Trust

Take The Deal
Keith Hennessey, who worked on Economic Policy in George W. Bush's White House, supports the tax Compromise: Unlike many Congressional Republicans, I support extending extended Unemployment Insurance benefits when the Unemployment Rate is this high.  My back-of-the-envelope suggests that, at a 9.8% rate, between four and nine people who would like a job but cannot find one are getting more generous UI benefits for each person who is getting those same benefits and choosing not to tak...

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...

Why didnt Barry just give Clinton the finger?
Anyhow, Barry bails at 9:30. Stay classy, Barry! Stay classy! Then there's this, ZOMG: [CLINTON:] First of all, I feel awkward being here and now you’re gonna leave me all by myself. [CLINTON:] I don't want to make her mad. Please go. You're in good hands. It's nice to see the Big Dog doing the Big Dog thing -- he's so smart, and such a great communicator -- but even Clinton can't buff this turd. It's not a good bill. Selling the plan on the basis of the Unemployment Insurance extension ...

Social Security tax cut: A deal breaker
The extension of President Bush’s Tax Break for the Richest 2 percent of Taxpayers is the least popular part of the deal between President Obama and the Republican congressional Leadership. However, the plan for a temporary reduction of 2 percentage points in the Social Security Payroll Tax is by far the most dangerous. There are positive aspects to the proposed reduction in the Payroll tax. First, it would be progressive. The Tax Cut would only go to those with wage income, as opposed to ca...

Accounting for the Payroll Tax Cut
by CalculatedRisk on 12/08/2010 04:50:00 PM There is no text for the plan available yet, and I've been trying to understand the Accounting for the Payroll Tax cut and maybe this has already been settled ... There are two obvious alternatives: 1) Social Security will receive something close to $120 billion less than currently estimated in 2011, and this will negatively impact the long term Social Security projections, and 2) the full amount of the Payroll Tax will still be credited to Social S...

The Coming Payroll Tax Fight
Paul Krugman thinks the tax deal hurts President Obama’s chances of re-election. The Democratic parts of the deal will be on the verge of expiring [at the end of 2011], while the Republican parts will have another year to run. Won’t that put the Dems in a desperate position? Won’t Obama be strongly tempted to make further big concessions to get something to boost The Economy for another year? This seems to me upside down. President Obama will have an issue to advance in 2011: renewal...

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...

The Obama Tax Deal: Giving the Hostage Takers More Hostages
As readers of this blog know, I was originally willing to support the package that President Obama negotiated with the Republicans. While I am not happy about giving Tax Breaks to rich people, President Obama extracted more concessions from the Republicans than I had expected in the form of extending Unemployment Insurance benefits, an expanded earned income Tax Credit, and most importantly a substantial reduction in the Payroll Tax. However, after further thought and conversations with peopl...

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...

Lame Duck session cooking our goose with taxes
Media headlines are saying that Obama’s promoting the tax Compromise while Democrats are against it.  They are against giving business a Tax Break to encourage capital investment; providing working couples as much as $4,200 in extra cash in 2011 with a one-year Payroll-tax reduction. Democrats aren’t against the $900 billion that will add to the Deficit but the newly elected Republicans should be.  They’re selling out to funding ObamaCare for the next year with this b...

Rep. Peter Welch: 'We dont know whether we couldve gotten a better outcome'
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is leading the charge in the House against President Obama's tax-cut deal. The problem, he says, isn't just the deal itself, but the process that led to it. We spoke this afternoon, and a lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows. Ezra Klein: Tell me your concerns with the deal. Peter Welch: The context for the House Democrats is that this was presented after the president made his deal with the Republican leadership. But in terms of policy, the central issu...

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 ...

Mangano Lowers Taxes but Leaves Nassau County in a Fiscal Crisis
MINEOLA, N.Y. — Facing a huge Budget Deficit when he took office in January, Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano did not impose a hiring freeze. He did not stop borrowing to subsidize some of the Richest School Districts in the country. He did not eliminate the Police Department’s beloved mounted unit. Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano faced a Budget Crisis when he took office in January, and has a worse one now. Video: Meeting of Nassau County Interim Finance Authori...

President Obama is one Shrewd Negotiator -- NOT!
President Obama set off a lively week for a Lame Duck Congress when he announced a tentative Tax Cut deal on Monday. Meeting without Democratic representation, the President carved out a hostage-release deal with Republicans that would give them the cuts they want for the top 2% in exchange for the extension of Unemployment Benefits and tax cuts for 98% of Americans. The President says this is the best deal that could be made, but many Democrats disagree. Sadly, while the issue of tax cuts for t...

Telling it like it is: GOP sets the bomb and Democrats hand them the fuse
Telling It Like It Is by digby Following up on my post of this morning, I suppose it's one thing for them to not be astute enough to defuse the bombs the Bush people set when they had the chance but when they show you that they are setting a new one you'd think they'd resist the temptation to hand them the fuse: Obama, as part of the Democratic package, secured a roughly 30 percent cut in the Payroll Tax, from 6.2 to 4.2 percent. Allowing it to expire in a year will mean that workers will se...

On Social Security Payroll Tax Cut as a Hidden Threat to Social Security
If you haven’t seen it yet, please read The End of Social Security by Nancy Altman. A brief part: …Given that unwillingness to raise taxes by less than a nickel on every dollar earned over $1 million, I find it unfathomable that a more conservative Congress, in two years, in an election year, will increase the Payroll Tax by 2 percent on the very first dollar, and every other dollar up to the cap, earned by virtually every single worker in the country. Consequently, I think we have t...

The payroll tax cut, Social Security and the problem of the trust fund
The tax deal cuts employee-side Payroll taxes by two percentage points in 2011. This won't harm Social Security, or at least it shouldn't harm Social Security, because the money will just be replaced by general fund revenues (confused yet?). All in all, that should mean Social Security emerges unscathed. But some Liberals are understandably concerned that the Payroll cut will be extended indefinitely. Then Social Security loses part of its long-term funding. And then what? More benefit cuts? Pri...

Obama Likely Could Have Gotten Stand-Alone Payroll Tax Holiday
President Obama, in an attempt to sell the deal he cut on extending the Bush Tax Cuts, keeps holding up the one-year Payroll Tax holiday as his big win. Defenders of the deal, such as Ezra Klein, act like without this deal, there would be no way Obama could have gotten this Payroll Tax holiday. I think this is an inherent misunderstanding of the Republican position. Since well before this deal, I thought a Payroll Tax holiday was going to be one of the few big Bipartisan things Obama and John ...

Obama Urges Congress To Pass Tax Deal
President Barack Obama answers questions on his Compromise on Tax Cuts, Unemployment Insurance and jobs on Tuesday at the White House. (Chuck Kennedy / White House) (NewsCore) - President Barack Obama used his weekly address Saturday to urge Congress to pass the tax cut deal he negotiated with Republicans ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline and amid opposition from some of his most stalwart supporters. "We hammered out a deal that reflects ideas from both sides. It wasn't easy, and it's by no means perfe...

Obama takes credit for compromise (Politico)
President Barack Obama reprised his defense of his Tax Cut Compromise with Republicans in his weekly address on Saturday, arguing that the fate of Middle Class families — and the still-fragile Economic Recovery — is at stake as lawmakers consider the proposal. “The opportunity for families to send their kids to college hinges on this debate,” Obama said. “And our recovery will be strengthened or weakened based on the choice that now rests with Congress.” The...

Which Party Owns the Payroll Tax Break?
As David Frum wrote this morning, the GOP needs to reposition itself as the party of the Payroll Tax cut to prevent President Obama from running on that (popular) issue in 2012. Greg Sargent has recently come into possession of a White House slide which underscores why time may be running out for the GOP on this issue. The slide is being circulated to convince Democrats unhappy with the Tax Cut Compromise (Obama may consider them “sanctimonious”) that they in fact got the better en...

The substance of the tax deal
The smorgasbord of “extender” provisions will run for two years, which is retroactive for 2010 and prospectively for 2011.  Details on this are still TBD and are undoubtedly occupying nearly every tax Lobbyist in town.  (ick) Given a Democratic President, this is the best possible deal that could be reasonably expected.  For the next two years, through the remainder of President Obama’s first/only term, Tax Rates won’t go up on anyone except dead people.&#...

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...

Robert J. Samuelson - What the Bowles-Simpson plan left out
People who wonder what America's Budget problem is ultimately about should look to Europe. In the streets of Dublin, Athens and London, angry citizens are protesting government plans to cut programs and raise taxes. The social contract is being broken. People are furious; they feel betrayed. Modern democracies have created a new Morality. Government benefits, once conferred, cannot be revoked. People expect them and consider them property rights. Just as government cannot randomly confiscate ...

Americans want it all a cut in the deficit and no reduction in programs, poll finds
WASHINGTON - Americans want Congress to bring down a federal Budget Deficit that many believe is “dangerously out of control,” only under two conditions: minimize the pain and make the rich pay. The public wants Congress to keep its hands off entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. They oppose cuts in most other major domestic programs and defense. They want to maintain subsidies for farmers and Tax Breaks like the Mortgage-int...