuts says that allowing the tax reductions to continue is troublesome, “no matter how well-intended,” will push the deficit higher.
So, allowing tax cuts to continue for the vast majority of wage earners in America will increase the deficit, but allowing the top 2% who control the vast majority of wealth – i.e., money – to keep their tax cuts won’t raise the deficit? Wow, talk about GOTP double speak.
Many GOTP members of Congress are adamant about not raising taxes but largely silent on what it would mean to let the payroll tax break expire, and they cite key differences between the two “temporary” taxes, starting with the fact that the Bush measure had a 10-year life from the start. To stimulate job growth, these lawmakers say, it’s better to reduce income tax rates for people and for companies than to extend the payroll tax break. Yes, because the uber-rich and their corporations – who we all know are people too – need to be able to have their caviar and eat it too.
Bottom line: the GOTP doesn’t give two cents for the people who work in this country; they’re only concern is to keep their Sugar Daddies (the top 2%) fat and happy so they’ll keep writing contribution checks. These “job creators” haven’t created any jobs here at home, but they’ve created thousands of new jobs overseas, benefiting from deregulation and tax cuts during the Bush/Cheney run. If you make less than $200,000 per year and you vote for the GOTP you’re slitting your own economic wrists. If this latest, and completely open move to shank you doesn’t convince you I don’t know what will.
The Liberty Tree 