Putting the TARP Band Back Together

Putting The TARP Band Back Together
Opinions are varied and divided over whether the tax Compromise plan is worthwhile. Some see it as the best the GOP can hope to get. Others see it as the GOP settling for keeping current Income Tax rates while voting to raise other taxes and increase spending on Unemployment Benefits, a program that has become a general welfare program. Whether you are for it or against it, I do think it is worth pointing out this morning that with few exceptions, those parties advocating the tax Compromise are...

On the OReilly Factor: The Left Versus The American People
Not that we really needed more demonstrations of the Left’s arrogant disdain for the American People, but we keep getting them. The Left has turned viciously on their erstwhile champion Barack Obama. Though kicking and screaming, Obama finally did something that the American people - but not his Leftist base - approved of. He agreed to a two-year extension of the current Income Tax rates for everyone and concessions on the death tax as part of a Compromise package  that exte...

Tax cut highlights
_ Extends, for two years, lower Tax Rates for Taxpayers at every income level, lower taxes on capital gains and dividends, marriage penalty relief, more generous child Tax Credits and education tax credits. Cost: $408 billion. _ A patch that would spare more than 20 million people from a significant Tax Increase from the alternative minimum tax in 2010 and 2011. Cost: $137 billion. _ A lower tax on wealthy estates for two years. Under the provision, the first $5 million of a couple's estate co...

How the World Works: The economics of tax-cut fear-mongering
Despite a full-court press from the White House warning that the U.S. might slip into a "double-dip" Recession if congressional Democrats reject Obama's tax-cut deal, the House Democratic Caucus voted against bringing the package up for a vote on Thursday morning. Judging the significance of the vote is tricky. According to ABC's Rick Klein, the mastermind of the maneuver, Rep. Peter Defazio, D.-Ore., the vote rejecting the deal "was nearly unanimous." Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared ...

Let the tax cuts go and you actually stick it to the top for real.
By: Daniel Becker (DOLB) On Countdown (12/9/10), Keith had on Thomas Buffenbarger, president of the International Machinist Union. It was a chance for an “I told you so moment”in that Mr. Buffenbarger noted while campaigning for Secretary Clinton that President Obama would not be a fighter. Go watch the episode. I made my position on of Obama clear after the 60 Minutes interview. Mr. Buffenbarger's comments only reinforces my position as to understanding President Obama as does Oba...

President Obama blinked
Are we being led by a brilliant incompetent? …or is our President being advised by foxes in the hen house.  President Obama has  a solid record of drawing a line in the sand only to scuff it away before the opposition can make him blink. It is a record of political weakness that continuously undermines the Democratic Base. Most recently, President Obama started out speaking strongly in favor of economic stimulus and finished by freezing the wages and benefits of federal workers, ...

A Decline in Self-Employment
The share of Americans working for themselves has fallen since the recovery began, according to the Labor Department. The following chart, from Steven F. Hipple, an Economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows the quarterly rates of self-employment over the last decade. The figure for the last quarter of 2010 is estimated from rates recorded in October and November. Steven F. Hipple, Bureau of Labor Statistics Note that the vertical axis does not begin at zero to better show the change. Sh...

Dems play fiscal chicken
The behavior of Liberal Democrats in the U.S. House is, well, nothing short of astonishing. Yesterday they were in full-throated revolt against the Tax Cut Compromise crafted by a Democratic president. Barack Obama, whose political survival instincts seem to be intact, agreed to a two-year extension of all the Bush era tax cuts, a reasonable extension of the Estate Tax that exempts estates under the $5 million mark, getting in return a 13-month extension on Unemployment Benefits and a cut i...

House Democrats vow to block tax measure
The Senate opened debate late Thursday on a reworked tax package that would add incentives for Renewable Energy, which many Democrats have demanded, but leave intact the core elements of a deal negotiated by the White House and Republicans, including a revived inheritance tax that has outraged liberal lawmakers. This Story House Democrats vow to block tax measure Tax fight puts Schumer at odds with Obama Max Baucus, the Democrats' dud Poll: What's the greatest benefit for Obama's in supportin...

Wierd Tax Myths #2 -" Recessions, Depressens & Tax Policy
The crash came in 1929. When Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981, the top marginal rate was, once again, 70%. Reagan started cutting in 1982, down to 50%, then to 38.5% in 1987, and 28% in 1988. There was a boom in the fiscal sector. In the mid-eighties the collapse began, and over 1,600 banks failed. There was a huge Bailout. It was followed by the Recession of 1990. Taxes went up slightly under George H.W. Bush, then again under Bill Clinton. The Economy recovered. However, in 1997, th...

Friday Throwdown: Obama on taxes: Cave-in or compromise?
President Barack Obama this week announced a tax Compromise struck with GOP leaders in the Congress that would keep intact the Bush-era Tax Rates for two years at the same time Unemployment Benefits are extended by 13 months for long-term recipients. The deal left many in Obama’s party stunned. In a Caucus Thursday, Democrat members of the House voted not to take up the deal in its current form. U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano called it a ‘poor compromise,’ in an e-mail to supporter...

Democrats Reject Dear Leader's Tax Rate Compromise With GOP: Want To Raise Our Taxes
"That One" just got the finger from Bella Pelosi and the tax and spending Liberals in the House (AP). The House Democratic Caucus has voted to reject President Barack Obama's tax deal with Republicans in its current form. By voice vote, the Rank and File Democrats passed a resolution Thursday that said the tax package should not come to the floor of the House for consideration. Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Ore., introduced the resolution. Said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas: "If it's take it or leave it,...

Within 24 Hours, the Double Dip Recession Threat Returns
At the White House, yesterday: Q Thank you, Mr. President. Back in July, your Budget office’s Mid-Session Review forecast that Unemployment would be 7.7 percent in the second — in the Fourth Quarter of 2012. Will this package deal lower that projected rate? And also, is it going to do more to boost growth and create jobs than your Recovery Act? THE PRESIDENT: This is not as significant a boost to The Economy as the Recovery Act was, but we’re in a different situation now. I m...

The Obama-George H.W. Bush Comparison
In today’s New York Times, Jon Meacham, who is writing a biography of former president George H.W. Bush, points out the historical parallels between Obama’s economic negotiations today and the ones that were going on in 1990: It was in 1990 that Mr. Bush broke one of the most celebrated promises in modern American politics —“Read my lips: no new taxes,” as he put it in 1988 — in order to control federal spending. In the same way that Mr. Obama struck his dea...

Leverage? What Leverage?
The House Democrats reject the tax deal in a non-binding Caucus vote. This is another sign of Obama’s diminished influence, leverage and power after the midterms. Several dozen of these House Democrats are out of work in January (and presumably have no interest in being Obama appointees or ambassadors). The White House could threaten that the president won’t campaign for them come 2012, but let’s face it, that didn’t turn out to be so helpful for Creigh Deeds, Jon Corzi...

Top White House Economic Advisor Hits Back At Critics Over Dire Economic Predictions
WASHINGTON DC (CNN) - President Obama's departing top economic advisor Larry Summers hit back at Democratic critics accusing him of exaggerating the consequences of failing to pass the president's tax bill. Summers surprised some lawmakers Wednesday when he warned Congress that not supporting the Legislation could lead to a Double-Dip Recession in 2011....

Rand Paul: Im leaning against the tax compromise
Posted by Jennifer Caballero on Dec 9 2010 Filed under Economy, News & Opinion, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry Is this a sign of things to come? Rand Paul says what he has heard about this tax Compromise among GOP leaders and Obama leaves him worried about the spending attached when it comes to the Estate Tax and a continuation of Unemployment Benefits. He told Wolf Blitzer in an interview, as o...

Paul Krugman: Obamas Hostage Deal
Obama needs to understand that "concerns about the tax deal reflect realism, not purism": Obama’s Hostage Deal, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: I’ve spent the past couple of days trying to make my peace with the Obama-McConnell tax-cut deal. President Obama did, after all, extract more concessions than most of us expected. Yet I remain deeply uneasy... Obama has bought the release of some hostages only by providing the G.O.P. with new hostages. About the deal: Republicans ...

Items added to tax cut bill to draw support
WASHINGTON — As Democrats in Congress battled in public over a proposal to extend Bush-era Income Tax cuts, a group of Democratic lawmakers are pushing to make subtle changes to help sweeten the pot. The agreement worked out between President Obama and Republican lawmakers would extend the expiring cuts for all Taxpayers for two years, continue jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and cut Social Security Payroll taxes next year. Many Democrats have balked at the Compromise, particu...

The Eerily Prescient Mr. Brooks
The NY Times is now front-paging the notion that David Brooks floated (as a trial balloon on behalf of the White House?) last week - Obama is considering a re-branding as a champion of tax simplification and reform. I thought, and think, that the idea is absurd, as explained in my earlier post.  Still, here was Brooks imagining a bold declaration from Obama: We will extend the Bush rates for everybody for one year, along with Unemployment Benefits. But during that year we will enact a co...

Tax Bill to add $857 Billion to Debt
by CalculatedRisk on 12/09/2010 11:10:00 PM From Bloomberg: Senate Tax-Cut Extension Plan Would Add $857 Billion to Debt The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, which estimates the revenue effects of tax Legislation, said the provisions would cost the government $801.3 billion in forgone revenue over 10 years. Extending Unemployment Benefits for 13 months, another feature of the package, would cost $56 billion, the Obama Administration has said.It is important to remember the Joint Com...

Economic reality hits White House
Reality strikes. Barack Obama agreed with Republicans to extend the current Income Tax rates - the so-called Bush Tax Cuts - for another two years. He got a few things in return, primarily extended jobless benefits for another 13 months, and agreed as well to a 2 percent cut in the Social Security Payroll Tax. But he recognized the reality that in order to prevent a Tax Increase on those with incomes under $250,000 he had to prevent a Tax Increase on those over that line, as well. This has ...

Senate clearing the way for compromise tax legislation
The Senate is expected to clear the way shortly for the Bipartisan tax Compromise language.  Lawmakers will clear pending amendment to another bill and vote to table motions to refer and concur with an amendment to H.R. 4853, The Middle Class Tax Relief Act, making way for the new bill that has been under construction for the past few days.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also could file Cloture on the bill setting up a vote for either Saturday or Monday, although it's most likel...

Guest Post: The Blame Game: The White House vs. House Democrats
Today's guest post comes from none other than Big Brother All-My-Tee himself, Rippa, who blogs at The Intersection of Madness & Reality. Rippa's known around the blogosphere for stirring up a good debate so drop your 2 cents in the comments below as we discuss the latest debacle between the White House and the Democrats: So now everyone has taken lead from Obama's recent Press Conference chastisement of his fellow republi... oops, I mean democrats, Liberals, and or Progressives alike. Yes, w...

More on the Tax Deal
Thu Dec. 9, 2010 6:37 PM PST This is going to be unbearably wonky, so I apologize in advance. But I was thinking some more about Paul Krugman's contention that Obama's tax Compromise plan might hurt his Reelection chances rather than help them. He bases this on two things. First, Mark Zandi's economic forecast suggests that the tax plan will improve GDP growth in 2011 but reduce it in 2012 (compared to a baseline forecast). Second, Larry Bartels has shown that voters are myopic: they pay far mo...