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Subscribe to RSSDespite all the talk in Washington about the need to eliminate tax preferences, credits and deductions, the Senate voted just last week to create a new one, and the House is expected to follow suit this week.
Everyone from President Obama's fiscal commission to Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, wants to get rid of them, or at least limit them.
As Perry said in his flat tax plan, the law is “too riddled with loopholes and special interest tax breaks that increase compliance costs and impede economic growth.”
But despite all the talk, Congress is creating another tax break: last week the Senate voted, 94 to 1, to give a tax credit to employers who hire military veterans; it was a small victory, too, for the White House, which had pushed for the new deduction as part of its jobs package. The House is expected to follow suit this week.
The veterans tax credit is just one reminder of how often Congress uses the tax code -– instead of, or in addition to, direct spending -– to help specific groups of Americans.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), would give a tax credit of up to $5,600 for employers who hire a veteran who has been looking for a job for at least six months, and up to $2,400 for those unemployed more than four weeks.
Not only is it hard to argue against helping veterans, but the estimated cost of the new credit, $95 million over 10 years, seems minuscule at a time when members of the deficit reduction “supercommittee” are wrangling over making $1.2 trillion or more in cuts over 10 years. But the supercommittee, in a search for new revenue, may recommend the elimination of some of those long-entrenched breaks in order to meet its deficit-reduction goal.
The conventional wisdom is that once Congress creates one of these tax breaks. They never go away, and year after year, the tax code becomes encrusted with them, while the revenues that would have been collected dribble away.
But we’re approaching the demise of one venerable tax break: the 45 cent-per-gallon credit for blending ethanol into gasoline.
That tax break has been around in one form or another since the late 1970s, and the ethanol industry isn’t pushing Congress to extend it beyond its Dec. 31 expiration date, according to Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association.
Why not? Because ethanol, mostly made from corn, has now gained a ten percent share of the vehicle fuel market –- thanks to the tax credit and the Renewable Fuel Standard, enacted in 2005 and expanded in 2007, which essentially mandates the use of ethanol in the U.S. fuel supply.
Even with the demise of the blender’s credit, another ethanol tax break remains on the books at least until the end of 2012: the $1.01-per-gallon producers’ tax credit for cellulosic ethanol, which is made not from corn kernels but from switchgrass, corn stalks, and other agricultural waste. Production of cellulosic ethanol is less than three million gallons a year, compared to about 14 billion of corn-based ethanol.
You can see all the energy-related tax breaks here at the Joint Tax Committee web site.
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Get rid of the need for tax breaks and tell the politicians and lobbyists they're not going to enslave you anymore. Get rid of the income tax and replace it with the FairTax. Let people earn and accumulate THEIR OWN WEALTH and there won't be any need for "tax breaks". www.FairTax.org
This is an election year, all flash to make you think there looking out for you. What a joke ,Fooled again America. Hay but did you see how Bank of America sold there stock in the China Construction Bank, that they bought with there bailout money. They made 1.8 billion dollars with the money we loaned them at .001%, Now that's your government working for you.
How about some more Hope and Change? I know I have had plenty
It is our soldiers who are the elites in this country, after all without them using brutal naked force to exterminate many civilizations america would not even exist.
Is Halliburton hiring?
Why do everyone one of these articles always seem to support the need for higher taxex and by giving a tax break the the GOVERNMENT DOESN'T GET THEIR MONEY. It is not THEIR MONEY IT IS MINE. We do not have a taxing problem, we have a spending problem. Vote them all out please.
Mr grover & the gop & the rushbo say that lower taxes always means more tax revenue & more jobs. That's why they say they have been lowering taxes for 12 straight years. But hey, enough of this theory. We had to use trillions of social security money to pay for iraq. Jobs?
Correction to your theory: social security money has been spent every year by both parties to keep us afloat. Can't blame just one party. Secondly, the only time we as a nation have ever had zero ($0) debt or deficit was in 1835. We had no income tax and we had no social spending. Thirdly, if you truly believe that high tax rates make the economy better, then tax EVERYONE at 100% and the economy should be booming, right? My guess is you're not rooting for your taxes to go up so you can be "blessed" with an absolutely astounding personal economy either.
Good to see something done for the vets, but the business done in Congress is about as funny as the books at White Glove Inc. They never balance.
I am good with it1 Hell I would pay a little more in taxes to help those brave wonderful souls. They sat in the cold. hot and inbetween to protect us!
Good for them, at least they can do something in bi-partisan support of this country's well being.
What does Cain think about the Veterans in Libya?
hahahahahahahahahahaha
Took Republican Congress to get anything for our service men.. Obama and the Democrats just gives it away to banks,wall street , union thugs and illegals. Wonder how much Wall Street donated to Obama last week?
Don't let your ignorance get in the way of your stupidity. I was Obama who wanted this for quite a while.
And it was the Senate, with a Democratic majority, and not Congress, with a Repugnican majority, who came up with this tax break. Congress is supposed to vote on it and approve it. Learn to read, if you can.
And Wall Street is the owner of the Repugnicans, they pay for them and demand their pound of flesh.
Get educated, get informed.
I'll never object to any tax breaks for veterans or any advantages given them while seeking employment.
I read where no body was drafted into the military ask the Korean Vets and Viet Nam vets FNG(Fuc- New guy)
Why are vets so special, they chose to join the military and shouldn't get preference over anyone else for a job, our whole Government is one big JOKE!!!!!
Our government is a joke?
So which government do you like?
Can't answer can you.
The Government that stays out of everyones personal lives, and our Government doesn't therefore it's a JOKE!!!
Cliff, you should probably move. You sound very unhappy here.
Hmmmmmmm guess now I don't have freedom of speech!!!!
@funneme Guess I should be more like you, bend over, grab my ankles and say thank you Mr. President!!!!
Maybe it is time to declare Senators and House members vermin if they have been in office more than 10 years! It would be a thrill to hunt the terrorists in Washington! GRIN!
My status as a Vet never landed me a job. It never even got me to the interview list. If there was a preference for Vets I never saw it in action. I got my jobs because I was qualified. Later I got my best job. Started my own Business.
This new law is relatively trivial but maybe it will help a few unemployed veterans find work. I doubt that it is going to actually create more jobs and I doubt that it is going to be motivation for anyone to volunteer for the military.
The President has promised that the 2012 federal deficit will not exceed 229.27 billion dollars. To do that congress must reduce the deficit by more than one trillion dollars for one year alone starting right now. I want to know how this is going to be done.
It's not a small victory if you are a veteran who just got crapped out of the war machine and are facing homelessness without a job.
for John from a former First Sergeant that is an E8 for you:
First the job we do is not 8-5. It is not your typical job, it is by far more stressfull on your body and mind than any other job out there!
2. 30 days vacation each month, and sort of unlimited "sick leave" called "quarters" as required.
maybe in your unit they gave insdiscriminate "sick leave' but I assure everyone reading this that senior leadership does not sit idle for you to sit around, if they are on sick leave they are really sick!
3. Free meals and housing
sadly Joe here does not know that it is not FREE you pay for it and it gets taken out of your pay. Clearly he was a low ranking enlisted who is not familiar with entitlements
4. Free dental and medical coverage.
again we go back that is it part of your normal/regular entitlement that just because you do not see it does not mean that it is not accounted for
5. Substantial recreation and moral programs (FMWR) and discounts for products at the PX and Commissary.
clearly this person has not shopped at the PX in a long time since prices are the same except you do not pay tax on the item.......lately it has been more beneficial to shop outside on the economy than on base
6. Renlistment bonuses that can be very substantial for those who wish to reenlist.
if you are a highly sought after soldier that took 4-5 years to create yes you get reenlistment bonus just like in the civilian market - if you look at an SF operator that has to go through: Ranger school, airborne school, pathfinder, air assault, free fall, Sere, Mountain training, SF school etc yes they get it because they are in demand
7. GI Bill for schooling for those who don't want to remain in the military. if you paid your initial 1200 bucks into the GI bill you get the benefit. It is in the nations best interest to educate their people and most military personnel have the discipline to go the college and actually graduate. If you look at the graduation ratio between military and regular civilian the miltiary has a stelar record at finishig school!
What I am trying to point out that John was a regular Joe. So before writing something just for the sake of looking smart do your research because your information is incomplete and innacurate, Soldier!
1/7th Charlie Company
You get what you Inspect not what you Expect. So why is a vet looking for work worth for 6 moths worth more than one that has been out of work a shorter period? I understand the concept but the reality is that WE are paying more for somebody to test what may be a lower skilled or less enthusiast worker than one that might be higher qualified. Just stay out of it congress........... please
The deserve this entitlement They bled for it.
The idea is first to help Vets who have made an unbelievable sacrifice for this country....You included.
The second idea is that maybe it encourages employers to to hire more.....Since those job creators are sitting on cash and not creating jobs.
They are sitting on thier cash because of YOUR worthless President's policies.
I'll bet the Progressives were in panic mode..
We are broke. They should be raising Taxes on everybody Not lowering them.
They should fire government employees, making it smaller and stop all entitlements of those it did not work for it or are unable too work.
I believe this tax credit is intended to assist post 9/11 veterans. We Vietnam-era veterans are better-situated (or even retired) and don't need to displace these deserving young people who are just now trying to put their lives back together.
"give a tax credit to employers who hire military veterans"
How about treat everyone the same ?
Agreed.
I'm am a staunch supporter of the military. I want vets to get hired. BUT!!!.... I'm sorry, this is yet another example of idiot politicians trying to use the tax code as a behavior modification tool.
The government wants to see the behavior of business hiring vets, so what do they do??...they use the tax code to try and promote that behavior.
This is one of the reasons this country is so screwed up to begin with; because the stupid politicians don't understand that the tax code is supposed to fund government, not to control and manipulate behaviors that they condone or disapprove of.
I'll be damned if I'm going to be a puppet of the putrid Federal Gubment. They can go to hell.
Sorry, I don't get it. All these people coming home are still employed with the military, aren't they? Does their paycheck disappear when they get off that plane? Although this sounds like a noble thing to do, why should a veteran who has been earning a paycheck be pushed to the top of the list over somebody who hasn't worked in 2 years or longer. Everybody in this country has a group that they would love see get preferential treatment and many of those groups are doing just that, but where does it end? Just how many special groups are going to continue to take tax dollars at the expense of everybody else. Veterans already get lots and lots of benefits that nobody else gets. It is time for preferential treatment to be curtailed - not increased. Sorry, but I strongly oppose this.