Tax Cut Negotiations Continue, Udall Stands Firm

Bernie Sanders: Republicans are trying to take us back to the 1920s
Tonight Harry Reid brought up the tax Compromise for a Cloture vote on Monday afternoon. Just afterward, Bernie Sanders stepped up and let anyone who was possibly listening hear what he thought about Republicans, Tax Cuts, the Payroll Tax holiday, and Conservatives' plan to destroy Social Security and Medicare. It's a bit long, but worth it. He points out Republican hypocrisy and what's at stake when he predicts the inevitable hue and cry of next year's Republicans in the House and Senate claimi...

Social Security Advocates Fear Payroll Tax Cut
Like this Story? Share it: (AP) President Barack Obama's plan to cut Payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the Retirement program's finances. The plan is part of a package of Tax Cuts and extended Unemployment Benefits that Mr. Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would cut workers' share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages would ge...

Social Security advocates fear payroll tax cut
WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama’s plan to cut Payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the Retirement program’s finances. The plan is part of a package of Tax Cuts and extended Unemployment Benefits that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would cut workers’ share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages woul...

Social Security advocates fear payroll tax cut (AP)
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's plan to cut Payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the Retirement program's finances. The plan is part of a package of Tax Cuts and extended Unemployment Benefits that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would cut workers' share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages would get a $1,000 tax c...

Come Saturday Morning: Reasons to Fight the Obama/GOP Poor Tax
Why should we be melting down our phones telling our Senators and Congresscritters “Hell NO!” on this turkey? Let us count the reasons: - The poorer you are, the more of your disposable income you’re prone to spend. The richer you are, the more likely you are to sock it away somewhere. This is why a stimulus that mainly benefits the poor is far better for The Economy as a whole than one that mainly benefits the rich. Yet the Tax Cut framework actually forces poor people...

Last Word, I Hope
Most of the blogosphere continues to argue about the Tax Cut Compromise. I’ve said most of what I want to say, but most of the argument for me boils down to these points: One, the argument is that the Payroll Tax holiday is bad because if the lower Tax Rates became permanent they would eventually de-fund Social Security. I am skeptical the Republicans will be eager to extend the lower Payroll Tax rates this time next year, however, because - The Payroll Tax holiday doesn’t he...

Obama defends tax cut deal in weekly address
Well, we all knew this was coming, right? Tax Cut deal! So we hammered out a deal that reflects ideas from both sides. It wasn’t easy, and it’s by no means perfect. And as with any Compromise, everybody had to live with elements they didn’t like. But this is a good deal for the American People. The vast majority of the tax cuts in this plan will help the Middle Class, including a new cut in Payroll taxes that will save the average family about $1,000. And as this plan is debat...

Howard Dean On Tax Deal: 'A Short-Term Washington Fix' Filled With Easy Promises
WASHINGTON -- One of the more noteworthy parts of the fallout over the debate on the Bush Tax Cuts is the opening it has given for Progressives to grab the mantle of Deficit Hawkish-ness and Fiscal Responsibility. Getting the nation's Budget in order has always been viewed by liberal-minded Economists as a bit of political gimmickry -- the type of feel-good line Republicans make with an eye on the ballot boxes, not job reports. But now, as a $900 billion agreement between the president and th...

Axelrod Predicts Tax Cut Deal Will Pass
(NewsCore) - White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod said Sunday that he expects President Barack Obama’s Tax Cut Compromise with Republicans to pass in its current form. “I believe that there will be a coming together around it,” said Axelrod, speaking on ABC’s “This Week” about the deal to extend the Bush tax cuts. “I don’t anticipate that it’s going to change greatly.” The deal goes to a test vote in the Senate on Monday. Democrats ...

Senator unsure of Dems' support in tax-cuts vote
Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said Sunday he thinks the chamber will vote this week on the legislative package to extend Bush-era Tax Rates, but he was hesitant to say he has the votes. Mr. Durbin said on CNN's "State of the Union" that he has been talking all weekend with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, and that they have a "good cross section of the Senate Democratic Caucus" that is prepared to vote yes. "But I don't want to presume," he said. M...

Axelrod: Pelosi, Democrats will come around on tax cuts in bill's current form
President Obama's top adviser said Sunday that Democrats will ultimately vote for the Tax Cut Compromise Obama reached with Republicans. David Axelrod said that he thinks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will allow a vote on the package that has enraged Democrats because "she understands the consequences of inaction." Pelosi said last week she would not allow a vote on the package after the House Democratic Caucus voted against it. Still, Axelrod said, he thinks Pelosi will relent. "I'm not going t...

Durbin: Senate will pass tax package
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday there are enough votes in the Senate to pass the package extending the Bush-era Tax Cuts that has infuriated House Democrats. “We’re counting votes in the Senate. Harry Reid and I have been on the phone over the weekend. And I can say that we have a good cross section of the Senate Democratic Caucus from left to right who are prepared to accept this,” he told CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union.” H...

Durbin pushes for tax vote
(CNN) - - Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said Sunday that Democrats "will need Republican support" to pass a tax package negotiated by President Obama with Republicans, though he declined to say whether he thinks the deal will pass the Senate. In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Durbin, D-Illinois, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has "promised" GOP backing on the deal to extend Tax Cuts. Durbin said he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, have be...

Obama to Convene CEO Summit
Source: The Wall Street Journal WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will convene a one-day summit of corporate chief executives Wednesday as part of a renewed White House effort to build support among business leaders for his economic agenda. Executives from Google, Cisco Systems, Inc., Facebook Inc., International Business Machines Corp., American Express Co., The Dow Chemical Co. and PepsiCo Inc. have been invited to the Wednesday meeting at Blair House, adjacent to the White House, to discuss t...

Low Taxes Are the Problem, Not the Solution
Sen. Bernard Sanders speaks against Tax Cuts on the floor of the Senate on Friday. “Every Economist that I’ve talked to … acknowledges that this [tax] agreement would boost Economic Growth in the coming years and has the potential to create millions of jobs,” President Barack Obama said this week. But if low taxes are the solution, this must mean that high taxes are the problem. Yet the Bush Tax Cuts are already in effect; taxes are therefore low already, and the unemplo...

The choice: welfare state or opportunity society
Americans sent a message to Washington in November that they would no longer tolerate a government that grows too large, too fast, while our most urgent concerns go unaddressed. Policy-makers in Washington must put an end to the overreach and start to address the need for sustained Economic Growth, Job Creation and government restraint. Much work needs to be done to tackle our fiscal and economic challenges - but I am optimistic that we can chart a new course. Earlier this year, as the U.S. Ho...

Bloomie Talks Up Econ Initiatives
“Good Morning. This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “Last week, the White House and Congressional Republicans reached a Compromise that extends Tax Cuts and Unemployment Insurance for Americans. It’s a sign that bi-partisanship really is possible in Washington. And that’s a very good thing - because as long as our leaders spend more energy on partisan attacks than getting things done, our nation will only fall further and further behind our international competitors. We de...

Release: Sanders Statement on Tax Cut Deal
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today on the agreement announced Monday between the White House and congressional Republicans: “In my view, it is a moral outrage that at a time when this country has a $13.8 Trillion National Debt, a collapsing Middle Class and a growing gap between the very rich and everybody else that the Republicans would deny extended Unemployment Benefits to 2 million workers who are desperately struggling to pay th...

Economic disparity evident in Wall Street bonuses, Warren says
Seeing Wall Street Bankers bring home sizeable bonuses while the rest of the country struggles economically "staggers" Elizabeth Warren, the president's adviser charged with setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren said the disparity indicates "we still have a problem." "I just don't have words to describe what this means," Warren said in a interview for Bloomberg Television's "Conservations with Judy Woodruff" that aired this weekend. "It isn't meaningful to talk about ...

Institutional Insanity: Ralph Nader on Crazy Republicans, Spineless Democrats and Clueless Reporters
This piece was called to my attention by Jim Z. *********************** Institutional Insanity by Ralph Nader Common Dreams, December 6, 2010 If there was a Mental Health Hospital for institutions the Republican Party and its top leaders would be admissible as clinically insane. Their bizarre wackopedia seems to contain no discernible boundaries. Repeatedly, these corporate supplicants oppose any measure, any Regulation, any Legislation that will directly help workers, consumers, the environme...

I Guess I'm Confused...
Technically, it wasn't a Filibuster. But what Bernie Sanders did on the Senate floor yesterday deserves a place in American history textbooks -- it's not too often a creature of Congress decides to stand on his hind legs and speak the truth to the American People for eight and a half hours. And symbolic as it was, it got the attention of people who aren't Bloggers for a change. That's gotta be a sign of progress, folks -- face it, we haven't been accomplishing jack in that department for a long ...

Sen. Sanders Ends All-day Rant
(NewsCore) - And in the ninth hour, he rested. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrapped up his all-day, Filibuster-style rant in the Senate Friday evening, finally relinquishing the podium after nearly nine hours of pontification. The 69-year-old began speaking at 10:24 am ET and never sat down as he railed on President Barack Obama's Tax Cut Compromise with Republicans. He finally stopped just before 7 pm ET. Though not technically a filibuster, the uninterrupted Speech from the self-described socia...

Social Security advocates fear payroll tax cut
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's plan to cut Payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers. But Social Security advocates are nervous that it could jeopardize the Retirement program's finances. The plan is part of a Tax Cut and extended Unemployment Benefits package that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would trim workers' share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages would get a $1,000 tax cut; th...

Trust
I basically agree with Ezra Klein's opinion that, liberal conventional wisdom notwithstanding, there's nothing magical about the way Social Security is funded that protects it. And I disagree with Charles Blahous (and Keith Hennessey) that there's any "phony Accounting" or "double counting" involved in the Payroll Tax holiday along with an equal transfer from general revenues to Social Security. Here's the case for it: The problem is not with the tax relief but with an accompanying accounting ...

Why The Tax Cut Deal Isnt Cutting It.
I want to be sold on this Tax Cut deal on the economics, but the more I look at it the less I’m impressed with it. According to Ezra Klein, the White House is circulating this diagram around the Hill.  James Kwak dissects this chart and the narrative that “Obama won” on this deal; I’ll do the same.  Let’s take the “What We Got” apart. …these looming tax hikes will hurt every family in America. During the 1990s, a Republican Congress enact...