I know you guys have been busy trashing Scott Brown and Mitt Romney but… did you notice the US House voted to extend the Obama tax cuts? The 256 yes votes included 19 Democrats. Is the Democratically controlled Senate going to let the Obama tax cuts expire? How can they do this to so many Americans, especially now with the economy in a tailspin. Please call/write your Senator (mostly Senator Kerry) and plead with him to vote in favor of extending the Obama tax cuts.
The U.S. House voted to extend several expiring tax cuts for all income levels through 2013, but the issue has a long way to go between now and the nation’s “fiscal cliff,” The Washington Post reports.
The House voted 256-171 — largely along party lines — to extend Bush-era cuts…
In other news (which I called)…
Hundreds of people jammed into the Burlington Mall’s food court Wednesday at the Chick-fil-A to protest, make a statement, and dine at the controversial fast-food chain, joining thousands across the nation. Dubbed “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, scores waited in a line that spilled outside the court’s perimeter, with an attendance so high that mall security maintained a constant watch.
How do you feel about extending them? I say, let them ALL expire. We all need to pay a little more in taxes!
And in other news around the political world…
Unemployment applications rose this month (again)…
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said the U.S. economic recovery had lost momentum so far this year, but stopped short of offering new monetary stimulus even as it signaled further bond buys could be in store…
Another Sign Of The Dismal Economy, Economic Growth Slowed to 1.5% In The Second Quarter To The Weakest Pace In A Year…
And if this news isn’t bad enough, how about this possibility of Republicans taking control of the Senate (would Democrats suddenly love the fillibuster?)…
The tax cuts are Bush’s largely; Obama just hasn’t been able to tweak them to his liking yet. I find myself with Lawrence O’Donnell in saying let’s go “off the cliff” then do it right and retroactively in the next Congress.
I’m disappointed by the amount of support Chick-fil-a seemed to receive yesterday, but am comforted with the thought that time is on the side of marriage equality.
The overall employment trend is still encouraging in that we are still net adding rather than losing jobs, continuing a relatively consistent trend during this presidential term. Now if only we could get real stimulus and also not exacerbate the situation by laying off public sector employees.
My current information has Dems holding the Senate (current thinking is that Angus King in ME will caucus with the Dems), but my opinion of the filibuster will stay the same. Namely, it should be used to actually debate germanely the legislation at hand, and not simply to force a supermajority based on a mere threat.
Maybe the problem is the American people and not the politicians that those people elect. Think about it, large majorities of voters from different counties, districts, states… elect Tea Party candidates to office and then those newly elected officials do “exactly what they said they would do if elected”. Sounds to me their actions should be attributed to the voters who put them there. Isn’t that what Representatives are suppose to do?
The recent primaries are showing exactly that and Congressmen and Senators who do not do what their constituents want will be voted out of office. So you (and Lawrence) should identify the real culprit, the American voters.
How can we be happy about adding jobs when the economy is losing jobs at an even higher rate. Again, the boat’s bilge pump is pumping out 10 gallons per minute (YEAH!!!!!) but the whole in the hull is letting in water at 11 gallons per minute (BOOO!!!!) result – we’re sinking!!!
Don’t be too confident about that Senate staying Democratic… there are many balls in the air.
Ideally we should have tax reform instead of just pushing rates up or down with economic growth being the primary goal rather than just looking at the government balance sheet.
Investment money is ideally targeted towards the fastest growth and most productive, best-paying jobs. So that should be taxed as little as possible. However investment has been favored so maybe income taxes should come down to get in line with investment.
The Democratic program is shaping up to be tax more, spend more and create a sub-performing, European-style sustainable economy with government direction of industry in the name of social goals.
If you have ever met any Europeans, they love their services, but the problem is they ambitious ones start bugging you immediately, because they want out. They want to get to America and get an opportunity they can’t find at home.
Keeping the Bush Tax Cuts is not ideal, but having a higher investment tax on those earning higher incomes will simply cut investment. As with business taxes, the 1-3% who have the highest incomes also generate the highest amount of money for the economy. My guess is given the choice the country will narrowly approve keeping all the tax cuts rather than the Democratic plan to raise tax rates on the highest earners.
In my view, this entire debate colossally misses the point.
Our economy and culture is being destroyed by the obscene wealth concentration accomplished by the 1% and their bought-and-paid for government over the past several decades. Neither tax program does anything substantive to address that wealth concentration.
I’m not saying that the two plans are interchangeable, I’m saying that neither plan solves the problem. The plan put forward by the Democrats and President Obama is significantly less bad than the GOP proposal. If Mitt Romney wins the election, we will go from bad to much much worse.
Nevertheless, this economy will never get back on track until we address the sickeningly excessive wealth concentration that is strangling it.
Half of Americans live in poverty or one paycheck away from it. That is what we should be talking about during this campaign.
Your continual attack on wealth is fine and I could even agree to parts of it, but nothing like you desire will ever happen, never!
What is Obama going to accomplish (not try to accomplish) to help get Americans back to work (and out of poverty). He can’t give everyone a job in government. He can’t forgive mortgages for irresponsible borrowers. He can’t stop cities and states from going bankrupt.
What’s he going to do?
I have never attacked “wealth”. I attacked the wealth concentration. They’re DIFFERENT.
I agree that “we have to deal with reality”. The REALITY is that half of America is at or near poverty. You exacerbate and exemplify the problem by asking “What is [Mr.] Obama going to accomplish…”, because so long as the discussion stays focused on the current false dichotomy we will never address the real problem.
The way to get Americans back to work and out of poverty is take back a portion of the excessive wealth concentration (direct taxation is the most obvious) from the top one or one/half percent (by wealth) and put it back into the pockets and bank accounts of the rest of us. When consumers have money to consume with, we will grow the economy back into health.
The mortgage problem wasn’t caused by “irresponsible borrowers”, it was caused by irresponsible bankers. The proposals to forgive mortgages are not aimed at irresponsible homeowners. They are, instead, aimed at responsible homeowners who are current on their mortgages and whose mortgages now exceed the value of their property — because the GOP-led collapse of the housing market destroyed the value of their home. Cities and towns that rely on property taxes to fund municipal services are going bankrupt because property values have plummeted and incomes have followed. America’s real unemployment/underemployment rate is FAR HIGHER than the sanitized numbers being tossed around.
The question is NOT “What’s he going to do”, the question is “What are WE going to do?”
Congressman Steven C. LaTourette (R – OH) who is retiring said one of the things that surprised him the most after the Congress failed to come to agreement on the Budget COntrol Act and now we will have sequestration! He said he didn’t receive a single call from any voters which he expected to be rioting with pitchforks… The people in this country will not do anything so please don’t pin your hopes to them.
sequestration is…
it’s done so to entice an argument not a debate. In all honesty, dude, you are spiraling down the toilet in the past month. Get yourself together.
Seriously, regarding the tax cuts… we have a solidly Conservative Republican House (with a strong Tea Party block) and then we have a closely held Democratic Senate. The House will NEVER raise taxes on the rich unless there was a huge cut in spending (which the Dems will NEVER let happen).
Either the Dems and Obama extend ALL the tax cuts OR they all expire. I have been advocating letting them all expire and let the SH hit the fan. I guess the election will settle it as A Republican Senate will agree with the House… or a Romney POTUS will push the House bill but I don’t see any result from November causing the House to agree with tax cuts for the low/middle income and nothing for the upper.
Do you agree?
You saw the same presidential debate I did. Only the first half of that sentence is correct.
I believe it involved Republican Presidential candidates and as we saw from Obama’s 2008 candidacy, many of the things they promise never happen (closing gitmo, ending Bush tax cuts…).
Second, what do you think is going to happen (I already know what you want to happen)?
a 14.2, maybe a 14.3. His technique is solid though nothing we haven’t seen before. He just can’t bring the power and height that this event requires, and he never could stick the dismount.
Dirty Harry with Miitt. Better than Streisand, right?
If the Bush/Obama tax cuts on millionaires and billionaires are allowed to expire (that is families earning over $250K per year), the total amount of taxes collected would run the government for six days. Again, six days!!!! That’s Obama’s solution??? Lame, if you ask me.
Retired adult film actress Jenna Jameson voiced support for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney at a strip club Thursday, CBS San Francisco reports:
“I’m very looking forward to a Republican being back in office,” Jameson said while sipping champagne in a VIP room at Gold Club in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. “When you’re rich, you want a Republican in office.”
Retired porn star Jenna Jameson supports Mitt Romney
I didn’t know she retired… Porn pension??
And deserves every penny. She got to where she is all on her own, without help from Warren (sorry to ruin the moment)
I loved her movies, sadly she didn’t win an Oscar, or did she?
I wonder what Don Cathy has to say about THAT endorsement.
nt
Next time I have my friends over at my man cave, throw on a Jenna Jameson flick and eat some Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. Man, if that isn’t against the law, it should be.
Currently the public sector is suffering a stiff contraction while the private sector (thankfully!) is expanding. If Congress were not full of so many intransigent Republicans, that would not be happening and the economy would not be slowing down.
And yes, I am aware that there are not-so-liberal Democrats who seem to like austerity whose role in this debacle has been pretty bad. Nonetheless if there were fewer Scorched Earth GOPers, the Democratic fringe could be herded in the correct direction.
As it is, we have Obama & the Democrats getting blamed for Boehner’s & Romney’s policies. Should Romney win & Republicans gain the Senate, the economy will get quite a bit worse.
Do you see the House voting for the tax cuts to be extended for low/middle only? I don’t. I believe we will see the exact same thing happen with tax cuts being extended for all but I am open to other predictions (I’d just like to hear how those predictions happen).
What policies does Romney have that are causing any ill effects (he’s not an elected official). I believe the GOP takes the Senate, I really do.
I also see some very conservative Democrats making it to the Senate.
If you are correct, and we end up with President Mitt Romney and a Republican Senate, here are some things I see:
– The home mortgage deduction will be removed, causing the housing market to crash again.
– Medicare/Medicaid will be gutted, causing all but the most well-to-do baby-boomers to be without healthcare when they most desperately need it
– Social Security will be dismantled (“privatized”) finishing the job of destroying whatever is left of the peace of mind for most baby boomers
– Unemployment and underemployment will skyrocket as the last vestiges of our consumer economy whither and die
– The banking and finance system will collapse. The dollar will become worthless, and rioting will break out in the streets as the very wealthy retreat into their walled and gated enclaves — protected by the police and fire departments that they have bought.
– Gays, Blacks, Hispanics, women, and a host of other minority groups will find the gains they’ve made in the past five decades reversed as the newly emboldened right wing couples the worst excesses of the most extreme hate groups in America with all the advantages that wealth can buy. Contraceptives will become illegal or impossibly expensive. Gay marriage provisions will be reversed. Voter discrimination laws will be reversed or ever-more onerous provisions put into place.
– Civil liberties and constitutional freedoms will be dismantled and destroyed as the new right imposes a police state — citing the need to “fight terrorism”, “fight crime”, and similar lies. Politically “dangerous” individuals will disappear in the dead of night into “detainment” facilities where they will be held for months or years without charges.
The GOP has built its persona and its campaign about lies, hate, bigotry, prejudice, and greed. If America is stupid enough to put it in power, we will deserve all we get.
Where are the back alley abortions, women losing their voting rights, blacks sitting on the back of the bus, or even alcohol being banned, since Mitt is a Mormon. You forgot how global warming will accelerate 50X faster under Romney, we will all be wearing swimsuits and a snorkel on our way to work.
Tom-I go bed at 11:00 PM and would love to read another scary story. In fact, I will bring the kids into our room and turn the lights off and pull the covers over our heads. Please wrote another spooky story about the future under President Romney.
do you seriously believe what you wrote? Really?
– The home mortgage deduction will be removed, causing the housing market to crash again.
>>>> Let’s assume the GOP is full of rich people heavily invested in the market, real estate… so wouldn’t they want the housing market to go UP! I know Obama’s own commission recommended dropping the deduction in favor of a tax credit. The House would never let this happen anyway so this is bogus.
– Medicare/Medicaid will be gutted, causing all but the most well-to-do baby-boomers to be without healthcare when they most desperately need it
>>> Gutted, I don’t think so. Revamped, I would certainly hope so. This system is bankrupting cities, town and states… and the country. Someone has to have the guts to address this issue and I hope it is whomever wins, Romney or Obama.
– Social Security will be dismantled (“privatized”) finishing the job of destroying whatever is left of the peace of mind for most baby boomers
>>> As much as I’d love to see privatization I don’t think it will happen. Reducing benefits and bringing it back to be there system that it was created to be would be a great move in the right direction.
– Unemployment and underemployment will skyrocket as the last vestiges of our consumer economy whither and die
– The banking and finance system will collapse. The dollar will become worthless, and rioting will break out in the streets as the very wealthy retreat into their walled and gated enclaves — protected by the police and fire departments that they have bought.
>>> Rich people have lots of their money in banks so why on earth would the GOP want it to collapse? Do you really think this stuff is true? Maybe you are reading too many apocalyptic novels. Rich people want to see a vibrant economy so they can get richer.
– Gays, Blacks, Hispanics, women, and a host of other minority groups will find the gains they’ve made in the past five decades reversed as the newly emboldened right wing couples the worst excesses of the most extreme hate groups in America with all the advantages that wealth can buy.
>>>> Bogus again and very insulting.
– Contraceptives will become illegal or impossibly expensive.
>>>> I don’t think conservatives or Republicans are against contraceptives, matter of fact we would love to see less people being born who need social services. What we typically detest is the working people of America paying for the contraceptives for the slackers. Go buy condoms all day long, I don’t give a damn or go buy birth control pills till they come out your ears… just don’t ask me to pay for them.
Gay marriage provisions will be reversed.
>>>> How long has Obama been against gay marriage? Maybe you should direct this concern to his reelection team.
Voter discrimination laws will be reversed or ever-more onerous provisions put into place.
>>>> I would be so happy if we could have a solid voter ID law so we could make sure all votes are counted, even the ones from active duty military who Obama’s team is trying to suppress.
– Civil liberties and constitutional freedoms will be dismantled and destroyed as the new right imposes a police state — citing the need to “fight terrorism”, “fight crime”, and similar lies.
>>>> What has Obama done to reduce the Patriot Act? Nothing!
– Politically “dangerous” individuals will disappear in the dead of night into “detainment” facilities where they will be held for months or years without charges.
>>>> You must be thinking of Obama’s enemy list. Or maybe some of the people who are being held in Gitmo (The place Obama was going to close, but changed his mind). Or the secret prisons in other countries (what’s up with that Mr President?)
My list is just the beginning.
The GOP is owned by extremists and wealthy hyper right wingers. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg turns 80 next year. Justice Stephen G. Breyer is about to turn 74. Neither is likely to outlast an eight-year GOP administration. The prospect of one or two moderate justices being replaced by today’s GOP is nightmarish. We scream about “Citizens United” — it’s just the beginning.
Birth control pills and contraceptives were illegal for single men and women here in Massachusetts until 1972. You might reread the history of Eisenstadt vs Baird with an eye towards what might happen with a right wing majority on the Supreme Court. Miscegenation laws restricting the rights of inter-racial couples to marry were struck down in 1967 (Loving v. Virginia), again by a liberal court (by today’s standards). I suspect it would take a conservative court less than six months to reverse Roe v. Wade and return back-alley abortions to America.
You often scare me yourself, because you promote terrifying things while apparently telling yourself that they won’t happen. Had SS been privatized when then-President Bush proposed it, senior Americans would have been destroyed by the crash of 2008. The proposals to “reform” Medicare/Medicaid will destroy it. We have tried all or nearly all of the bromides that the GOP advocates, with disastrous results, and yet the response of the GOP is to push for even more of the same “medicine”.
Paul Ryan’s proposed budget targets income security spending for the poor — it would spend 16% less than the White House plan. He would spend 25% less on transportation, 6% less on “General science, space, and basic technology”. He proposes 33.3% less on education, training, employment, and social services.
The Ryan budget goes far beyond the already-draconian cuts proposed by Bowles/Simpson.
All this, while Mitt Romney promises to LOWER tax rates (especially for wealthy taxpayers).
Yes, John, I do seriously fear the consequences of a GOP victory this November.
… because Romney’s tax plans are ephemeral. As proposed, they can’t exist in the real world:
My prediction is that he’ll lie about his tax plan all the way through the election.