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Subscribe to RSS“When Congress returns in mid-November, lawmakers will face a daunting tax agenda that, left unresolved, would cost taxpayers trillions of dollars beginning next year,” The Hill writes. “Shortly after they adjourned this week, Democratic leaders vowed that extending middle-class tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush would be their top priority upon returning after the elections.”
“Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) lost his driver’s license temporarily this summer because he bounced the check used to pay the renewal fee, according to an Associated Press report,” The Hill notes.
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Don't forget Republicans want to lower taxes and spend more on weapons systems at the same time. But they DON'T know where the money will come from. LOL
I think the article said that the Democrats promised to 'lower taxes'.
By the way. No taxes are being "lowered". The debate is on RAISING taxes above their current rates. and on whom.
True, Republicans want to lower taxes. The Democrats want to increase taxes. Hmmm.. less taxes or more taxes... choices, choices, choices. But hey, at least the Democrats passed the "pay / go" bill that requires Congress to find funding for new bills through identifying government waste and/or cut back on other programs. My bad, they haven't used it yet. Bills like extending employment insurance were paid for by borrowing more money increasing our Country's debt even further. So much for "pay / go".
I am disgusted with Pelosi and the Democrats running away from bringing the Bush tax cuts to a vote. Can't say the Republicans prevented the vote from taking place since the vote was 100% Pelosi's decision.
Both parties have failed America. This is why the American people must send the message to ALL politicians that we will not accept the spending practices of the past or present by this Congress.
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To Roy: No, the argument is that we had an unsustainable tax structure from '01 - '10 that unrealistically ignored two wars and a medicare drug plan. Semantics, semantics - we are returning to a tax structure as it was and should have stayed. And here is the kicker, we are going to help those who benefited least during the lost decade.
If what you say is true then ask yourself a question, why is the tax structure unsustainable? Too much government growth! Government growth is continuing at a unprecedented rate under Obama and this is truly unsustainable.
ok dude,
Ask yourself this, why did the Bush administration leave out the funding of not 1 but 2 wars, cut taxes and helped those who already are stinky rich while conducting those wars, spent money beyond belief, created Homeland security, added the Medicare part D boondoggle, and no child left behind act and so on.
I have to agree with Wm on this, no matter what happens, taxes on someone has to go up and since the Bush administration and their policies have decimated the middle class, then you have to look at the Bush administration's policy on why the taxes were reduced on the rich. The idea was for their taxes to be lower because if the rich have more then they will create jobs.
Unfortunately, what took place was they got greedy and made millions but did nothing to create more jobs, they actually moved their companies overseas and jobs were lost. Now you can debate on this whole thing but the truth is the rich do not create more jobs when they have more money, a fact that has played out.
While government may have gotten bigger, it was under the Bush administration were it grew larger and if you were to look at the piece of pie the government holds, it's share is not that very large by comparison with rest of the employers of the nation which again can still be debated.
Once contributing factor the government has to grow is to take of our returning vets from the 2 wars that have been waged for 10 years now.
Facts are the Bush administration and the Republican policies have greatly contributed to the current crisis playing out in this country. All indicators have pointed this out to which some people just don't want to acknowledge this and the fact the current Republican party no longer represents what the Republican party actually stood for years ago.
Actually, the only reasons that the tax structure is messed up are these:
1. Too many hand outs to corporations and the wealthy that have moved the money upwards and out of the reach of most of the populace. Corporate welfare has sapped the middle and lower classes of their ability to fuel the economy and pay taxes.
2. The pay rates that have stayed flat or diminished against the rate of inflation leading to many who have actually become poor even though they USED to be making what was considered 'Good Money' earlier.
3. The present number of people that are unemployed or under-employed and thus in the poor brackets where they do not make enough money to be ABLE to pay taxes.
Presently the Corporations at the top are holding onto some 1.6 TRILLION dollars in CASH. this is some 6.2% of their net worth, which means that there are at least 45 TRILLION dollars tied up in the Corporations and Big Businesses and this does not even count the immense personal wealth of some individuals, some in the tens of billions of dollars or more. If these people and corporations were to actually hire, at real living wages, then the middle class and poor would have the money to actually fuel the economy. A real, working economy that has enough money flowing through it is able to pay a MUCH larger amount in taxes as that money is changing hands all the time. Having the money concentrated at the top hold up the whole flow of wealth and so the tax receipts stagnate terribly. Right now only 20% of the populace controls some 90% of the wealth in this Nation, leaving only 10% to the other 80% of the people. This makes for a VERY sick economy and so some sort of balancing, possibly redistribution, needs to be done before the economy fails altogether. The wealthy have so much wealth that they are UNABLE to spend it all so they save it by various means, the poor spend all that they have to just barely get by, usually lacking in some way or another. The wealth gap is the most dangerous thing facing this Nation at the present and SOMETHING needs to be done about it before a major revolution happens with the starving masses tearing down those that they perceive to be rich, destroying this Nation as we know it.
Government growth and debt actually climbed the very most under Bush the 2nd, most of the spending being blamed on President Obama is actually the re-balancing of the books and bringing into the budget all of the spending that was kept "Off The Books" by the Bush Admin, of the $1.3 Trillion of this last year's deficit only $.3 Trillion ($300 Billion) is actually due to Pres. Obama and the Dems, the rest comes from the things that Bush left off the budget, like the wars, Medicare Part D etc. President Obama actually needs to be able to spend MORE to get the economy stabilized and moving upwards even faster, but he has been blocked by the Repubs, particularly in the Senate, with the Rule 22 procedural filibuster.
Terry, Disabled Vet, Des Moines IA
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but, Bush isn't president anymore. In fact, he can no longer impact our futures, Obama and Congress can. This is about now, today, this very minute, not 2 years ago. I don't understand why people feel taxes should go up when government growth has gone through the roof for the past 4 years under a Democratic controlled Congress. How about shrinking government size until we get a hold of our deficit. If you pay the government the taxes they ask for, then don't get mad when they come back next year with their hand out again.
You blame Bush for growing the government (adding another cabinet Homeland Security), then why not blame Obama as well? After all, Obama is in office NOW and has grown our federal government faster then Bush EVER did.
So, if the rich don't do not create more jobs when they have more money then who pays for the hiring of new jobs? The companies that don't have "extra" money? That simply doesn't make sense. The fact of the matter is companies are not hiring due to market uncertainty caused by the current administration and Congress. The fact that Pelosi didn't call for a vote on extending Bush tax cuts is proof of that. Also, for you information, companies that moved overseas, did so due to taxes being too high. The very reason that you are promoting today.
Did you really say that? Comparing our Federal Government to "employers of the nation" make NO sense. The Federal Government only SPENDS money that the "employers of the nation" MAKES. They DO NOT make money. So to compare size between the two only supports my point that our government has grown to be too large to control corruption. Remember, large government = large corruption, small government = small corruption.
If that was true then our Federal Government would have been HUGE after the Vietnam war, or after the 2nd World War. Nice spin.
I agree that the Republicans have fallen short of standing behind their founding principles. In fact, I also agree that Bush and the Democratically Controlled Congress had much to do with our economic crisis. I would also add, the Democrats allowed their party to be hijacked by progressives which caused them to go off track as well.
DUDE
Exactly. The Government growth at the Federal and the State level are unsustainable. There should be a panel of people appointed, just like the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, that look at each Government Agency and see where cuts can be made in expenditures and in personnel. Then Congress could use these recommendations to trim most if not all the Government Agencies of their excess baggage. All savings from these cuts should be mandated for use to pay down the public debt and nothing else. No ear marks, no back room deals, no borrowing from it and "pay back later" like Clinton did with Social Security.
Also I would be in favor of the tax cuts running out for a year or two. Then you will really see the squealing from the people that these cuts supposedly didn't help. Come income tax time when a married couple's exemption rate and those for their children revert back to the way they were in Clinton's time and the EIC is cut back then most of the boneheads that complain about the tax cuts will be howling for them to be reinstated.
I do not nor will I ever understand the lefts view that taxes on anyone should go up. Government should be big enough to provide what they were mandated to do in the Constitution. The USDA should not be making home loans, or buying vehicles for rural police agencies. What does that have to do with Agriculture? Why should yours or my taxes go up to support 20 million illegals in this country????? Anyone that says they are not being forced to support these cock roaches are either naive, stupid, or want them all here in the first place. There are thousands of incompetent government workers that should be sent packing. The ones that were supposed to inspect the off shore oil rigs are a good example and the White House staffer that wouldn't let the 10 year old grandson and wife of a Medal of Honor winner go on the White House tour is another.
Bottom line is stop the government from growing, cut the excesses in each agency and cut redundunt agencies and you will cut the need for more taxes now and in ther future.
Let republicans ReFudirate? what ever!Do the math 1 dollar traveling at the speed of light for one year!
5.88 Trillion miles that is the deficit the republicans left office with, in round numbers. Really ready to give the country back to the ilk? Really? - $5,880,000,000,000.00
-$5,880,000,000,000.00 big number, numbers for space travel not budgets, this is what Republicans want to do continue to send tax dollars on a light speed road trip with no way home? -$5,880,000,000,000.00. Alpha century here I come.
Too bad you didn't post the current deficit under Obama with Bush's numbers for comparison. Here, let me help you... so you won't have to use your search bar.
Obama and Democratic Congress Current Deficit: 13,625,973,947,191.79
That would mean that Obama and the Democrats had spent, in less then two years, more than double that of Bush's 8 year term. If you chose to put the real blame of spending on Congress rather then the President, then that would mean a large portion of the deficit you posted (TARP) would be the Democrats doing since they held control of Congress for the final 2 years of Bush's term.
One more thing, the deficit I posted above doesn't include the YEARLY increase of a trillion to our deficit due to the HC reform law the Democrats orchestrated. You know, the health care reform bill that had to be passed immediately to save Americans money. Doh, my bad, the bill only increased health care costs to the average American citizen, not save costs. Not to mention the HC law won't go into effect until year 2014, some emergency.
The democrats don't want to give anyone a tax break. The democrats are willing to let the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year without a vote. The democrats have never seen a tax they didn't like or spending money they don't have. Yes, the republicans were responsible for spending to much during the first 6 yrs of Bush, but remember the democrats have controlled the purse strings in Jan 2007.
Hamletrules & B Honest
I believe under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution that Congress is the one that levys taxes and also passes laws and budgets. They control the purse strings. Not the President. Are you saying that the Congress that has been headed by the Dems since January 2007 had nothing to do with the spending that was done during the Bush Administration? I know we say that Congress hasn't done anything lately but from your posts Bush somehow spent all that money without the Dem led Congress from knowing about it. So what happened did all the Dems in both houses give Bush the keys and told him to lock up when he was done? Both of you need to get a clue. Both parties are responsible for the mess we are in not just the Repubs and not just the Dems BOTH. The difference I see is that the Dems think they can spend us into being wealthy while the Republicans are calling for restraint and stopping of the growth of government.
In Europe the countries that were hit hardest have reduced spending and it has somewhat rejuvenated their economies. Of course they are not out of the woods but at least their leaders realize the path that works and are taking it. Look at Greece and France for instance. They have come out and told their people that jobs for life and all the benefits that were promised in the past are unsustainable just like the ones promised to our Government workers here.
I agree the rich don't produce jobs, however because they are rich they have the ability to take their ball and go home. They can move their businesses and themselves to greener pastures. If they did that they would not only not pay the tax hike rate but they wouldnt pay any to this country at all. Ask Maryland and New Jersey how that worked for them when they created a "millionaires tax".
The best way to get the economy on its feet is by providing small businesses with the money and abilities to create new sources of income. Obama even stated in his call for the Stimulus that Small Business is the driver of our economy. Then out of $800 Billion dollars he provided $3 Billion to small business opportunities. Great Job. He gave Billions of dollars to union members and only 3 to the driver of our economy. Then when he realized what a huge failure his policy was he asked for more loans to small businesses and for tax credits. Had he used the major part of the stimulus for small business creations he would look like a champ and the Dems would have no problems in Nov. Instead he and a large part of the Dems that backed him in Congress are the chumps and although he will still have a job, many of his supporters will be packing bags and hitting the lobbyist trail.
By the way since the first of this year the National debt went up by $1,271,384,872,633.34 to date. thats almost $1.3 trillion dollars but I guess some idiot on here will still try to find a way to blame that on Bush too.
Reduce the size of Government, Get rid of the illegals, cut Government pension plans, and stop giving welfare to Governments that don't even like us.
OK, I'll concede a minor point. Since the two wars have made us safer, let's do away with Homeland Security. Then we can let go all those non-union, lower paid, TSA workers that the GOP demanded when the bill was passed. And as long as we are cutting highly paid government workers in all the other departments - who is going to hire them?
Wm
Would you have rather they been union members that got to many sweetheart deals from the government so that they could retire in a few years with more pay than their civilian counterparts. Never mind I already know the answer. No lets not start with them lets start at the Art Teacher at the Federal Prison making $70k plus benefits a year. Or how about the loan officers making $50k plus to make loans to people they know won't be able to pay them back. No there are a lot of cuts that the govenment need to make and all of them start at about 50 k or better. Get rid of all the excess baggage and trim the fat out of the government. This will not only reduce oour current defecit but the interest on the money saved will add up into the hundreds of billions of dollars.