His, “Make the Democrats a generational party for a generation” tax plan passes the house 277-148.
Bummer.
Category: Taxes
Senate Passes Obama’s Assault on the Democratic Party
Otherwise known as the kiss the asses of rich Republicans tax bill.
It passed 81-19.
Seriously, that’s kind of pathetic.
I understand the reluctance of Democrats to vote against their own President, but the fact that after this bad a deal was cut that you can’t even muster enough votes against it to keep the total below 70?
Pathetic.
Of Course the Fix is In
The Senate voted for cloture on the Republican wet dream tax bill.
Notwithstanding the “nonbinding” vote in the House Democratic Caucus last week, I expect it to pass the house largely unchanged.
I simply do not think that there is enough guts in the house to push back in a meaningful way against this.
Point 1: Mark Penn is always wrong……
Point 2: he is now arguing that Democratic Party support of Obama’s awful tax deal is essential to the survival of the party.
Taking political advice from Mark Penn is like taking investment advice from Jim Cramer.
The Invisible Bond Vigilantes Have Appeared
Interest rates on Treasuries have surged in the wake of the tax cut capitulation:
Treasury prices dropped Tuesday, pushing 10-year yields up by the most since June 2009, after Congress and the White House compromised on a tax package that is expected to raise the deficit and increase the government’s borrowing needs.
The drop in prices, which move inversely to yields, extended further after the government’s first of three auctions this week drew tepid demand from investors.
Go figure. Barack Obama has managed to capitulated his way into pushing interest rates up.
That will help the economy.
It is Worse Than a Crime, It Is A Mistake
Well, the White House completely caved on tax breaks.
What the Republicans got:
- A 2-year extension to all the tax cuts, including the tax cuts for those making more than a $¼ million a year.
- Setting a new exemption on the inheritance tax at $5 million.
- Dropping the tax rate on the inheritance tax at 35%.
What Obama got:
- A 13 month extension to emergency unemployment benefits.
- Which means that Republicans will kill extended unemployment benefits in January 2012, putting the economy in a tail spin as the presidential election rolls around.
- A 1-year 2% holiday in Social Security, which will provide a family earning $50K about $1K.
- The difference is supplied from the treasury, so it does not hit the trust fund, and this is probably the best tax cut for boosting the economy.
- Continuation of the college tuition tax credit.
- Which, of course gets taken back out by the financial aid department, which makes awards on the basis to pay.
It’s a remarkably one sided agreement, and Barack Obama followed this up with a lie:
Mr. Obama said he was insisting on a temporary deal on the tax rates for high earners and wealthy estates on the belief that he would ultimately prevail.
“I’m confident,” Mr. Obama said, “that as we make tough choices about bringing our deficit down, as I engage in a conversation with the American people about the hard choices we’re going to have to make to secure our future and our children’s future and our grandchildren’s future, it will become apparent that we cannot afford to extend those tax cuts any longer.”
Let’s be clear, Barack Obama has no intention whatsoever to raise taxes on the rich or on the inheritance of drooling rich heirs.
He’s a pimps harder for the well off than Bill Clinton ever did, and it should be noted that Clinton did it before the rich ratf%$#s on Wall Street blew up our economy.
When one looks at what Obama has done, one can only conclude that we got sold a bill of goods by a Blue Dog.
If he had even the smallest bit of a progressive bent, he would have bent.
He sells out to Republicans because he supports most of their policies.
I’m With Jane Hamsher on This
Barack “I suck up to Wall Street Like 1000 Hoover vacuum cleaners” Obama is not folding on tax cuts for the hyper-rich, he wanted them to keep their tax cuts all along:
It’s been clear for some time that President Obama made the political calculation that he does not want any of the Bush tax cuts to expire. He doesn’t want to be the guy in 2012 running for President on having “raised taxes during a time of recession.”But the President also doesn’t want the political blowback of angering people who cheered him on the campaign trail when he promised to let the tax cuts expire. And so rather than just come out and just say that, he’s been actively trying to kill a Chuck Schumer deal to keep them from expiring on income of more than $1 million a year. It was a plan that put the GOP in an awkward position, and had thrown them off message in recent days — hard to be the people fighting for the 315,000 families who fall into that category over the 2 million set to lose their unemployment benefits by the end of the year.The President argued against the Schumer deal, we are told, because he was concerned about “the cost [to the deficit] and the risk of redefining the middle class as those making over [should read under] one million.”
The President’s argument is, of course, pure crap.
I think that when we look at Barack Obama’s performance on issues of real reform, it’s clear that he falls short of his rhetoric because he does not want real reform.
Financial reform was mostly smoke and mirrors, with small steps, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, being driven by a need to avoid totally alienating his base in 2012.
The same goes for taxes, or for the give-away to health insurers that is laughably called healthcare reform.
Go read the rest.
Finally, Some Competence
The House just passed the “Democratic version” of the tax cut extension, with the support of only 3 Republicans, and the opposition of of 20 mostly Blue Dog and mostly lame duck Democrats.
I don’t expect to make it through the Senate, but this is both good politics and good policy.
What is interesting is the parliamentary maneuver used to get it passed by a simple majority.
Normally, you need a ⅔ majority vote in the House to pass the bill without the possibility of a motion to recommit, basically a motion to amend and send back to the originating committee, and the Republicans always come up with stuff that will make weak kneed Democrats vote with them, typically having to do with sex offenders, or in this case, Wall Street tax cuts to make the Blue Dog/New Dem squishes tremble.
Well, Nancy Pelosi found a work around:
Brace yourself for some procedural jargon: Dems once believed they were faced with two mixed options for holding this vote. The first was to hold an up-or-down vote under the normal rules. But that would give Republicans the opportunity to introduce what’s known as a motion to recommit — a procedural right of the minority that would have allowed them to tack an extension of tax cuts for high-income earners on to the legislation.
The second option — suspending the rules — would have foreclosed on that right, but would have required a two-thirds majority of the House for passage: 290 votes, an impossible hurdle.
But Democrats figured out a way to avoid this. They’re attaching their tax cut plan as an amendment to a separate bill [the Airport and Airway Extension Act, to wit]. That legislation already passed the House, and has just been returned from the Senate. The rules say it can’t be recommitted. So the GOP’s hands are tied.
You can blame Obama for the election debacle. You can blame Harry Reid. Don’t blame Nancy Pelosi.
She knows what she has to do, and she does it.
Democrats were savaged because they were perceived as being unable to deliver, but Nancy Pelosi was not a part of that problem, she was just the victim.
Why Reaching Across the Aisle is a Stupid Idea
Arizona Republican John Kyle has announced that he will not allow a vote on the START treaty unless the Democrats capitulate on tax cuts for people making more than $¼ million a year.
I am not disappointed by Kyle, I expect this behavior from post-Reagan Republicans. What does disappoint me is the behavior of Barack Obama, who continues to think that he can dazzle them with his awesomeness and reach across the aisle.
As my brother notes, “Since being ‘nice’ doesn’t work, a sane course might include not being nice….“
Signs of the Apocalypse, Steny Hoyer Showing Guts Edition
You got that right, Steny fracking Hoyer is finding a damn backbone:
Steny Hoyer, the number two in the House Dem leadership, told Democrats at a caucus meeting this morning that they would get to vote this year on just extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, a senior Dem aide tells me, signaling support for a confrontational move towards the GOP that liberals have been pushing.
Asked if Democrats would definitely get a chance to hold this vote, the senior aide responded: “Definitely.”
Hoyer’s declaration comes as Democrats have been debating the way forward on the Bush tax cuts, and another aide tells me that “more than half” of the Dem caucus supports this course of action.
I approve, but I wonder just who the hell had Steny’s testicles, and why they decided to give it back to him.
Raising taxes on people making more than a ¼ of a million dollars a year is excellent policy, and excellent politics, so it surprises me that Democrats are even thinking about doing this.
Doubtless, they will find a way to screw this up, and I’m sure that Heath Shuler will be leading the way, but I’m still getting a heavy duty umbrella, just in case it starts to rain frogs.
Oh For F%$#’s Sake, Pick a F%$#ing Fight!
In the face of what are likely to be very large legislative losses tomorrow, the Obama administration is busy trying to find more ways to capitulate to Republicans in the vain hope that they will be nice:
With Republicans poised to gain ground in Tuesday’s elections, the White House is losing hope that Congress will approve its plan to raise taxes on the nation’s wealthiest families and is increasingly focusing on a new strategy that would preserve tax breaks for both the wealthy and the middle class.
According to people familiar with talks at the White House and among senior Democrats on Capitol Hill, breaking apart the Bush administration tax cuts is now being discussed as a more realistic goal. That strategy calls for permanent extension of cuts that benefit families earning less than $250,000 a year, and temporary extension of cuts on income above that amount.
The move would “decouple” the two sets of provisions, Democrats said, and focus the debate when tax cuts for the rich expired next year or the year after. Republicans would be forced to defend carve-outs for a tiny minority populated by millionaires, an unpopular position that would be difficult to advance without the cover of a broad-based tax cut for everyone, aides in both parties said.
“The concept of ‘decoupling’ is a hot topic right now,” said one senior Democratic aide.
And the Republicans will demand permanent tax cuts for the rich pigs, including the near total elimination of the inheritance tax, unless I miss my guess.
How many f%$#ing times do you have to lead with a compromise, and get a “no” before you realize that you cannot negotiate with the barbarians at the gate?
You want to pick a fight because you can, and because raising taxes on people making more than $¼ million a year is both good politics and good policy.
It allows you to set the agenda, choose the time and place of conflict, and it mobilizes your base.
This, “Can’t we all just get along/Kumbayah” crap has ill served the Obama administration, the Democratic Party, and the whole country.
Not Enough Bullets
So, once again, Congress refuses to act, so billionaire hedge fund managers can continue to pay less in taxes than the janitors who clean their offices:
Once again a key piece of news has passed virtually without comment.
While the entire nation argues over nonsense like the WTC Mosque, Rick Sanchez, and, yes, blue-red culture war stuff like the Tea Party, congress yesterday quietly took a knee on the “carried interest” tax question. In doing so they decided not to take a vote on changes already approved by both houses that would scale back perhaps the most preposterous tax break in the entire federal code, one that leaves hedge-fund gazillionaires like Stevie Cohen and John Paulson paying less than half the top tax rate paid by most middle and upper-middle class Americans.
In case you don’t recognize the writing style, it’s Matt Taibbi, and I suggest that you read the whole article, because he communicates the disgust that I feel far more cogently that I ever could.
And the Stupid Motherf%$#ers Never Even Tried to Make it a Campaign Issue
So a measure to repeal tax subsidies to ship jobs overseas failed in the face of a Republican filibuster:
As expected, a Senate bill designed to end tax breaks for U.S. companies that move jobs and manufacturing plants overseas failed a key test vote Tuesday.
With a 53-45 vote, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic efforts to end debate and ultimately vote on a “jobs” bill.
Top Democrats have claimed the bill would help keep American jobs from going overseas. But when it came to the test vote, four Democrats voted with Republicans to block the bill.
Here is the kicker:
The bill came out of nowhere last week and wasn’t discussed or debated, as a package, by any of the Senate’s committees. It would have given companies a break on payroll taxes for new U.S. jobs that replace positions that had been based overseas.
It’s a f%$#ing election year, and you weren’t using this as a club to beat Republicans over the head with on a daily basis for weeks?
Are these motherf%$#ers trying to lose the election?
Actually, considering the video evidence, the answer to that is probably yes.
Cowardly Conservadems Cause Tax Cut Catastrophe
What Cee Lo Green Said (NSFW)
So, put a fork in it, the Democrats won’t be voting on middle class tax cuts, because the conservadems are unwilling to support the idea:
Obama wanted a vote on his proposed extension of some of the tax cuts before lawmakers returned to the campaign trail for the November 2 elections, in part to reinforce Democratic support for pocketbook issues.
Democratic strategists have been divided over whether it’s politically beneficial to push for a vote on the tax cuts now, citing their candidates from conservative states in tough re-election battles who would have to defend the resulting increase in the tax rate on wealthy Americans to previous levels.
Of course, voting on this would have put the Republicans on the defensive, by forcing them to vote against middle class tax cuts, the the conservadem/Blue Dog types are so terrified of Republicans that they are shooting themselves in the foot.
Bad policy and bad politics.
Truth be told, I’m for letting it all expire, and then increasing taxes on the very rich (94% sounds good), but still it is remarkably how Dems can pull defeat from the jaws of victory.
Take it away Cee Lo.
This Isn’t Just Because Heath Shuler has Always Been an Over Paid Under-Performing Punk*
But I really want every seat lost by the Dems this election cycle to come from the Blue Dog Democrats.
The Blue Dogs and other conservative are trying to prevent a vote on extending the tax breaks for people making less than $¼ million a year because they pants wetting cowards, and are afraid that Republicans will say something bad about them, and are busy on their knees to their wealthy donors.
They want their tax cuts for the rich, even though it is ruinously bad policy, and even worse politics, because they are hopeless wimps.
*He was a first round draft pick for the Washington Redskins, and turned out to be, according to ESPN, the the 4th biggest NFL Draft bust of all time, as well as being the whip for the Blue Dog Caucus in the House of Representations.
The Next Chapter of the Airbus/Boeing Pissing Contest
And it does not involve the tanker.
The WTO, after ruling that Airbus was the recipient of illegal state subsidies, has now ruled that Boeing has also received billions of dollars in illegal state subsidies:
The long-running trans-Atlantic spat over government support of the world’s two biggest aircraft makers gained fresh momentum on Wednesday as a trade panel found that Boeing had received subsidies that violated global trade rules, people briefed on the decision said.
American lawmakers said on Wednesday that the subsidies, $5 billion from federal and state agencies, were just a fraction of the $24 billion that Europe had alleged and were far less sweeping than the benefits its rival, Airbus, had received.
But European leaders said that the finding, by a panel of the World Trade Organization, showed that the United States had also relied on subsidies in the fight for plane sales, and that the ruling would help prompt negotiations to resolve the problems.
What is interesting here is that they cite the military contracts that Boeing gets, but also the tax abatements with the WTO board determining that, “Boeing had received subsidies through some of the research contracts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Pentagon, as well as through tax incentives linked to its facilities in Washington State, Kansas and Illinois.” (emphasis mine)
This is about more than just the Airbus/Boeing subsidies. The WTO just ruled that the shakedowns that business inflict on communities by way of tax breaks are illegal subsidies under the current international trade regime..
This is a good thing.
I’d like to see Congress to find a way to ban this little bit of corporate pay-to play.
IRS Investigates Chamber of Commerce for Tax Fraud
The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether or not, “the group mixed funds for charitable and noncharitable political purposes in violation of tax codes.”
It’s pretty clear that most of the 501(c)3s that are attached to lobbying groups have nothing to do with what should be educational purposes:
Cyrus Mehri, a Washington lawyer who brought the I.R.S. complaint on behalf of U.S. Chamber Watch, said in an interview that the chamber’s current political activities were, in effect, being underwritten with money intended for charitable work.
The complaint focuses on loans and grants totaling about $18 million that were made beginning in 2003 to a nonprofit affiliate, the National Chamber Foundation, by the Starr Foundation, a charity started by the founder of A.I.G. and now led by Maurice R. Greenberg, the insurer’s former chairman.
Lawyers for Chamber Watch said their research, based largely on public tax filings, found that none of the principal on some $12 million in loans had been paid back and that the money appeared to have been given to the chamber’s foundation for unrestricted use.
This actually strikes close to home for me, as I actually incorporated a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization, Arisia, and while I don’t regret doing so, it got the organization a lower postal rate in its early, pre everyone-has-email, days, which helped a lot.
That being said, it’s a group that basically holds a science fiction convention every year, and the fact that it was legal to register as a tax exempt educational organization, as opposed to a non-profit membership organization, a 501(c)7 where contributions are not tax deductible, still bothers me.
There is a lot of abuse in the tax exempt organization regulations, whether it is science fiction conventions generally, the Chamber of Commerce’s faux charity, or the various think tanks out there, and it really needs to be fixed.
SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY
The Democrats, Again, of course.
After Boehner’s surprise statement, it looks like the Obama White House is trying to take advantage of this, and paint the Republicans with the “Daddy Warbucks” brush and splinter the Republican caucus, which is good, but a aide for the House leadership just said that the house will not vote on the tax cuts, which is significant because the Constitution says that tax bills have to start with the house.
My guess is that this is someone Steny Hoyer’s office, who is attempting to suck up to the Blue Dog types, who are trying to insist on tax cuts for the big donors.
And on the Senate, we have the preening sociopath narcissists Ben Nelson says that he might support a filibuster, while Mr. “That contemptible rat-f%$# who isn’t with us on everything but the war” Joe Lieberman both saying that he will support a filibuster.
What is good politics and good policy right now is for Barack Obama to say that he will veto any bill that grants tax breaks to people making more than a $¼ million.
It would be useful to show that Obama can draw a line in the sand, because at this point, no one believes that he can.
Boehner Blinks
After threatening to take down any tax proposal that did not keep the tax breaks for the Leona “Only the little people pay taxes” Helmsley rich folk, David “Nicotine Stained Face” Boehner has agreed to support tax cuts for the remaining 98% of us.
I think that this is really a change in tactics: He knows that he cannot stop the tax cuts from expiring in the House, and that there is a realistic chance of taking the house, so he will go with the electoral politics that show that over ⅔ of voters support letting the “rich bitch” tax cuts expire, so he will let the Senate, where the chances of a Republican take over are smaller, filibuster this to death.
My response to both of them would be to remind them that the inheritance tax goes way up next year if nothing is done, and if something reasonable does not get through the Congress, then there all the taxes come back full force, but of course, I’m not being all hopey-changey and attempting bipartisanship.
Personally, I’d take the top rate, cutting at somewhere north of 10 million a year, back to around 94%, but then again, I’m just a DFH.*
*Dirty F%$#ing Hippy.
Obama Calls for Weak Tea, and Cedes Ground to the Right Wing
So now, instead of trying for something that works to reduce unemployment, Obama is calling for a modest public works program, $50 Billion over 6 years, significantly less than what we are flushing down the toilet on the unnecessary F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.*
What’s more, once again, he throws a bargaining chip to the Republicans, who have shown their unwillingness to negotiate in good faith, by also proposing that the R&D tax credit be extended and made permanent.
Once again, when trying to put forward even the most modest proposal, he kneecaps himself by taking what could have been used as a lever to derive support, and handing it to his enemies so that they can use it as a cudgel against him.
Week tea, constructed to make it even weaker, once again.
*This is not meant to be a commentary on the capabilities of the F-35, simply a statement that these capabilities are simply not necessary in current of foreseeable future conflicts, and the same goes for the F-22, so please don’t make this a Raptor/Lightning II pissing contest.