"House GOP yields on tax cut" December 23, 2011|By Jennifer Steinhauer
WASHINGTON - House Republican leaders agreed yesterday to accept a temporary extension of the payroll tax cut, beating a hasty retreat from a showdown that the GOP increasingly saw as a threat to their election opportunities next year....
Congressional aides suggested the measure would be passed on a voice vote by a handful of legislators....
The deal ended a partisan fight that threatened to keep Congress and Obama in town through Christmas and was just the latest of the bitter battles on fiscal policy involving House conservatives, Obama, and the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Just wondering why this next sentence was cut from the web version:
But this one seemed to end in a clear victory for Obama and the Democrats, at least for now.
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"On tax deal, House GOP should have quit when it was ahead" December 26, 2011|By David Espo
WASHINGTON — With Tea Party-backed first-termers calling the shots, House Republicans snatched political defeat from the jaws of victory in the year-end showdown over Social Security payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits....
They pushed the country to the brink and wound up blinking....
By spurning a deal that Senate Republicans had embraced— a two-month extension of tax cuts for 160 million Americans and jobless benefits for millions more — the House wing of the party isolated itself politically and by some calculations improved President Obama’s reelection prospects.
Friday brought a humbling surrender....
Pfffft.
By then, even allies said Republicans had become vulnerable to Obama’s accusation that they, alone, were threatening a fragile economic recovery and the well-being of the employed and unemployed alike....
The twomonth stopgap bill was designed to keep the tax cuts and jobless benefits going until the negotiations could resume again after the first of the year....
That's it?!?!!
That's the CLEAR VICTORY for the Democrats? A 60-day extension??
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Related:
"Senators wrangle over payroll tax cut; GOP-led vote blocks tax on rich to fund program" December 02, 2011|By David Espo, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Republicans and a handful of Democrats teamed up to block the plan....
The bill would take steps to deny unemployment benefits and food stamps to anyone with a seven-figure income....
Why are seven-figure incomes getting unemployment and food stamps?
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What did they pass?
"Senate OKs extending payroll tax cut and jobless benefits; Legislators also pass $1 trillion budget measure" December 18, 2011|By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Senate passed legislation yesterday extending a Social Security payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for just two months, handing President Obama a partial victory while setting the stage for another fight in February.
Then it became a clear victory.
It also brought a peaceful end to a yearlong battle over spending by passing a $1 trillion-plus catchall budget bill that wraps together the day-to-day budgets for 10 Cabinet departments and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House passed the measure Friday, and the White House has signaled that Obama will sign it.
The renewal of the 2-percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax for 160 million workers and unemployment benefits averaging about $300 a week for the additional millions of people who have been out of work for six months or more is a modest step forward for Obama’s year-end jobs agenda.
As a condition for GOP support of the payroll tax measure, Obama has to accept a provision that forces him to decide within 60 days whether to approve or reject a proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that promises thousands of jobs.
See: Obama Closes Canada Pipeline For Political Purposes
Obama didn’t refer to the pipeline issue in a brief appearance at the White House after the vote. He welcomed the Senate’s passage of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance extension and said it would be “inexcusable’’ for Congress not to extend them for the rest of 2012 when lawmakers return from their holiday break.
That's why they passed the extension: they all wanted to go home for the holidays.
The budget bill, passed 67 to 32, heads to the White House for Obama’s signature; the payroll tax measure won a 89-to-10 tally that sends it back to the House - where many Republicans only reluctantly support it - for a vote early this week.
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, a Ohio Republican, would not predict whether the House would accept the Senate payroll tax measure. But Democrats assume Senate Republicans would not have allowed the short-term measure to advance without a signal from Boehner that the House would go along.
Democratic and GOP leaders opted for the short-term extension of the payroll tax and jobless benefits measure after failing to agree on big enough spending cuts to pay for a full-year renewal. The measure also provides a 60-day reprieve from a scheduled 27 percent cut in the fees paid to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
And how are they paying for this?
The $33 billion cost of the measure would be covered by raising fees on new mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
In other words, TAXPAYERS will be FOOTING the BILL!!!!!!
The fees, drawn from a Treasury Department housing finance market reform plan, would effectively raise the interest rate on home loans guaranteed by the mortgage giants and the Federal Housing Administration by one-tenth of a percentage point.
Un-frikkin'-real!
The idea is to open up the market to private companies currently priced out by the implicit subsidies of Fannie and Freddie.
The White House says the fee would increase the monthly cost of a typical $220,000 mortgage by almost $15 a month. Over 30 years, the fees would increase the total cost of such a mortgage by more than $5,000.
In contrast, a worker making a $100,000 salary would reap a tax cut of about $330 through the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. A worker with a typical $50,000 salary would get just a $165 tax cut.
I noticed every time Washington talks tax cut for the average guy its chump change.
Officials said that in private talks, the two sides had hoped to reach agreement on the full one-year extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits that Obama had made the centerpiece of the jobs program he submitted to Congress last fall.
Somehow unemployment benefits being the centerpiece of a jobs program just doesn't sound right.
Those efforts failed when the two sides could not agree on enough offsetting cuts to blunt the measure’s impact on the debt. The failure tees up the issue again for early next year, but it won’t get any easier to agree on spending cuts.
Except that less than a week later it is a clear victory for Democrats.
Can you see why I'm sick of s*** media?
Neither House Speaker Boehner nor his aides participated in the negotiations, although McConnell said he was optimistic about the measure’s chances for final approval. The payroll tax cut is unpopular in GOP ranks and another vote in two months could present a headache for GOP leaders.
On the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the legislation requires the president to grant a permit unless he decides that it is “not in the national interest.’’ One senior administration official said the president would almost certainly refuse to grant a permit. The official was not authorized to speak publicly.
The White House on Friday backed away from Obama’s earlier threat to veto any bill that linked the payroll tax cut extension with a Republican demand for a speedy decision on the proposed 1,700-mile pipeline. Obama said on Dec. 7 that “any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject.’’
But it was a clear victory, blah, blah, blah.
The president recently announced he was postponing a decision on the much-studied pipeline until after the 2012 election. Environmentalists oppose the project, but several unions support it. The legislation puts the president in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between customary political allies.
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And now we are told even the chump change is too much?
"Bipartisan group fears tax cut is damaging Social Security" December 16, 2011|By Jackie Calmes, New York Times
WASHINGTON - For all of the partisan brawling over President Obama’s call to extend a temporary payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans, one concern is bipartisan: A significant minority of Democrats and Republicans say that cutting the taxes that finance Social Security benefits will further undermine the program.
Sorry, but the TRUST has been BROKEN!
See:
Social Security Scam
U.S. Government Stole Social Security Surplus
Disabling Social Security
And now they want MORE of YOUR MONEY while giving you LESS!
The Obama administration, many (but not all) budget experts, and the chief actuary for the Social Security Administration say the proposal will do no such thing. But some conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats who agree on little else are just as adamant that it will....
Politics aside, the bottom line is that a temporary tax cut is inconsequential to Social Security’s long-term health, from an accounting perspective. The crucial threat is still the financial pressure of an aging population.
Social Security is essentially a pay-as-you-go system, with payroll taxes from workers flowing back out to retirees, survivors, and the disabled. Last year, before the tax cut, the system collected less in taxes than it paid out to 55 million beneficiaries - $49 billion less.
The program’s operating deficits will grow as more of the 78 million baby boomers become eligible.
Then end the wars and shore it up!!
But trust fund reserves built up over years of annual surpluses will not run out until 2036, when tax revenue will cover three-quarters of benefits.
The reserves have already been stolen; there are only government promissory notes in there now.
That would be unchanged by Obama’s proposal to extend and expand the payroll tax relief that he and congressional Republicans agreed to a year ago to spur the economy, because they also agreed to transfer general revenue to Social Security to make up the difference.
The trust fund “would be unaffected by enactment of this provision,’’ Stephen C. Goss, the chief actuary for Social Security Administration, wrote to administration officials.
The 12.4 percent payroll tax is split between employees and employers, and the current break reduces workers’ share by 2 percentage points, to 4.2 percent. Because that reduces Social Security revenue this year by about $105 billion, the program is credited with that amount from general revenue. And workers get credit for the full tax when calculating their future benefits....
Last December, liberal lawmakers, conservatives, and seniors groups mostly went along with the tax cut, intended for a year only. But when the White House began talking of an extension months ago, after economists predicted that economic growth would slow half a percentage point without the tax cut, opponents in both parties mobilized.
Sixty-one liberals in the House, nearly one-third of the Democrats there, wrote to Obama in July to say they were “gravely concerned that yet another, unacceptable cut to Social Security’s revenue stream appears to be on the table.’’
Citing the George W. Bush-era tax cuts that were supposed to end in 2010, they expressed fear that the payroll tax cut would become permanent as politicians shied from reinstating the tax.
Amazing, isn't it?
Yup, the Bush tax cuts were not only not rescinded as the filibuster Democrat majority promised, they were EXTENDED!
And yet here YOU CAN'T EVEN GET a PIDDLY LITTLE 2% CUT without it being a battle brought to the brink, blah, blah, blah, American!!!!
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Also see: Corporate Tax Dodge and Debt
Government has no problem doling out billions in refunds to corporations making billions in profits and paying no taxes?
"Obama to escalate assault on Congress; Will try to build on tax bill victory as election nears" January 01, 2012|By Mark Landler, New York Times
HONOLULU - President Obama’s election-year strategy is an attempt to capitalize on his recent victory on a short-term extension of the payroll tax cut and on his rising poll numbers. He intends to hammer the theme of economic justice for ordinary Americans, said the official, deputy press secretary Joshua R. Earnest.
PFFFFFFFFFTT!
See: Obama's Reelection Pitch
Fool us once....
However the White House chooses to frame Obama’s strategy, it amounts to a wholesale makeover of the young senator who won in 2008 by promising to change the culture of Washington, rise above the partisan fray, and seek compromises.
After three years in office, Obama is gambling on a go-it-alone approach. In the coming weeks, he will try to showcase measures he is taking on his own to revive the economy, Earnest said, declining to give details.
Obama has used his executive authority in recent weeks to promote the hiring of returning veterans and help students pay back their college loans. He plans to return to the road, starting with a trip to Cleveland on Wednesday to speak about the economy.
White House officials laid out the strategy in Hawaii, where Obama is vacationing, just as attention turns to the Republican caucuses in Iowa on Tuesday.
The White House has been refining the message since July, when Obama’s attempts to forge a “grand bargain’’ with House Republicans on fiscal policy collapsed and he reverted to an anti-Congress strategy. But it did not gain traction until the last few weeks, when polls began showing that nearly half of Americans surveyed approved of the job he was doing, up from percentages in the low 40s during most of the year.
House Republicans inadvertently helped him just before they recessed for the holidays when they initially refused to extend the payroll tax cut.
Earnest said the strategy had successfully planted “the image of a gridlocked, dysfunctional Congress and a president who is leaving no stone unturned to try to find solutions to the difficult financial challenges and economic challenges facing the country.’’
In his weekly address yesterday, Obama praised Congress for passing the two-month tax cut extension, but made it clear that the lawmakers had acted only under intense public pressure.
For Obama, a heavily partisan strategy carries the risk of alienating independent and moderate voters fed up with Washington’s gridlock. On the Republican presidential campaign trail, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, both point to their legislative successes working with Democrats.
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Also see: Obama Has Found His Reelection Footing
Pfffffffftt!
