Obama's cynical sequester strategy

foxnews

By Peter Morici 

President Obama has taken the middle class hostage in a thinly veiled bid to hike their taxes.

Having refused to work with Congress to reduce spending by $1.2 trillion over ten years, as he agreed to do when drafting the Budget Act of 2011, the president must now implement $85 billion in across-the-board cuts to defense and non-entitlement government spending.

House Republicans have offered to ease the burdens on the public—by increasing administration flexibility in implementing those cuts in the continuing resolution to keep the government funded past March 27—but the president wants no part of that.

Mr. Obama talks like President Truman but taxes like King George.

Instead, he is campaigning across the country, painting the dire consequences sequestration will impose on all of America if new taxes are not imposed on the wealthy. That is a cynical ploy—Mr. Obama talks like President Truman but taxes like King George.

Taxes imposed at his insistence on January 1 have eliminated 80 percent of the benefits of tax deductions—mortgage interest, state income taxes, local property levies, and the like—for wealthier households. Any substantial gains from further tightening deductions, as President Obama proposes, must come from similarly limiting their use by middle-class taxpayers.

Already, by hiking payroll taxes, the majority of $150 billion in additional revenue obtained on January 1 was extracted from the working poor and middle class families, and federal revenues share of GDP will now substantially exceed its average for the last 40 years.

President Obama is also unwilling to acknowledge government spending is completely out of control. Over the last five years, outlays are up by $1 trillion—three times the amount required by inflation—and tax revenues are short because high rates and burdensome regulations are choking economic growth and jobs creation.

Instead, the president threatens America with the dire scenario of furloughed meat inspectors, food shortages and streets without police. His cabinet secretaries threaten three hour waits in airport security lines, reduced embassy protection and border patrols. The list goes on and on.

Appropriation legislation does limit President Obama’s ability to allocate the cuts among departments. However, even without additional legislation, he has considerable discretion in allocating the 10 percent spending cuts within departments, but he has refused to entertain options that would limit the pain in his pursuit of higher taxes.

For example, the Agriculture Department has one of the largest staffs of economists in the world—surely, safe food is more important than yet another dull research paper. Military bands could also stand down to maintain Marine guards at embassies.

Repeatedly, President Obama has proclaimed that if Congressional Republicans don’t cooperate, spending cuts now could derail our hard won economic recovery. It puzzles why he believes $85 billion in spending cuts could make such a difference, when avoiding those cuts through higher taxes would not.

Whether a second recession occurs is already baked in the cake. Mr. Obama’s $150 billion January tax hikes, and similar rate increases imposed by Democratic governors from Maryland to California, have forced consumers to trim purchases. Retailers and wholesalers are reporting weaker sales traffic and are trimming inventories. Corporate leaders have announced plans to cut new investments and hiring owing to weak demand and more burdensome health care costs and regulations.

When Americans can’t get hamburger at the supermarket and unemployment rises this spring, President Obama will place the blame squarely on Republicans for permitting sequestration, but it is the American people who will bear the burden of his inflexibility, his disregard for the facts and his neglect in undertaking the responsibilities of his office.

Peter Morici is an economist and professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, and widely published columnist.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/02/26/obama-cynical-sequester-strategy/#ixzz2M1rKjgE7

Get 'off your ass': Boehner blasts Senate Democrats

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

firstread

By Carrie Dann, NBC News

House Speaker John Boehner addresses the ongoing sequester standoff on Capitol Hill.

Echoing the frustration of lawmakers throughout Washington hoping for a last-minute swerve to avoid impending budget cuts, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, used some PG-13 phraseology Tuesday to urge the Senate to action. "We have moved a bill in the House twice," Boehner said at a press conference Tuesday. "We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something." The refrain of urging Senate action comes from Boehner just four days before the sequestration cuts are slated to kick in. President Barack Obama will travel to Newport News, Va. this afternoon to highlight the cuts' effect on the region's shipbuilding community. He will be joined by the area's Rep. Scott Rigell, a Republican. The White House's road trips to warn of the sequester's impact have drawn criticism from foes. "He has traveled over 5000 miles the last two weeks, and we challenge him travel a mile and half and come to Capitol Hill," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers of Washington on Tuesday. "Sit down with Harry Reid and urge the Senate Democrats to take action."

Boehner said Obama's event this afternoon will reduce the nation's military to a campaign "prop."
"I don't think the president is focused on finding a solution to the sequester," he said. "The president has been traveling all over the country, today by going down to Newport News in order to use our military men and women as a prop in yet another campaign rally to support his tax hikes."

Washington's sequester standoff drags on: 'Mr. President, you got your tax increase'

By Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News

The nation’s capital was enveloped in a familiar kind of gridlock late Monday, as Republicans again demanded that President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats act first to put off $85 billion in automatic cuts slated to take effect on Friday.

“The president says we have to have another tax increase to avoid the sequester,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said of the hefty and indiscriminate spending cuts. “Well, Mr. President, you got your tax increase. It's time to cut spending.”

Related: Obama to govs: Push Congress to avert cuts

As Congress returned to work following a weeklong recess, the Obama administration and lawmakers appeared no closer to resolving the automatic spending cuts before their Friday deadline. While both Democrats and Republicans bemoan the cuts as potentially catastrophic for the economy and the national defense, both sides have been locked in a virtual staring match over the sequester.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More on firstread >>

The truth about Obama's tax fake out

By Liz Peek 

editorial.equities.com

Americans must be confused. For years President Obama has promised that raising taxes on the wealthy would solve our budget problems. Making the rich pay “a little more,” as Mr. Obama has repeatedly promised, was supposed to reduce our deficits – a goal embraced by most Americans. 

But now the president has signed a bill which finally raises taxes on the wealthiest Americans -- and it turns out we will continue to rack up deficits for the foreseeable future. In fact, the plan adds $329 billion to this year’s deficit alone. 

Further out, this agreement will do almost nothing to slow the dangerous erosion of our nation’s financial strength;  projected ten-year deficits of $7.9 trillion will be whittled down by $650 billion as the wealthy, by the way, pay not “a little more,” but quite a lot more.

Astonishingly, the one approach that might actually move the needle in the right direction – boosting economic growth – is hardly mentioned by the Obama White House.

On top of a hike in rates from 35% to 39.6%, the wealthy will also see deductions phased out, will be paying new surtaxes on investment income to fund ObamaCare and Medicare as well as higher rates on investment income. In addition, several states, including California, have passed new taxes on those in the top income brackets. 

In a still-struggling economy, this approach may make sense, in that no other group can afford higher taxes. But, raising taxes on any Americans could carry hidden penalties; our highest-earners normally account for some 40% of consumer spending but in this slow-growth period, that slice has expanded to about 50%.  

Jacking up taxes on the rich risks further undermining our tepid recovery. Indeed, early indications suggest that the threat of higher taxes caused the wealthy to cut back on holiday spending, leading to a lackluster retail season.

Voters may also be mystified that President Obama, who as recently as New Year’s Eve reiterated his commitment to a “balanced” approach to reducing our deficits, has signed a bill that cuts spending by $15 billion, while boosting tax revenues by $620 billion. That ratio of 44:1 tax hikes to spending cuts doesn’t sound very balanced.

Equally puzzling, President Obama pledged to prevent a tax increase on most Americans. But – surprise - surprise - the Tax Policy Center reports that 77% of U.S. households will pay higher taxes this year, thanks to the expiration of the two percentage-point payroll tax holiday.

Hard pressed, voters might wonder about other claims made recently by their president. For instance, he has on numerous occasions boasted that he has cut spending. And yet, for the first two months of this year, federal spending jumped a whopping 16%. Even adjusted for some timing issues, spending was 4% higher for October and November than it was last year – and still growing considerably in excess of inflation. 

Note to voters: Obama’s “cuts” are always made from a hypothetical spending line which points inexorably north. It’s a little like the wife who claims to have saved her husband money by buying three new handbags, instead of four.

Americans are still waiting for President Obama to take up the harder challenge of trimming so-called “entitlement” programs, which claimed 62% of the federal budget in fiscal 2012. As he campaigned for office in 2008, Mr. Obama pledged to “take up entitlement reform quickly”  -- certainly in his first term in office. 

In 2009, he explained this necessity, saying that the “real problem with our long-term deficit actually has to do with our entitlement obligations.” 

He’s right. Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare alone now account for 44% of all federal spending. When ObamaCare is added in, the four programs will sap about 18.5% of GDP by 2050, according to the Heritage Foundation – or roughly the same portion historically claimed by all government functions.  That is, every other spending need, from defense to education, will be paid for with borrowed money. (Some analysts project this will occur by as soon as 2025.)

Entitlement spending has more than doubled in the past two decades, driving deficits higher. Here’s why: the Urban Institute reports that a couple in which both people earn an average wage will pay $116,000 in Medicare taxes over their lifetime, and receive $351,000 in payments. As the country ages, this is a seriously losing proposition for the nation. For the individuals receiving those benefits, it’s heaven-sent.

During the election, we were supposed to debate this problem. The nomination of budget savant Paul Ryan as the GOP vice presidential candidate was meant to thrust the issue to the forefront; instead, both Republicans and Democrats found entitlement reform simply too toxic, and it was dropped, along with Paul Ryan.

The country should now look towards President Obama for leadership in setting our country on a sustainable course. He must re-up his earlier pledge “to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office.” It is clear that raising taxes on the rich will not alone do the trick. 

Astonishingly, the one approach that might actually move the needle in the right direction – boosting economic growth – is hardly mentioned. This White House discredits the potential power of the private sector unleashed; that has been, and will continue to be, President Obama’s greatest handicap. It is also the number one reason that voters made a terrible choice this past November.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/04/truth-about-obama-tax-fake-out/#ixzz2IjCxQOLU

Millions notice pay hit after payroll tax hike

Read on foxnews >>

NeoKaxtrizmo en Accion: Comienza proceso de Declaración Jurada

el general subcastro en su laberinto trata de esquilmar al kubiche que, en tiempos de choteo y sindrome del neokaxtrizmo, hara como que le paga. cuando un dia un estado responsable requiera la contribucion de sus ciudadanos, el bonche que ahora comienza sera el origen de la evasion y el fraude fiscal. 

----------------------- 

elmundo.es

trabajadores

Con un llamado a la disciplina fiscal comenzó el 3 de enero último el proceso de Declaración Jurada (DJ) del impuesto sobre ingresos personales y pago anual de tributos en las oficinas de la Administración Tributaria del país, excepto en las provincias de Holguín, Santiago de Cuba y Guantánamo, que lo emprenderán a partir del próximo día 14, debido a las afectaciones provocadas por el huracán Sandy en esas regiones orientales.

Según Belkis Pino Hernández, directora nacional de Atención al Contribuyente, se ha extendido la liquidación del impuesto sobre ingresos personales hasta el 30 de abril, e indicó que los contribuyentes que declaren y entreguen antes del 28 de febrero tendrán derecho a una bonificación del 5 %, establecida desde el 2012.

De igual modo, el cobro del impuesto sobre el transporte terrestre se extenderá hasta el 30 de septiembre y tiene un beneficio fiscal del 20 % para los que paguen en los dos primeros meses del año.

Pino resaltó que se han realizado varias acciones con instituciones bancarias y la Empresa de Correos de Cuba para garantizar que el proceso marche adecuadamente y los contribuyentes realicen sus pagos en el término establecido.

Según Esperanza Recio Socarrás, vicejefa de la ONAT, entre los cambios futuros está la adopción de nuevos modelos de DJ que se atemperen con la No.113 del sistema tributario y sean más sencillos para los contribuyentes.

Llamó la atención sobre la importancia de que las empresas liquiden también el impuesto sobre las utilidades, pues de lo contrario pueden verse afectados sus resultados.

“Cumplir con la Declaración Jurada es un deber hacia toda la sociedad, pues esa recaudación sirve para enfrentar los gastos de sectores como la educación, la salud pública, el deporte y la cultura.

Es importante que los contribuyentes realicen el pago de la manera establecida para evitar recargos y multas”, concluyó Pino.

Obama Supporters Shocked, Angry at New Tax Increases

foxnews

AP Photo

(WASHINGTON TIMES) Sometimes, watching a Democrat learn something is wonderful, like seeing the family dog finally sit and stay at your command.

With President Obama back in office and his life-saving “fiscal cliff” bill jammed through Congress, the new year has brought a surprising turn of events for his sycophantic supporters.

“What happened that my Social Security withholding’s in my paycheck just went up?” a poster wrote on the liberal site DemocraticUnderground.com. “My paycheck just went down by an amount that I don’t feel comfortable with. I guarantee this decrease is gonna’ hurt me more than the increase in income taxes will hurt those making over 400 grand. What happened?”

Shocker. Democrats who supported the president’s re-election just had NO idea that his steadfast pledge to raise taxes meant that he was really going to raise taxes. They thought he planned to just hit those filthy “1 percenters,” you know, the ones who earned fortunes through their inventiveness and hard work. They thought the free ride would continue forever.

So this week, as taxes went up for millions of Americans — which Republicans predicted throughout the campaign would happen — it was fun to watch the agoggery of the left.

“I know to expect between $93 and $94 less in my paycheck on the 15th,” wrote the ironically named “RomneyLies.”

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/taxes/2013/01/07/obama-supporters-shocked-angry-new-tax-increases?cmpid=NL_FiredUpFoxNation#ixzz2HJkgfby2

New year, new costs for Canadians

GlobalToronto

Fiscal Heroes and Zeroes

huffingtonpost.ca

Jan. 2, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government, a non-partisan group dedicated to limiting the size and scope of government at all levels, blasted members of Congress who voted in favor of the tax increase measure that passed both the Senate and House of Representatives on New Year's Day.

Bill Wilson, president of the group denounced the law saying, "This so-called 'deal' is typical Washington, D.C., laden with pork including a subsidy for Obama's Hollywood buddies and even NASCAR, while increasing taxes on every working American. Incredibly the law will be classified as a tax cut because it passed after the Bush tax cuts expired, so in D.C. doublespeak, politicians will claim to have cut taxes when everyone's taxes are actually going up."

An initial analysis of the legislation utilizing estimates from the Joint Committee on Taxation conducted by ALG showed that while the tax increases on those making more than $400,000 a year will generate approximately $30 billion in revenues a year, the cost of servicing the projected increased federal debt of $1.2 trillion will actually eat away about 88 cents of every new dollar raised.

"By avoiding actually dealing with Washington's spending addiction, they have raised taxes to do little more than pay the increased interest on the debt over the next year. Meanwhile, the head-in-the-sand types on Capitol Hill will be clamoring to spend this 'new money' on their favored special interests. We are truly through the looking glass."

View online here: http://getliberty.org/fiscal-heroes-and-zeroes/ >>

Norquist: Cliff Deal ‘Technically’ a Tax Cut

Newsmax

dailymail.co.uk

By Stephen Feller/

Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist said in an interview Tuesday that the fiscal cliff deal to keep most Americans’ taxes from increasing is “technically” a tax cut and does not violate the anti-tax increase pledge most Republicans in Congress have signed.

Norquist also told CNN's Anderson Cooper that when budget cuts to replace the blanket sequester of the cliff are discussed during the first two months of the year that there is room in the Pentagon budget to increase efficiency and cut waste.

“It’s technically not a violation of the pledge,” he said, adding “but I understand why a lot of Republicans said, ‘look, even though what’s happening is the tax cuts disappear, we’re restoring them for most people. So we’re not raising taxes, we’re actually cutting taxes.’”

Most Republicans in Congress have signed the pledge to voters not to raise taxes during their first campaigns for office, and it is seen as a significant promise to their constituents which they work to keep at every turn.

“They need to be able to say with a straight face that they fought to protect those tax cuts for everybody, and all the Republicans in the House have done that more than once,” Norquist said. “They’re fighting to oppose any and all tax increases.”

With a deal on the cuts reached, Norquist said that when Congress begins to look at the budget, they need to look at everything — including the sprawling Pentagon section which takes up a large portion of it.

He said that while the country must have a strong military to “make sure nobody can throw a punch at us successfully,” there are things to look at. Pensions and decisions on contracting are two significant ones, he said.

“Serious conservatives need to declare that they, that taxpayers, are looking at the entire budget and saying, ‘where can we be more efficient and more effective?’ We have a rather large Pentagon budget, larger than most of the other countries in the world that have armies, navies, and air forces combined,” Norquist said.

“Part of a strong America is to not have this massive spending that we’ve been having.”

Norquist said that the reason compromise on the cliff has been so difficult is because the Democratic and Republican parties are looking to move in opposite directions. “If somebody wants to go east, and somebody wants to go west, what would a compromise be? I’m in favor of compromising in the direction of liberty,” he said.

“The Democrats have an expansive view of the role of government,” he said. “They want higher taxes in order to spend more money. The Republicans want lower taxes and spending less money... We had a compromise in 2011. Republicans wanted to cut spending by $6 trillion — the Ryan plan — and we agreed to $2.5 trillion in spending cuts. That was a compromise.”

“We wanted more spending [cuts], we got less, because Obama wouldn’t support more spending reduction. So, you can have compromise in the direction of liberty, but raising taxes and spending more money, which is what Obama wants to do, is moving away from liberty. That’s not compromising for the American people. That’s losing.”

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36 Millionaire Audits Turn Up $47 Million in Unpaid Taxes

MidweekPolitics

The tax man cometh to Cuba

but nobody complaims

Fiscal Cliff Showdown Postponed to March

Frontpagemag

Matthew Vadum

With a cocky President Obama no doubt grinning from ear-to-ear, federal lawmakers yesterday gave their blessing to legislation that boosts income tax rates and government spending while kicking many of the “fiscal cliff” issues down the road for several weeks.

The $1.2 trillion in scheduled spending cuts –falling largely on the Pentagon– have now been officially postponed for two months. The next manufactured crisis comes March 1, the day the cuts will take effect unless Congress intervenes again to stop them.

Putting off dire problems for another day is now becoming routine in Washington, D.C., commentator Jim Antle opined on Twitter. “We have reached the point where temporarily averting self-inflicted disasters at the last second is a political success.”

The Obama-approved fiscal-disaster procrastination bill received final congressional approval in the House last night with relatively little Republican support after a prolonged fight during a long lame duck session of the outgoing Congress. Obama and Democrats got almost everything they wanted, as many Republicans dropped their long-standing opposition to income tax rate increases. Now Obama comes across to many low-information voters as a kind of champion of the middle class, and Republicans, whom the media would have painted as villains no matter what the fiscal cliff outcome, look like stubborn obstructionists who had to be forced to do the supposedly right thing.

By insisting on tax hikes only for the wealthy, President Obama skillfully played Republicans off against each other, launching what some are now calling a civil war within the Grand Old Party. Republicans were afraid of being blamed by the public for allowing taxes to rise if Bush-era tax rates, which expired Dec. 31, were not extended, so they held their noses and gave Obama largely what he wanted.

Charles Krauthammer called the measure a “complete rout for Democrats.” Many House conservatives “hate the bill for good reason … This is a complete surrender on everything.”

Bill Kristol called the bill a mess that was “ridiculous in too many ways to count” but urged House Republicans to vote for it anyway to get the issue behind them. “The two month delay of the sequester [i.e. spending cuts] will make actual governance even more difficult (how is the Pentagon supposed to plan for the rest of the year?) … And we will face another cliff when we hit the debt ceiling and the sequester again in two months.”

The stage is now set for the approaching battle over out-of-control federal spending. The bill passed Congress hours after the U.S. government bumped up against the limit on federal borrowing. In theory the government could default on its debts two months from now if the debt ceiling is not raised further.

The national debt is now about $16.4 trillion, up from $10.6 trillion on Inauguration Day 2009. But that $16.4 trillion figure is misleading. Government accounting tricks keep another $86.8 trillion in unfunded liabilities related to Medicare, Social Security, and federal employees’ future retirement benefits off the books and out of the public eye. The two figures added together produce the unimaginably large sum of $103 trillion. The U.S. government’s bond rating has been downgraded already and many more downgrades are on the horizon.

It is worth noting that the bill passed last night only because House Democrats supported it.

The measure was approved in a House vote of 257 to 167 after GOP leaders decided not to insist on government spending cuts. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) voted for the package, breaking with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) who voted against it.

In total 85 Republicans voted for the bill and 151 voted no. On the Democratic side there were 172 votes in favor and 16 against.

After going against most of the House Republican conference on such a critical matter, Boehner’s speakership may be in jeopardy. Some conservatives are pressing GOP lawmakers not to reelect Boehner as Speaker when the new 113th Congress convenes on January 3.

American Majority Action spokesman Ron Meyer told Breitbart News late yesterday that enough House Republicans have come together together in an effort to take Boehner’s gavel away. To be considered elected, a candidate for Speaker must receive a majority of the votes.

“At least 20 House Republican members have gotten together, discussed this and want to unseat Speaker Boehner–and are willing to do what it takes to do it,” Meyer said. “That’s more than enough to get the job done, but the one problem these guys face is they need a leader to coalesce behind.” Early discussion on a possible Boehner challenger has centered on House Majority Leader Cantor.

Before the House took action late yesterday, at 1:39 a.m. the Senate approved the bill by a vote of 89 to 8. The only Republicans to vote against the measure were Charles Grassley (Iowa), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Kentucky), Marco Rubio (Florida), and Richard Shelby (Alabama). (Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Mark Kirk of Illinois didn’t vote.)

Rubio said he couldn’t vote for the bill because he “wanted to be part of solving the long-term problems this country faces. Time and again, we’re given choices here that don’t involve that.”

“The real fiscal cliff is still there,” he said. “We’ll be back here again. In March, we’ll have a showdown like this all over again.”

Many Tea Party-backed Republicans opposed the legislation because it raises taxes without reducing government spending. According to an analysis by Joseph Henchman of the Tax Foundation, the bill raises taxes by $620 billion tax increase while cutting expenditures by a paltry $15 billion. That’s a ratio of $41 in tax increases for every $1 in savings.

While the legislation preserves the lower-income tax brackets from the Bush era permanently, it raises tax rates for joint filers earning $450,000 or more, phases out exemptions for high earners and limits the personal exemptions and itemized deductions they can claim. It also raises payroll taxes for all and discourages investment by raising the capital gains tax and dividends tax for high earners.

On the positive side, the legislation approved by Congress repeals the CLASS Act, a huge unfunded mandate promoted by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) that was part of Obamacare. The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act would have created a new national long-term care insurance system.

Quite apart from the fiscal cliff, yesterday Americans were hit with $1 trillion in new taxes to be fully phased in through 2022 to support the president’s unpopular health care reforms.

Among the new job-killing Obamacare-related levies effective January 1 were: an excise tax on gross sales by medical device makers; a  surtax on investment income for households earning at least $250,000; and an increase in the Medicare payroll tax for married couples earning more than $250,000.

Many more tax increases are likely headed our way in President Obama’s second term in office.

Fiscal cliff deal: House OKs proposal despite GOP objections

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Happy New Year! Democrats’ $1 TRILLION Dollar ObamaCare Tax is Now in Full Force

timeforchoosing

Gary P Jackson

Happy New Year .... suckers!
While most of the country has been focused on the "fiscal cliff" kabuki theater, a new set of taxes have quietly become law. ObamaCare, the most evil piece of legislation yet devised by Congress, raises taxes on all Americans by $1 TRILLION. This doesn't count all of the new taxes the Obama regime wants, and the feckless Senate voted to pass last night.
I blame Chief Justice John Roberts for all of this. Evidently more worried about how the Court would look, rather than keeping to the Constitution, he and he alone, made all of this possible. He was the Republic's last line of defense from such tyranny and failed miserably.
Here are but a few of the taxes you'll now pay:

Obamacare contains twenty new or higher taxes. Five of the taxes hit for the first time on January 1. In total, Americans face a net $1 trillion tax hike for the years 2013-2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The five major Obamacare taxes taking effect on January 1 are as follows:

The Obamacare Medical Device Tax: Medical device manufacturers employ 409,000 people in 12,000 plants across the country. Obamacare imposes a new 2.3 percent excise tax on gross sales – even if the company does not earn a profit in a given year. In addition to killing small business jobs and impacting research and development budgets, this will increase the cost of your health care – making everything from pacemakers to artificial hips more expensive.

The Obamacare Flex Account Tax: The 30-35 million Americans who use a pre-tax Flexible Spending Account (FSA) at work to pay for their family’s basic medical needs will face a new government cap of $2500. This will squeeze $13 billion of tax money from Americans over the next ten years. (Currently, the accounts are unlimited under federal law, though employers are allowed to set a cap.)

There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are several million families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. This Obamacare tax provision will limit the options available to these families.

The Obamacare Surtax on Investment Income: This is a new, 3.8 percentage point surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single). This would result in the following top tax rates on investment income:
.... Capital Gains .... Dividends .... Other ......

2012 .... 15% ............ 15% ........ 35%

2013 forward 23.8% ..... 43.4% ....... 43.4%

The table above also incorporates the scheduled hike in the capital gains rate from 15 to 20 percent, and the scheduled hike in dividends rate from 15 to 39.6 percent.

The Obamacare “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deductions: Currently, those Americans facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). This tax increase imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. By limiting this deduction, Obamacare widens the net of taxable income for the sickest Americans. This tax provision will most harm near retirees and those with modest incomes but high medical bills.

The Obamacare Medicare Payroll Tax Hike: The Medicare payroll tax is currently 2.9 percent on all wages and self-employment profits. Under this tax hike, wages and profits exceeding $200,000 ($250,000 in the case of married couples) will face a 3.8 percent rate instead. This is a direct marginal income tax hike on small business owners, who are liable for self-employment tax in most cases.

Read more here >>

Besides being immoral, ObamaCare will bankrupt many Americans at the very same time Obama and his democrat party are bankrupting America itself. Liberals mean to destroy the United States, tear down her very foundation brick-by-brick. This vile, Un-American legislation puts them well on their way.

Details of Tentative Deal

 

foxnews

WASHINGTON –  Highlights of a tentative agreement Monday between the White House and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., aimed at averting wide tax increases and budget cuts scheduled to take effect in the new year. The measure would raise taxes by about $600 billion over 10 years compared with tax policies that expire at midnight Monday. It would also delay for two months across-the-board spending cuts otherwise set to begin slashing the budgets of the Pentagon and numerous domestic agencies.
   Highlights include:
   --Income tax rates: Extends decade-old tax cuts on incomes up to $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Earnings above those amounts would be taxed at a rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 35 percent. Extends Clinton-era caps on itemized deductions and the phase-out of the personal exemption for individuals making more than $250,000 and couples earning more than $300,000.
   --Estate tax: Estates would be taxed at a top rate of 40 percent, with the first $5 million in value exempted for individual estates and $10 million for family estates. In 2012, such estates were subject to a top rate of 35 percent.
   --Capital gains, dividends: Taxes on capital gains and dividend income exceeding $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families would increase from 15 percent to 20 percent.
   --Alternative minimum tax: Permanently addresses the alternative minimum tax and indexes it for inflation to prevent nearly 30 million middle- and upper-middle income taxpayers from being hit with higher tax bills averaging almost $3,000. The tax was originally designed to ensure that the wealthy did not avoid owing taxes by using loopholes.
   --Other tax changes: Extends for five years Obama-sought expansions of the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, and an up to $2,500 tax credit for college tuition. Also extends for one year accelerated "bonus" depreciation of business investments in new property and equipment, a tax credit for research and development costs and a tax credit for renewable energy such as wind-generated electricity.
   --Unemployment benefits: Extends jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for one year.
   --Cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors: Blocks a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors for one year. The cut is the product of an obsolete 1997 budget formula.
   --Social Security payroll tax cut: Allows a 2 percentage point cut in the payroll tax first enacted two years ago to lapse, which restores the payroll tax to 6.2 percent.
   --Across-the-board cuts: Delays for two months $109 billion worth of across-the-board spending cuts set to start striking the Pentagon and domestic agencies this week. Cost of $24 billion is divided between spending cuts and new revenues from rules changes on converting traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/01/details-tentative-deal-that-would-avert-fiscal-crisis/#ixzz2Gl5FAXwt

Republican House leaders voice serious concerns over fiscal bill

Foxnews

Washington –  House Republican leaders voiced serious concern Tuesday afternoon about the Senate's just-passed fiscal crisis bill during a closed door meeting with rank-and-file lawmakers, sources told Fox News. The response raised questions about how the House would handle the deal, which was highly touted by bipartisan officials in the Senate just hours earlier.
Doubts that the GOP-controlled House would pass the plan intensified Tuesday afternoon. Lawmakers have just two days to go before a new Congress convenes which limits the House’s options. The House can reject the plan, pass it as written by the Senate – which is unlikely given strong GOP opposition – or amend it. If the House amends it, the legislation goes back to the Senate where time constraints would likely kill it for the current Congressional session.
GOP lawmakers privately met midday Tuesday to gauge support for the accord. While Republican lawmakers expressed concern about the plan they did not directly speak out against it. Instead, Fox News has learned that House Speaker John Boehner held a venting session where members of his party voiced their concern about the legislation. Members also offered up options on what they’d like to see added in or taken out of the bill.
As Boehner listened to Republicans, Vice President Joe Biden listened to what House Democrats had to say. The outcome of Tuesday’s mini-meetings are not yet known. What is known is that time is running out for lawmakers to approve the plan or make meaningful changes to the one passed by the Senate this morning.
The Senate’s plan would prevent taxes from going up on the poor and middle class but would raise rates on households making more than $450,000 a year. It also would also put off for two months more than $100 billion in automatic spending cuts that were set to hit the Pentagon and domestic programs starting this week, and it would extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed.
The Senate voted 89-8 in favor of the package two hours after midnight.
Senate leaders hailed the deal as an “imperfect” but vital solution to the fiscal crisis.
“The president wanted tax increases, but thanks to this imperfect agreement, 99 percent of my constituents won’t be hit by those hikes,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said.
Obama praised Senate lawmakers for passing the bill and implored the House to do the same.
"There’s more work to do to reduce our deficits, and I’m willing to do it," Obama said in a statement. "But tonight’s agreement ensures that, going forward, we will continue to reduce the deficit through a combination of new spending cuts and new revenues from the wealthiest Americans."
Senate leaders assembled the vote after a marathon weekend of talks during which Vice President Biden and McConnell did much of the hard bargaining. After the White House and Senate Republicans agreed to the framework, Biden was brought in once more to sell the deal to reluctant Senate Democrats Monday night.
The late-night deal ironed out the last major sticking point between the two sides -- what to do about the $110 billion in automatic spending cuts set to kick in starting in January.
Officials said the two sides agreed to postpone the cuts by two months, in exchange for a 50-50 mix of revenue increases and spending cuts. Of those cuts, half would come from defense and half would come from other budgets.
Fox News has also learned the deal contains a repeal of an ObamaCare program called the CLASS Act. The provision, which would set up a government-run long-term care program, was never actually implemented amid concerns that it couldn't generate enough revenue to sustain itself.
Fox News' Ed Henry, Chad Pergram and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/01/senate-leaders-aim-for-vote-on-fiscal-crisis-deal-as-congress-misses-deadline/#ixzz2Gl3muF5R

House reviews Senate fiscal cliff compromise; timing on vote unclear

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White House, Senate leaders reach deal on taxes, delaying 'sequester' cuts

President Obama and Senate Republicans reached a sweeping deal late Monday that would let income taxes rise significantly for the first time in more than 20 years, fulfilling Obama’s promise to raise taxes on the rich and averting the worst effects of the “fiscal cliff.”
According to Democratic aides, Vice President Biden is on his way to the Capitol to explain the details of the pact he negotiated with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and a Senate vote on the package could be held by 10:30 p.m. ET, beating a midnight deadline. White House officials gave in on the last issue, how to handle estate taxes, yielding to GOP wishes, aides said.
The House will begin considering the bill tomorrow, with a vote on final passage in the next day or two. 

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Obama: Fiscal cliff deal 'within sight'

(CNN) -- An agreement to avert the "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts appears to be "within sight," President Barack Obama said Monday.

"There are still issued left to resolve, but we are hopeful Congress can get it done," Obama said.

The deal that was taking shape included an agreement to raise the income tax rate on top earners to what it was during President Bill Clinton's last term in office, according to sources close to the process.

A GOP source told CNN negotiators are "very close" to a deal. The sticking point is $24 billion in spending cuts being sought by Republicans, according to the source.

"It's like looking under the cushions at this point," the source said. "If we can't find that at this point, we should pack this place up."

But one leading Senate Democrat warned the deal could run into trouble -- not only from House Republicans who have long opposed any tax increase, but also from liberals in the Senate who oppose allowing more high-income households to escape a tax increase.

"No deal is better than a bad deal, and this looks like a very bad deal the way this is shaping up," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said.

President Barack Obama was expected to discuss the issue in public remarks at the White House.

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