President Obama on Monday proposed a deficit reduction plan that CALLS FOR ABOUT $3 IN NEW TAX INCREASES FOR EVERY DOLLAR IN ADDITIONAL SPENDING CUTS AS HE SEEKS to put his imprint on the ongoing talks with Congress over reducing the government’s staggering debt.
In a plan HIS ADVISERS DESCRIBED AS HIS IDEOLOGICAL VISION RATHER THAN A COMPROMISE OFFER TO HILL REPUBLICANS, Mr. Obama also threatened to veto any plan Congress sends him that makes changes to Medicare benefits without also raising taxes on the wealthy, which he argues is central to a “balanced” approach.
“THIS IS NOT CLASS WARFARE, IT’S MATH,” MR. OBAMA SAID IN THE WHITE HOUSE’S ROSE GARDEN as he laid out the outlines. “The money’s got to come from some place.”
The White House argues his plan totals $4.4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next 10 years, though $1.1 trillion of that comes from savings on war-fighting expenses that all sides agree were going to happen anyway as the U.S. missions in Iraq and Afghanistan shrink. ANOTHER $1.2 TRILLION HAS ALREADY BEEN SIGNED INTO LAW IN LAST MONTH’S DEBT DEAL AND ANOTHER $430 BILLION COMES FROM LOWER INTEREST PAYMENTS BECAUSE OF THE POTENTIAL LOWER DEBT.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/18/obama-call-broad-tax-increases/
Counting spending cuts such as the wars is like counting as a spending cut the lack of having a stimulus package every year. This “plan” is smoke and mirrors when it comes to spending cuts, but the tax increases are real.
Obama’s add revenue isn’t just from the wealthy
It's not just millionaires who'd pay more under President Barack Obama's latest plan to combat the deficit.
AIR TRAVELERS, FEDERAL WORKERS, MILITARY RETIREES, WEALTHIER MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES AND PEOPLE TAKING OUT NEW MORTGAGES ARE AMONG THOSE WHO WOULD PAY MORE THAN $130 BILLION IN GOVERNMENT REVENUES RAISED THROUGH NEW OR INCREASED FEES.
Airline passengers would see their federal security fees double from $5 to $10 for a nonstop round-trip flight and triple to $15 by 2017, raising $25 billion over the coming decade. Federal workers would face an additional 1.2 percentage point deduction from their paychecks to contribute $21 billion more for their pensions over the same period. Military retirees would pay a $200 fee upon turning 65 to have the government pay their out-of-pocket Medicare expenses. They'd also pay more for non-generic prescription drugs.
And it'll cost corporate jet owners a new $100 fee for each flight.
The fees aren't taxes. They're charged to people who use government services or receive benefits such as taxpayer-subsidized health care, and they typically defray the government's cost of providing a service. The fee on corporate jets and other private passenger planes, for example, would raise about $1 billion a year to help finance the cost of air traffic control. Recreational flyers won't have to pay….
This part is not well known. If he gets his way and you fly anywhere next year, welcome to Obama's world of high spenders because your taxes are going up.
Fact Check: Do the Rich Not Pay their Fair Share?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA MAKES IT SOUND AS IF THERE ARE MILLIONAIRES ALL OVER AMERICA PAYING TAXES AT LOWER RATES THAN THEIR SECRETARIES.
"Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires," Obama said Monday. "That's pretty straightforward. It's hard to argue against that."
The data tell a different story. ON AVERAGE, THE WEALTHIEST PEOPLE IN AMERICA PAY A LOT MORE TAXES THAN THE MIDDLE CLASS OR THE POOR, ACCORDING TO PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT DATA. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.
THERE MAY BE INDIVIDUAL MILLIONAIRES WHO PAY TAXES AT RATES LOWER THAN MIDDLE-INCOME WORKERS. IN 2009, 1,470 HOUSEHOLDS FILED TAX RETURNS WITH INCOMES ABOVE $1 MILLION YET PAID NO FEDERAL INCOME TAX, ACCORDING TO THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE. THAT, HOWEVER, WAS LESS THAN 1 PERCENT OF THE NEARLY 237,000 RETURNS WITH INCOMES ABOVE $1 MILLION….
… This year, HOUSEHOLDS MAKING MORE THAN $1 MILLION WILL PAY AN AVERAGE OF 29.1 PERCENT of their income in federal taxes, including income taxes and payroll taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.
Households making between $50,000 AND $75,000 WILL PAY 15 PERCENT of their income in federal taxes.
Lower-income households will pay less. For example, households making between $40,000 AND $50,000 WILL PAY AN AVERAGE OF 12.5 PERCENT of their income in federal taxes. Households making between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7 percent….
Obama has a habit of making straw man comparisons. This is just another example.
Obama’s Bizarre Tax Attack
It could almost make your head spin. With an economy on the front end of another recession, President Obama’s tax attack on the folks who are most likely to succeed, invest, start new businesses, and create jobs is nothing short of staggering. ONLY LIBERAL-LEFT CLASS-WARFARE IDEOLOGY CAN EXPLAIN THIS.
In his speech on Monday, Obama laid out $1.5 trillion in tax hikes over ten years, aimed almost entirely at America’s well-to-do. THIS INCLUDES $800 BILLION FROM ROLLING BACK THE TOP RATES IN THE BUSH TAX-CUT PLAN, $470 SOME-ODD BILLION TO REDUCE ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS FOR UPPER-BRACKET PAYERS, AND -- OH YES -- A MILLIONAIRE’S TAX CALLED THE “BUFFETT RULE.”
Pause a moment on the Buffett Rule. Almost all of Warren Buffett’s income comes from capital gains taxed at 15 percent. He only pays himself $100,000 a year, which would be taxed at the top rate. Most of his wealth is untaxed as unrealized capital gains. So his effective income-tax rate is lower than his secretary’s.
So what?
THE VAST MAJORITY OF MILLIONAIRES PAY A 35 PERCENT CURRENT TAX RATE ON PERSONAL INCOME FROM SALARIES, BONUSES, AND SMALL-BUSINESS INCOME. Their effective tax rate is around 30 percent, much higher than the roughly 20 percent effective rate for the so-called middle class (depending, of course, on how you define the middle class).
Remember that the top 1 percent of income-tax payers shoulders 40 percent of all income taxes. They are paying their fair share. Then remember that 50 percent of income-tax filers don’t pay any income tax at all.
OBAMA REFUSES TO TELL US WHAT THE NEW MILLIONAIRE TAX RATE WOULD BE, OR WHAT THE FORMULA MIGHT BE IN RELATION TO MIDDLE-CLASS TAXPAYERS. BUT ONE THING’S FOR SURE: THIS NEW BUFFET TAX IS A PENALTY ON INVESTMENT, RISK-TAKING, AND JOB-CREATION.
This is simply a campaign tactic Obama is trying to use. He has come out with an ideological plan that will be rejected by the Republicans (and some Democrats). He will then try to blame it failure on the Republicans for being ideological. It isn’t likely to work, but he doesn’t have much else he can run on.
Obama Rejects Obamaism
I’M A SAP, A SPECIFIC KIND OF SAP. I’M AN OBAMA SAP.
WHEN THE PRESIDENT SAID THE UNEMPLOYED COULDN’T WAIT 14 MORE MONTHS FOR HELP AND WE HAD TO DO SOMETHING RIGHT AWAY, I BELIEVED HIM. When administration officials called around saying that the possibility of a double-dip recession was horrifyingly real and that it would be irresponsible not to come up with a package that could pass right away, I believed them.
I liked obama’s payroll tax cut ideas and urged republicans to play along. But of course i’m a sap. WHEN THE PRESIDENT UNVEILED THE SECOND HALF OF HIS STIMULUS IT BECAME CLEAR THAT THIS PACKAGE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HELPING PEOPLE RIGHT AWAY OR AVERTING A DOUBLE DIP. THIS IS A CAMPAIGN MARKER, NOT A JOBS BILL.
IT RECYCLES IDEAS THAT COULDN’T GET PASSED EVEN WHEN DEMOCRATS CONTROLLED CONGRESS. In his remarks Monday the president didn’t try to win Republicans to even some parts of his measures. He repeated the populist cries that fire up liberals but are designed to enrage moderates and conservatives...
When Brooks admits what’s going on and says at the end he understands it, but preferred what Obama was talking about in 2008, Obama has major problems.
Liberals vow to challenge Obama in Democratic primaries
Worried the liberal voice is being drowned out in the presidential campaign, PROGRESSIVE LEADERS SAID MONDAY THEY WANT TO FIELD A SLATE OF CANDIDATES AGAINST PRESIDENT OBAMA IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES TO MAKE HIM STAKE OUT LIBERAL STANCES AS HE SEEKS RE-ELECTION.
Ralph Nader warns that without an intraparty challenge the liberal agenda “will be muted and ignored,” THE ONE-MAN PRIMARY WILL KILL VOTER ENTHUSIASM AND VOTERS WON’T GET A CHANCE TO REFLECT ON THE REAL DIFFERENCES THAT DIVIDE THE DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN PARTIES.
“What we are looking at now is the dullest presidential campaign since Walter Mondale — and that’s saying something, believe me,” Mr. Nader told The Washington Times.
The group’s call has been endorsed by more than 45 other liberal leaders. They want to recruit six candidates who bring expertise ranging from poverty to the military.
Mr. Nader said the intent is not to defeat President Obama but to make him focus on issues that might get lost in a purely Obama -versus-GOP discussion.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/19/liberals-vow-challenge-obama-democratic-primaries/
There is a delusion among the left that the problem Obama has is that he isn’t left enough. This strategy will simply push more voters against Obama and the Democrats as they realize the differences between the Democrat and Republican Parties.
Is the Racism Card All Obama Has Left?
OBAMA IS FINISHED. It's not so much the past six weeks, rough as they were, as his own actions and responses that have finished him. His showdown with Congress over the debt limit, which he then ran away from. His bewilderment at the fact that markets responded to that level of stress with a serious slump. The lousy job numbers, which anybody but Obama and his kept economists could have predicted. HIS INSISTENCE ON HIS PRECIOUS VACATION AT A TIME WHEN THE COUNTRY WAS DEEPLY SHAKEN OVER ECONOMIC MATTERS. The painfully bogus "people's hero" photos released in the wake of "hurricane" Irene. The uproar over his jobs speech, an attempt to embarrass the GOP which merely added to his reputation for incompetence. The speech itself. These were not the actions of a leader, a statesman, or even an adult. They will be neither forgiven nor forgotten.
It's hard to see how he recovers from any of this. (And this is not even to mention the unfolding Solyndra, LightSquared, and Fast and Furious scandals; add the AttackWatch debacle and my cup runneth over.) HE HAS NO SHRED OF REPUTATION LEFT TO BUILD ON, NO RESERVOIR OF GOODWILL TO DRAW FROM. His approval rate is 40% or below, a number no first-term president has ever come back from. According to Gallup, he is running effectively neck-and-neck with every GOP candidate, even exotics like Ron Paul, and the campaign has scarcely begun. The triumph of Bob Turner in NY-9, a district that hasn't voted Row B since glaciers covered Long Island, merely puts the seal on it.
At this point, he has only two possibilities -- a GOP screwup, or a dirty campaign….
The Democrats are being hoisted on their own petard. Giving us the first black President who has proven to be an incompetent executive, they cannot run someone against him without alienating a fundamental reliable part of their base. They are stuck with him and he is likely to bring down a lot of down ticket Democrats as well in 2012.
Obama Scandal Update: Fast and Furious
In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. Eleven crimes in the United States have been linked to Operation Fast and Furious up to this point.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/277786/did-fast-and-furious-cause-200-murders-robert-verbruggen
I’ll keep you abreast of the latest on the many Obama scandals. Far from being scandal free, this Administration is piling up more and more scandals just in time for the 2012 elections.
$16 Muffins, $8 Coffee at the DOJ
The Washington Times reports on the “extravagant and wasteful” carousals your tax dollars have been funding at the Department of Justice:
The Justice Department spent more than $120 million in fiscal 2008 and 2009 to host law enforcement conferences across the country, many of which FEATURED “EXTRAVAGANT AND WASTEFUL” COSTS FOR FOOD, BEVERAGES AND EVENT PLANNING, INCLUDING SPENDING $16 ON EACH OF 250 MUFFINS SERVED AT AN AUGUST 2009 LEGAL CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON, D.C., A REPORT SAID TUESDAY.
Acting Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar, in an audit report that examined taxpayer expenditures incurred by the Justice Department at 10 of 1,832 conferences held during fiscal 2008 and 2009, said investigators also found that ANOTHER CONFERENCE FEATURED A LUNCH THAT COST $76 PER PERSON AND COFFEE COSTING MORE THAN $1 PER OUNCE. Other costly items cited in the report included a $32-PER-PERSON SNACK BREAK CONSISTING OF CRACKER JACKS, POPCORN AND CANDY BARS, $7.32 BEEF WELLINGTON HORS D’OEUVRES, $10 COOKIES AND $5 SWEDISH MEATBALLS…
I guess the DOJ is looking to be the next Pentagon for outrageous charges.
Climate Fraud at Times Atlas of the World
The publishers of the world’s most prestigious atlas have been caught out by Cambridge SCIENTISTS EXAGGERATING THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE.
In its latest edition, the £150 Times Atlas of the World has changed a huge coastal area of Greenland from white to green, suggesting an alarming acceleration of the melting of the northern ice cap.
ACCOMPANYING PUBLICITY MATERIAL DECLARED THE CHANGE REFLECTED ‘CONCRETE EVIDENCE’ THAT 15 PER CENT OF THE ICE SHEET AROUND THE ISLAND – AN AREA THE SIZE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM – HAD MELTED SINCE 1999.
But last night the ATLAS’S PUBLISHERS ADMITTED THAT THE ‘ICE-FREE’ AREAS COULD IN FACT STILL BE COVERED BY SHEETS OF MORE THAN A QUARTER OF A MILE THICK. It came after a group of leading polar scientists from Cambridge University wrote to them saying their changes were ‘incorrect and misleading’ and that the true rate of melting has been far slower.
Experts from the University’s internationally-renowned Scott Polar Research Institute SAID THE APPARENT DISAPPEARANCE OF 115,830 SQ MILES OF ICE HAD NO BASIS IN SCIENCE AND WAS CONTRADICTED BY RECENT SATELLITE IMAGES.
There are no official figures on how much ice has melted but one scientist put it at between 0.3 and 1.5 per cent of the ice sheet.
PUBLICITY FOR THE NEW ATLAS READ: ‘FOR THE FIRST TIME THE NEW EDITION HAS HAD TO ERASE 15 PER CENT OF GREENLAND’S ONCE PERMANENT ICE COVER – TURNING AN AREA THE SIZE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IRELAND “GREEN” AND ICE-FREE.
‘This is concrete evidence of how climate change is altering the face of the planet for ever – and doing so at an alarming and accelerating rate.’
The seven Cambridge scientists who signed the letter are closely involved with research into changes in the Greenland ice shelf.
They do not dispute that some glaciers have got smaller but say the overall picture presented is wrong…
In its latest edition, the £150 Times Atlas of the World has changed a huge coastal area of Greenland from white to green, suggesting an alarming acceleration of the melting of the northern ice cap.
ACCOMPANYING PUBLICITY MATERIAL DECLARED THE CHANGE REFLECTED ‘CONCRETE EVIDENCE’ THAT 15 PER CENT OF THE ICE SHEET AROUND THE ISLAND – AN AREA THE SIZE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM – HAD MELTED SINCE 1999.
But last night the ATLAS’S PUBLISHERS ADMITTED THAT THE ‘ICE-FREE’ AREAS COULD IN FACT STILL BE COVERED BY SHEETS OF MORE THAN A QUARTER OF A MILE THICK. It came after a group of leading polar scientists from Cambridge University wrote to them saying their changes were ‘incorrect and misleading’ and that the true rate of melting has been far slower.
Experts from the University’s internationally-renowned Scott Polar Research Institute SAID THE APPARENT DISAPPEARANCE OF 115,830 SQ MILES OF ICE HAD NO BASIS IN SCIENCE AND WAS CONTRADICTED BY RECENT SATELLITE IMAGES.
There are no official figures on how much ice has melted but one scientist put it at between 0.3 and 1.5 per cent of the ice sheet.
PUBLICITY FOR THE NEW ATLAS READ: ‘FOR THE FIRST TIME THE NEW EDITION HAS HAD TO ERASE 15 PER CENT OF GREENLAND’S ONCE PERMANENT ICE COVER – TURNING AN AREA THE SIZE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IRELAND “GREEN” AND ICE-FREE.
‘This is concrete evidence of how climate change is altering the face of the planet for ever – and doing so at an alarming and accelerating rate.’
The seven Cambridge scientists who signed the letter are closely involved with research into changes in the Greenland ice shelf.
They do not dispute that some glaciers have got smaller but say the overall picture presented is wrong…
Nothing new here. AGW proponents have no problem exaggerating what is going on to even telling outright falsehoods. It isn’t that they don’t believe in global warming, but they feel justified in these tactics because you don’t.
