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Subscribe to RSSIn a purely political exercise this afternoon in the Senate, Senate Democrats narrowly passed a bill 51 to 48 to extend Bush-era tax cuts for middle class Americans for another year. With Vice President Biden presiding over the Senate, Democrats lost only two votes: Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who regularly votes with Democrats.
Under the plan, income tax rates for individuals making up to $200,000 and families making up to $250,000 would remain the same in 2013. Rates on upper income Americans would expire on Dec. 31st.
"This is a big victory for the American people today," Vice President Biden said in a show of support for Senate Democrats. Biden's presence in the Senate chamber was a symbolic move, his vote was not needed to put Democrats over the top.
The bill follows through on an election-year call from President Obama to protect the middle class from an income tax hike next year. He has campaigned on the message that wealthier Americans should pay more in taxes to help reduce the national deficit.
"Democrats believe this country can't afford more budget-busting giveaways for the top 2 percent of earners," Majority Leader Harry Reid told his fellow senators on the floor.
But Republicans argue the Democrats’ bill would mean almost a million small business owners in those upper tax brackets would see a tax increase. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Democrats are not serious about the nation's fiscal problems.
"We know this is not about the economy. We know this is about the election," he shot back at Reid on the floor.
"Thank goodness it’s not going anywhere because it would be bad for the economy. The single worst thing we could do to the country," he said of the Democrats’ bill.
House Republicans have no plans to take up the Senate-passed bill; they will move ahead next week on their own legislation that would extend the Bush-era tax rates for all Americans for one year. A similar version failed today in the Senate.
The legislative maneuvering has set the stage for two competing messages heading into November.
As the Senate Democrat's political messaging leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters,
"The House can either pass these middle-class tax cuts, like we did, or it will be clear they're putting millionaires first."
Or the Republican view as articulated by Mitch McConnell: "Here's the Democratic plan for the economy: ‘We'll get this thing going again. We'll get it going again by raising taxes ... give us your money, and we'll handle it for you.’ That's their tax plan. That's their plan for the economy and jobs."
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Reid said "budget-busting giveaways" Excuse me, but what exactly would you be giving away? That money belongs to the people who EARNED it. It was never yours to begin with. So you can't give it away.
You know just like the business you made from the ground up in 1984 it was the government that created that. just listen to OBUMMER.
The Teapublican/GOP had better wake up because extending the Bush tax cuts for the 1% is going to cost them big time come November. Time for the 1% to pay their fair share.
Let's take it off the cliff and let the Bush tax cuts expire.
Hey job creators, Mr. Bush & Mr. ( jobs, jobs, jobs ) Boner it's been 10 years of tax cuts. Where are the jobs, jobs, jobs?
The jobs have been under senator Reid's wrinkled ass... for the past two years and counting. In addition to the budget!!
Stop the freaking handouts (spending) to those who keep suckling on the teat!!
What an A hole.
Greg
How many times do you have to be told, those are NOT jobs bills. They are bills to defund the EPA, Planned Parenthood and numerous other programs that they have always hated. These idiots are incapable of sending a clean bill to the Senate. It's always loaded with poison pills that no President would go along with.
Do some research and stop only listening to Fox and Rush. They are NOT on your side.
Your guy OBUMMER has done everything in his power to get rid of them. He needs more people to be on WELFARE so he can get more votes. His policies are killing job creation.
It was OBUMMERS bill loaded with $hit that the house would NOT pass, get them to come up with a clean bill everyone can live with.
Agreed, senator Reid is one of the top 5 A holes in DC!
@just
OK, just what would that be? Come on and tell me. Also, cite some sources. Not Fox or Rush, they tend to lie a lot. You guys seem to live and die with ignorant talking points. It's like listening to Limbaugh.
Crickets...figures.
These corrupt Republican political puppets in OUR CONGRESS say the SMALL BUSINESS MAN will be hurt because they are above the $250,000 a year tax! Well, that's EASY TO CURE! Give EVERYTHING ABOVE their $250,000 that they make to their employees! They are the ones that made him successful, HE SURE AS HELL DIDN'T DO IT BY HIMSELF! Corrupt Republican corporate logic at its finest! Give to the ONE-PERCENTERS & STEAL from the 99% American People! Now that's nice of them!!
Vote 100% STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC and let's rid our selves of their corruption ONCE & FOREVER!! The lives you save WILL be YOURS & your CHILDREN! BELIEVE IT, IT'S TRUE!
Agreed
TR - end of the month, isnt it time for you to get in line for another gulp of the governments milk and honey.
Fair share my arse! If they don't do something about spending, then next year 150K will be those evil 1%, and the next year it will be 100K as the 1%. You just do not see the light at the end of the tunnel - its a freaking train moron!
You have no clue what is true or not. Just like the Auto bailout you idiots think that if they had to file bankruptcy protection that the companies and there workers would of lost there lives or some stupid $hit like that. The only difference would be that the UNIONS did not get part of the company to negotiate with them.
File bankruptcy, get rid of the EXTRA cost of the UNIONS save everyone money on a new vehicle. Yes that type of stuff rolls down to those of us that do NOT make millions each year.
My dad owns a small business the business makes over 250k in revenue but not in NET income, but that does not matter to these idiots they think you make 4 million a year then you need to pay more in taxes, even though you are spending out over 90% in wages and expences
I have to wonder how much of the millions & billions of the 1 percent's mony was stolen from or squeezed from the blood & sweat of the 99% via institutions & persons such as Citcorp, Capital One, Exon Mobile, Willard Romney, etc. thru shady and illegal dealings and unfair tax breaks they get from the backs of hard working, tax paying Americans.
The new American capitalist work ethic. They make money the old fashion way, they steal it.
I know Ira Rennert does that type of stuff selling junk bonds then taking all the money out putting it into Renco Group then forcing the company to file bankruptcy. Need to tax his ass at 90% get some of the money back for those that got stuck by him.
Not all business owners are the same.
The Republicans voted to increase taxes on the middle class. We won't forget that.
You are wrong it is the demorats that want to kill the tax cuts. We wil NOT forget THAT
Democrats voted to extend tax cuts for the middle class, Republicans voted no. Goodbye GOP.
So what you are saying is they want to decrease there revenue? You do know that when and since the tax cuts the revenue INCREASED. Only goes to say that if you raise the tax back up they will find a way to reduce there tax bill cutting revenue to the coffers.
What is so hard about this. as long as we stick it to the rich then everything will be OK. You do know that they will just jack up the cost of your goods and they will make MORE money, pay less in taxes and will cost you and me more for anything we purchase.
No, so long GDP.
So basically you are saying that WE HAVE to do what the 1% want or they will destroy our economy by making bad business decision? I for one am ready to watch the entire @!$%#ing world crumble around me as long as the 1% suffer along with the rest of us. If they want to play a game of economic chicken with the wealth of our country in the balance, I think it's time for Americans to stand up and get there game faces on.
Two choices for House teapublicans..
Back the middle class,.. or back millionaires, and billionaires..
Simple really..
For a grand total of 8 days of revenue. That's going to really help the deficit problem, huh?
Democrats voted to extend tax cuts for the middle class, Republicans voted no. Goodbye GOP.
Current rates have been in effect for 10 years. Maintaining them for some and raising taxes on others is a RAISE IN TAXES.
Trouble is, little or no new money will be raised and those providing any hope of moving this economy will be punished and encouraged to make less money.
Not so goodby to the lying twisting Dems. A plan to increase taxes is a RAISE in taxes. This is for politics only and is DOA to the House and will never see Obama's desk. Pure politics and no hope for the economy.
well after reading most all the post on here I didn't learn a whole lot I didn't already know. but I did learn one thing that affects all humans, a human can get Rabies and foam at the mouth and still be alive sendhimhome proved that. I think he needs to go see a vet and get a rabies booster shot.
Well now we know both Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), need to be REMOVED from office.
Fortunately it does not appear that the Congress is going to go along with the Senate and the President's Small Business Tax Hike Bill.
While everybody wants to deny that the taxes levied by the new Healthcare Bill will effect the 98%.
Remember S#%&t rolls downhill. The 2% aren't going to take the hit all by themselves.
Also your retirement investments will be effected. Those rich folks did not get rich by being stupid.
Taxes on anybody, effects everybody, sooner or later.
I'd rather give a my money to People who know how to make money, than to People who only know how to spend my money, and go into the Red spending it.
Fudog130
Thank God you leftist loonies in here are a minority.
I come in here from time to time to check what we are up against.
You all are getting more desperate by the day, I would expect nothing less.
I understand fully you don't really believe any of this crap and are simply part of the Obama paid social media team.
But, how do you sleep at night?
I know you already understand the fact that Obama has crafted a shrewd campaign from a worldly
perspective. Of note is the fact a significant portion of his campaign strategy is based on development of
strategic alliances with many of the most godless and morally debased segments of our society in a
thinly veiled effort to secure votes from those "the Obama administration believes" to be one
dimensional, intellectually compromised, single issue constituencies. Many in this group had the
misfortune of growing up in a broken home. The resulting dysfunction in these homes leads to
emotional instability, mental illness and severe narcissism producing a common thread and liberal bias.
You sincerely believe that your posts rally these very individuals and they do, nice job!
Birds of a dismal feather flock together!
But you will fail miserably in November because of these types of posts. The only ones that believe your
BS are your own types and the proof is how stagnant the polls have been, you are not winning any
independents with this BS.
The fact of the matter is that the only ones that like or believe the gibberish and blatantly false garbage
spewed by the paid Obama Social Media in here are your own type.
The facts and numbers speak for themselves; Republicans, Independents, and yes, there are some right wing dems,,,,are NOT buying it for a second.
BLUF (bottom line up front) is that they are sick of your lemming-like drivel and the polls show it.
There’s still time to abandon the sinking ship, good thing most of you post anonymously.
Fudog130
very good points !
I especially agree with;
Very Well said dog, bravo...
Vote no bho M MM MMM
I'll be laughing at you in November pal.
What? "Democrats believe this country can't afford more budget-busting giveaways for the top 2 percent of earners," Majority Leader Harry Reid told his fellow senators on the floor. Why did obama bail out the mortgage companies, banks, Government Motors and various other industries which just helped those "good Ole Rich people" and their bonuses. What about Solynadra? Just to let you know...A family making $250,000 a year is not necessary real rich. They also live in expensive home with high mortgages, buy boats, expensive cars, take trips, travel with their jobs, and etc. which when you think about it, creates jobs when this all happens. If everyone was making the same...this wouldnot happen. Create sustainable jobs. Not temporary jobs. Obama has created some jobs...IRS jobs, obamacare jobs at the expense of lost jobs through the insurance or health care industry....and at what price? lower quality of service. Just look at some of the work some federal employees do.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. John F. Kennedy
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. - Engraved on Statue of Liberty"
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.." -- Winston Churchill—
It is engraved on the Statue of Liberty..."yearning to breathe free" To breathe free to work hard and reap the rewards of working hard.
Yes! There should be some even playing fields but it should be from the heart of the people who make this money and are rich and not by government taking it. We need to create jobs in the private market and not in the public market. The money will soon run out...Yes. It already has...$16,000,000,000,000 and growing.
If Obama gets his plan he will leave us 20 trillion+ in debt by the end of his term. That is crazy.
He will have added enough debt to pay for:
Cost in Billions of Major American Events, adjusted for inflation.
Hoover Dam (1)
Panama Canal (8)
Interstate Hwy System (425)
Marshall Plan (115)
Gulf War (98)
Louisiana Purchase (217)
Korean War (341)
War on Terror (785)
(Iraq and Afghanistan)
Vietnam (738)
New Deal during FDR's (500)
World War 2 (4000)
The Civil War (79)
Spanish American War (9)
World War 1 (334)
Twice by the end of his term. All that, times two. And yes I adjusted for inflation, and no, even if you subtract the Bush taxes at the very top it would still be close to twice this amount of spending. If Obama got all his taxes when he wanted them it would just be 288 billion in new revenue, assuming it wouldn't affect profits one penny.
Obama people, please get this guy to make meaningful cuts. Sequestration, "the cliff", etc... would be better for the nation then the current plan of larger debts. 1.7 trillion over ten years is a big nothing when you look at current and future proposed spending.