Two Years of Tax Cuts for One Year of Unemployment Insurance. Nothing for the 99ers

Dionne: Krauthammer Heart Obama
As someone who savors the ironies of life and politics, I have gotten a kick out of seeing my conservative colleague Charles Krauthammer emerge -- temporarily, no doubt -- as the Obama White House's favorite columnist. For two weeks running, he has argued how brilliant Obama's Tax Cut deal is, how he swindled Republicans in Congress, and how he has immensely strengthened his hand for the 2012 election. "Holding no high cards," Krauthammer wrote today of the president, "he nonet...

Obama reaches out to black leaders, says tax-cut deal good for African Americans
As President Obama prepared to sign his $858 billion tax deal Friday, White House aides moved quickly to soothe the anger among liberal constituency groups that bitterly opposed the measure. This Story Obama reaches out to black leaders, says tax-cut deal good for African Americans House passes Tax Cut bill Document: Read the White House fact-sheet Liberals still seething over tax-cuts bill View All Items in This Story View Only Top Items in This Story An e-mail distributed to black leaders d...

The tax deal's biggest losers
It's easy to declare the winners in the new tax bill, but let's not forget the unluckiest of them all -- those who have been jobless for 99 weeks. Now is just not the time for higher taxes. That's the message delivered by President Obama's tax deal, an $858 billion package that will extend Tax Breaks enacted under former president George W. Bush. The bill will prevent taxes from rising on New Year's Day for virtually every American household. What's more, it will create major incentives for bus...

What the Tax Deal Means to Your Wallet
The pressure is off -- at least for now. With the Bush-era Tax Cuts extended for all Americans for at least the next two years under the law signed today by President Obama, government leaders have managed to postpone some tough decisions to be made surrounding the U.S. tax code until 2012. The law has been labeled “Compromise” Legislation, and for good reason. In exchange for the tax-cuts extension, Republicans agreed to extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. They als...

Class Warfare
Dec 27, 2010, Vol. 16, No. 15 • By PETER WEHNER Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Democrats are enraged at President Obama for his decision to extend George W. Bush’s Tax Cuts for all Americans, including top income earners. What explains their anger? It cannot be because of concern for the Deficit. After all, Democrats are responsible for an unprecedented two-year spending binge (the United States spent $1.3 Trillion more over the last two-year period...

For President Obama, signing tax-cut bill makes for a good day after a bad election
A month ago President Obama was the big loser of 2010, the leader whose party had given up historic losses in the House and who was facing questions about his future. On Friday, with the stroke of his pen on a Compromise tax bill, he reminded his adversaries of the essential resilience of the occupant of the Oval Office. Whether the Compromise proves to be a fleeting moment of Bipartisanship or the beginning of a genuine turnaround in Obama's political fortunes won't be known until well into ...

Obama salutes spirit of compromise, signs tax bill
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama signed into law a huge, holiday-season tax bill extending cuts for all Americans on Friday, saluting a new spirit of political Compromise as Republicans applauded and liberals seethed. The benefits range from Tax Cuts for Millionaires and the Middle Class to longer-term help for the jobless. The most significant tax Legislation in nearly a decade will avert big increases that would have hit millions of people starting in two weeks on New Year's Day. Decla...

Pelosi: Tax Cut Legislation Gives Middle-Income Families Fairness and the Economic Opportunity to Create Jobs - Rep. Pelosi
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor this afternoon in support of the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010, which passed the House by a Bipartisan vote of 234 to 188. Below are the Speaker’s remarks. “Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman [Mr. Levin] for yielding. I commend him for his great leadership in terms of working and being a champion for America’s Working Families, for America’s middle-income families who need so...

Grab bag of goodies in Obama’s tax plan
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama’s $858 billion tax package is a grab bag of goodies for investors, the affluent and workers, but the richer you are the more you get. Congress passed the bill after Liberal Democrats lost their bid to make it less generous to the wealthy, and Obama signed it into law Friday. There is something in the bill for virtually every Taxpayer. Low and moderate income workers see a Payroll Tax cut, and expansion of a Tax Credit for Working Families — priorit...

Grab bag of goodies in Obama’s tax plan
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama’s $858 billion tax package is a grab bag of goodies for investors, the affluent and workers, but the richer you are the more you get. Congress passed the bill after Liberal Democrats lost their bid to make it less generous to the wealthy, and Obama signed it into law Friday. There is something in the bill for virtually every Taxpayer. Low and moderate income workers see a Payroll Tax cut, and expansion of a Tax Credit for Working Families — priorit...

New Jersey Senators divided over tax cut extension
On Wednesday, December 15, 2010, the United States Senate voted 81-19 overwhelmingly in favor of extending the temporary Tax Cuts put in place by former President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003.  President Barack Obama urged the United States Congress to agree with the Tax Cuts being extended after he brokered a deal with the Republican leaders in the Senate.  However, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg did not vote in favor of the tax cut extension brokered by President Obama while ...

Krauthammer ♥ Obama
As someone who savors the ironies of life and politics, I have gotten a kick out of seeing my conservative colleague Charles Krauthammer emerge -- temporarily, no doubt -- as the Obama White House's favorite columnist. For two weeks running, he has argued how brilliant Obama's Tax Cut deal is, how he swindled Republicans in Congress, and how he has immensely strengthened his hand for the 2012 election. "Holding no high cards," Krauthammer wrote today of the president, "he nonetheless managed to ...

How The New Tax Law Will Affect You
The average Taxpayer will save $3000 in 2011 because of the new tax law. But many families will be able to save much more by taking advantage of Tax Breaks for being married, having Children, paying for child care, going to college or investing in securities. There are even Tax Breaks for paying local sales taxes and using Mass Transit, and a new Social Security Tax Cut for nearly every worker who earns a wage. … The law extends most of the tax cuts for two years, including lower rates f...

Obama signs tax-cut bill, hails the compromise as progress
WASHINGTON — President Obama signed into law a huge tax package extending cuts for all Americans yesterday, saluting a new spirit of political Compromise as Republicans applauded and liberals seethed. The benefits range from Tax Cuts for Millionaires and the Middle Class to longer-term help for the jobless. The most significant tax Legislation in nearly a decade will avert big increases that would have hit millions of people two weeks after New Year’s Day. “We are here with so...

Obamas Learning Curve
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Let’s stipulate that President Obama is one smart dude. Everyone says so. “Obama is one of the most articulate and intelligent men ever to have been president,” historian Alan Brinkley wrote recently in Democracy. Soon-to-be House Speaker John Boehner agrees. “I think he’s engaging,” Boehner said of Obama on 60 Minutes. “Certainly smart. Brilliant.” But more than brainpower, there̵...

NH and Alabama Defy US Trend, Reduce Unemployment
Friday, December 17, 2010 By Christopher S. Rugaber, Associated Press Washington (AP) - The national Unemployment Rate has been stuck above 9.5 percent for more than a year, yet some states have made strides. Two states with little else in common - New Hampshire and Alabama - have seen the steepest drops in Unemployment in the 12 months that ended in November. New Hampshire has added jobs in a broad range of industries, including Manufacturing, education and Health Care, and leisure and hos...

The Government Has Lost Focus
Mudrake wrote a good one. Unpopular wars and deep Tax Cuts with an Unemployment Rate near 10 percent. And an already massive National Debt as well as a non-functional Congress. What has world history taught us about the consequences of such a combination of colliding events? It sounds pretty bad, eh? What's your opinion? Please leave a comment. ...

Obama applauds bipartisan cooperation as he signs tax cut deal
• Extends Bush-era Tax Cuts on income, capital gains and dividends for all Americans for two years. • Extends Unemployment Benefits for 13 months for the long-term unemployed. • Cuts Social Security Payroll taxes 2 percentage points for a year. • Caps the top Estate Tax rate at 35 percent for next year, after an exemption of $5 million per person. WASHINGTON • With an end-of-year deadline bearing down on them both, President Barack Obama and Senate Republican Leader...

Symbolism outweighed revenue in estate tax battle
From MSNBC.com's Tom Curry: House Democrats unhappy with the Tax Cut deal negotiated by President Obama managed to tie up the lower chamber with a procedural roadblock for most of the day Thursday but were unable to stop final passage of the bill that will be signed into law Friday afternoon. So what was all the fuss about? In a last gasp of Rhetoric over tax policy, Democratic opponents of the deal were battling over just about one percent of federal revenue in 2011. That's the money that woul...

Meet the Press transcript for Dec. 12, 2010
Next story in Transcripts Aug. 15: Gen. David Petraeus MR. David Gregory: This Sunday, the tax fight . The president gets some powerful support for his deal with Republicans , but Liberal Democrats are in revolt, unmoved by the president's rationale for Compromise . PRES. Barack Obama: I think it's tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American People . MR. GREGORY...

What will the big new tax law mean for you?
WASHINGTON – It's the most significant new tax law in a decade, but what does it mean for you? Big savings for millions of Taxpayers, more if you have young Children or attend college, a lot more if you're wealthy. The package, signed Friday by President Barack Obama, will save Taxpayers, on average, about $3,000 next year. But many families will be able to save much more by taking advantage of Tax Breaks for being married, having children, paying for child care, going to college or inve...

Obama signs compromise bill extending tax cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has signed an $858 billion tax bill he negotiated with Republicans. The package extends Bush-era Tax Cuts for two years, including Tax Rates for the wealthy that Obama had vowed to let expire. The deal includes a 13-month extension of jobless benefits for the out-of-work, and a nearly one-third cut in Payroll taxes that finance Social Security. Displaying a new style of compromising, the president invited Democrats and Republicans alike to the Whi...

Tangled tongues still twisting the truth
Democrats have been against the Bush Tax Cuts ever since they were first enacted and not just the Tax Cuts for the rich but all of them. Suddenly the extension of the tax cuts, including for the rich, is a boost for The Economy and a win for Obama, embracing supply-side economics (without naming it as such) dancing around their own Yuletide campfire with whoops of joy over the passage of yet another stimulus (their words) bill. They cannot have it both ways. They continue to trip over their own ...

Why all the blunders?
The tax deal is reasonable policy, supported by majorities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents - an easy sell by presidential standards. And still President Obama managed to blow the politics of the thing. Rather than explaining the economic benefits of the bill and taking quiet credit for a moment of Bipartisanship, Obama launched into an assault on partners and opponents. Republicans are "hostage-takers" who worship the "Holy Grail" of trickle-down economics. Libe...

Florida Unemployment Reaches 12 Percent
Florida’s Unemployment outlook remains bleak, with the state Agency for Workforce Innovation report released Friday showing a jobless rate of 12 percent for November. The number is up slightly from October’s 11.9 percent. There are 1.1 million Floridians out of work, and nonagricultural employment stands at 7.2 million people, with 300 jobs added in November. The Unemployment figures are only part of Florida’s jobs problem. If discouraged and underemployed workers -- those who ...