Voodoo Tax Sophistry

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...

Clinton vs. Reagan and Bush: Just the numbers
Take a look at the difference between the Clinton years and both the Reagan and George W. Bush years when it comes to economic performance. Under Clinton's policies, not only did every single income group do better than they did under either Reagan's or Bush's policies, the growth was more even. The growth gap between the bottom quintile and the top 5% is particularly striking. Under Clinton, the bottom quintile grew almost as much as the top 5%. Under Reagan, it grew by barely more than a thir...

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...

Nancy Pelosi: A Ruler of Fools
Nancy Pelosi doesn't have much longer as Speaker of the House. But if there's one constant in our ever-changing world, it's that Pelosi will remain unconscionable until the gavel is wrested from her hand. During a recent Speech on the House floor, she expressed opinions about Unemployment Insurance and tax policy that seem irrational even for her. Pelosi supports extending Unemployment Insurance beyond the current 99-week limit. To substantiate her position, she touted Unemployment Benefits as a...

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...

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...

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...

Tom McClintock speaks to Congress on tax relief
I commend the Senate for passing the tax relief measure yesterday, and I hope that the House passes it today. According to the CBO, this bill comprises $136 billion in additional spending and $721 billion in tax relief. That means fifteen percent of this bill is spending – the other 85 percent is tax relief: No across the board increase in Income Tax rates next year. No AMT biting deeper into middle class families. A Death Tax that’s a third less of what it would otherwise have been ...

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...

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 ...

Down The Road To Decline
Congress Sends $801 Billion Tax Cut Bill to Obama and he signs it. Well what does the man who sold us Supply Side Economics over 30 years ago think of it? Not Much! You will notice that while he blames the politicians he blames the FED and Wall Street even more. The FED has engineered a serial bubble that has created the illusion of wealth by encouraging the Wall Street casino. He says that the original Bush Tax Cuts were a 10 billion dollar mistake and extending them will make it worth. And ab...

Down The Road To Decline
Commentary By Ron Beasley Congress Sends $801 Billion Tax Cut Bill to Obama and he signs it.  Well what does the man who sold us Supply Side Economics over 30 years ago think of it?  Not Much! You will notice that while he blames the politicians he blames the FED and Wall Street even more.   The FED has engineered a serial bubble that has created the illusion of wealth by encouraging the Wall Street casino.  He says that the original Bush Tax Cuts were a 10 billio...

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...

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...

President Obama signs tax deal, accompanied by GOP leader
WASHINGTON — With an end-of-year deadline bearing down on them both, President Barack Obama and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell put auld acquaintance behind them on Friday, standing before television cameras together as their sweeping Tax Cut Compromise became law. The president’s signature on the bill means the George W. Bush tax cuts will continue for two years, rather than expiring at midnight on New Year’s Eve under the old law. But whether the moment foretells a s...

New tax Law: What it means for you
The new tax law signed by President Barack Obama Friday will spare millions of Americans from a big Tax Increase on Jan. 1. It also includes a new cut in Social Security Payroll taxes next year. A look at how typical Taxpayers will fare in 2011: ------ Taxpayer: A single person with no Children, making $50,000 a year in wages. The taxpayer rents an apartment and pays $3,500 in college expenses. Tax bill without the law: $9,255. Tax bill with the law: $5,975. Savings: $3,280. Why: Income taxes w...

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...

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...

Obama salutes spirit of compromise, signs tax bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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’...

Obama salutes spirit of compromise, signs tax bill
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. Declared Obama: "We are...

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...

Last Call
And here's President Obama's reward for working with the Republicans on that Tax Cut deal. The $858 billion tax deal approved by Congress Thursday is "all candy and no spinach," but at least it shows that President Barack Obama and Republicans can cooperate on fiscal issues. But their new detente will be tested early next year when the Budget Deficit looms larger on the political landscape. Analysts are skeptical this week's pact can be leveraged into a broad deficit-cutting program, and fear th...

Controversial tax measure signed
WASHINGTON — President Obama signed into law a huge, holiday-season tax measure extending cuts for most 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 New Year's Day. "We are here with som...

US tax deal, budget feud set stage for 2011 cuts
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. To nations suffering Austerity, it must seem as if Washington has gone mad. First, the U.S. Congress fails to agree on a 2011 Budget. Then lawmakers overwhelmingly pass another giant stimulus. But both events actually hint at some chance of more disciplined fiscal action next year. President Barack Obama will quickly sign the $858 billion stimulus/Tax Cut bill that funds Unemployment Benefits for 13 months and...