Saturday, January 12, 2013

OH JOY! WE’VE DONE SOMETHING ABOUT…WHAT?

If Friday is payday for you, you paid 2% more of your paycheck in taxes this week.

If you earn $50,000.00, your taxes went up about $1,000 per year. For people making more, taxes increased up to $4,500.

Why did taxes go up? Because the so-called “Bush tax cuts” expired.

Why did the “Bush tax cuts” expire? Because Congress wanted to make it look like we were doing something about the budget deficit and the national debt.

The increase in taxes will reduce both the budget deficit and the national debt by less than one-half of one percent.

There’s only 99 ½ percent left to go!

Taxes on the “rich” have also gone up. They should pay their fair share.

Fair share my hind leg! They already pay their fare share and more.

And if we took all of their assets…every penny of them and all of their cash on hand, we would not have enough to substantially reduce either the budget deficit or the national debt.

The only way we will eliminate the budget deficit and the national debt is to take everything everybody makes or owns and use it to pay them down.

Even that won’t spare our children and grandchildren the fiscal pain of owing way too much.

When it comes to the relationship of spending to confiscation of citizens’ resources, liberals in general and Congress specifically don’t care about our children and grandchildren.

They are happy to force them to eat certain things, not eat other things and to regulate them to the Nth degree, but financially they are cold as ice cubes toward them.

If Congress wants to know why their approval rating is in the toilet, I can tell them.  It’s because their integrity, honesty and principles are at an all-time low.

They lie, misdirect, stonewall, pontificate, and just refuse accountability, doing only those things that make their constituents think they are doing something for them, thus ensuring their votes.

They think we’ll never notice because we’re to dumb to take care of ourselves and too stupid to understand what they have done and are doing.

According to them, we won’t even notice the decrease in our paychecks.

Sadly, in the final analysis, THEY DON’T GIVE A RAT’S BEHIND!

Thank you, Congress, for proving the level at which you care about the American people.

28 comments:

Joe Calton said...

Joe - I don't get pad until the 15th, so I haven't seen the impact yet.

And I earn a bit more than your example because I'm really good at what I do and I've been doing it for more than a quarter of a century.

But sticking with your example, 2% of $50,000.00 comes to $1000.00 a year.

That works out to $83.33 a month.

I get paid twice a month so that amounts to $41.66 per check.

Even living paycheck to paycheck like I do with no savings and no cushion, that has virtually no impact on my budget or lifestyle. I can absorb that without batting an eye.

And I'm more than willing to kick in a few extra bucks so that people like you who rely on federally funded health care systems can get affordable critical care to keep you alive and blogging.

You're welcome, Jo Joe!

Xavier Onassis said...

Jo Joe - That wasn't "Unknown". That was me.

"Taxes on the “rich” have also gone up. They should pay their fair share.

Fair share my hind leg! They already pay their fare share and more."

That is complete and total nonsense! They pay next to NOTHING!

Thanks to tax dodges like the "Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich".

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/double-irish-with-a-dutch-sandwich.asp#axzz2HjeJv2HY

"A tax avoidance technique employed by certain large corporations, involving the use of a combination of Irish and Dutch subsidiary companies to shift profits to low or no tax jurisdictions. The double Irish with a Dutch sandwich technique involves sending profits first through one Irish company, then to a Dutch company and finally to a second Irish company headquartered in a tax haven. This technique has allowed certain corporations to dramatically reduce their overall corporate tax rates."

Xavier Onassis said...

Jo Joe - There is a reason Mitt Romney refused to release more than a couple of years of tax returns, Those were the tax returns he had tailored to pay at least SOME taxes because he knew he would be running for president. I am 100% confident that for many years he paid NO taxes and managed to get a healthy refund.

The rich are vampires who suck the life blood out of the economy and return absolutely nothing that they aren't forced to return.

Whereas the working poor like me don't begrudge you an extra $40 out of our paycheck for you to get a new hip or whatever.

Does it ever occur to you that your loyalties might be just a bit out of sync with your personal priorities?

Your conservative brethren would kick you to the curb and let you die with no health care without batting an eye or looking back.

Your fault for not being rich. Should have been more ambitious and planned better. Rest In Peace. Or not. We don't actually care.

But we liberals DO care. We want EVERYONE to have the same opportunities as everyone else. An even playing field where the cards aren't stacked in the favor of the wealthy.

I'm willing to give up a $40 a paycheck break that I was given on a temporary basis if it means people like you have access to affordable health care.

Dave Miller said...

Joe, you are wrong. Plain and simple and guilty of obscuring the issue.

The 2% increase you speak of is a result of all of us losing the decrease in payroll taxes deducted to pay for our social security payments when we retire. It is not, and never had been part of our standard income tax schedule and was not part of the Bush tax cuts ever. Why do you imply that it is or was?

A simple reading of the facts, as they relate to this particular tax increase, the 2%, will show you that it was President Obama who proposed it and got it signed into law as part of his original economic stimulus plan that the GOP hated.

It came up for renewal in 2011 and the GOP argued against extending it another year, saying what we libs all knew but something the GOP never acknowledged until then... That the 2% tax cut, enacted by President Obama, was not paid for and would add to the deficit.

The GOP finally caved under intense public pressure and extended the payroll tax cut through 2012 but would not extend that cut into 2013.

So yes, yours, mine, and all of our taxes are going up 2% in 2013. Not as result of President Obama, but because the GOP decided not to support a tax cut authored by the Dems, claiming correctly, that tax cuts add to our deficit.

“Don’t Bother Me With Facts!” said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
“Don’t Bother Me With Facts!” said...

The bigoted, racist right are not only black-hating sore losers, but they are so pissed that their four-year hate-mongering and fear-mongering didn’t help the the great white hope they wanted get elected.

And what Dave Miller said is absolutely correct, The two-year 2% payroll tax cut expiration wasn’t in the fiscal cliff deal. It was set to expire deal or no deal. And “no deal” is what tea party folks were calling for anyway.
Why is is that people like Dave Miller can see right through these morons on the right and the author of this bloc is so thick headed that it is pitiful?
To say Obama hiked their payroll tax is just as incorrect… and likely stated by people being purposefully dishonest (for some odd reason) or… they’re “low information voters” themselves, as the head sore loser Limbaugh puts it.
The role voter fraud played was to keep President Obama’s victory from being significantly larger. We already know that Rick Scott prevented over 11,000 registered voters from exercising their constitutional right to vote in Florida, and some estimates put the number nationally at over 2 million votes. Voter fraud probably also played a major role in the Republicans managing to hold on to the House of Representatives even though nationally a lot more people voted for Democratic Congressmen than Republicans.
every credible poll in the nation had Obama winning by the exact margin he won by. More importantly the exit polls matched the results. This equals no wide spread fraud.

just because someone does not agree with your policy, does not mean the are out there to “destroy America” Obama does not want to destroy America! ! Obama is not a communist.
Republicans have grown to habitually blame everything on Barack Obama. The economy? Barack Obama. The deficit? The wars, The Muslim Brotherhood. And even Benghazi. Even the holes in Swiss cheese! The fact that it’s 2013 and we still don’t have flying cars?
The right wing nuts will never stops attacking Barack Obama because he's black.... period!

“Don’t Bother Me With Facts!” said...

Dave Miller said:
"So yes, yours, mine, and all of our taxes are going up 2% in 2013. Not as result of President Obama, but because the GOP decided not to support a tax cut authored by the Dems, claiming correctly, that tax cuts add to our deficit."

And he is SO right!
What I would like to know is why the Repubs are you supporting John Boehner? Is it because you're so stupid? As usual, Republicans just don't want to hear common sense or logic, all they can do is call the President names, and make up all those vicious lies about him. Its time the free ride for the Rich is over. The ultra-wealthy have had tax breaks, and loop ho;es for years. Bush brought us into two unecessary wars that have gone on for 11 years and Obama is getting us out FINALLY, and the righties just can't stand the fact that he is doing it. As well as killing Bin Laden.
The republicans idea of compromise is, give us what we want period. Well, Obama WON, get used to it.

Joe said...

Unknown (XO): "...I'm more than willing to kick in a few extra bucks so that people like you who rely on federally funded health care..."

I paid into that "federally funded healthcare" system since the day it came into being.

If it had been properly invested and had grown interest, it would have more than paid for what I've used of it.

"...They pay next to NOTHING!"

If that's the case, then your government is lying to you. They seem to think there are those out there earning more than $200,000 per year.

sue hanes said...


Joe - This post makes sense and I agree with it 100%.

Flowerbomb said...

XO, I have news for you, whether or not you realize it, people are so desperate to get something "free" from the government that they believe the lies. It's clear you refuse to listen to anything anyone says who does not agree with you. I can only hope that those who support Obamacare and vote for Obama end up paying the price for that decision, and you will. Take care of yourselves because Obamacare won't take care of you.

Our Country has going from bad to worse since the day that Obama came into office. Thousands and thousands of illegal immigrants are going to get a free ride, while Americans are going to have to pay for it...seems to be a trend with Obama. I think the whole government system is broken and we as a people need to stand up and take charge like our fore fathers did. Without us they are nothing, They better be listening. They pay for nothing and make us pay for them forever. Tired of it....really tired of it. I for one am sick and tired of Obama and his executive orders that Obama uses to do whatever he wants to do. Basically Laws and the Constitution is meaning-less now that we have a Socialist president. He makes up the rules up as he goes along

Dave Miller said...

Sue, how can it make sense? In the post Joe posits the blame for the 2% increase on the liberals in Congress. That is a totally wrong assumption that is not even factually correct.

Normally when people present such clear factually wrong and misleading information, we call that lying...

Please explain to us Sue what is so clear in Joes misleading post?

Flowerbomb said...

And by the way, I'm a born and bred US citizen who is currently living and working in Ontario, Canada only because I wasn't able to find employment in America. My husband and I have been living in Canada since 2010.
My husband had been unemployed in America for almost 3 years.
I dont want Canadian citizenship for obvious reasons, but for what it's worth, I feel more comfortable here than living back home with Obama at the helm.

vveasey said...

OK all you Obama haters you can stop now with all of your name callinng and conspiracies, your stupid claims, negative comments and all the other nonsense comments and , factitious plots and conspiracy theories about President Obama, hell we didn't act that way, or get nearly and of this crap when that imbecile George W. Bush won... TWICE!!! STOP acting like we just elected Adolph Hitler or Idi Amin as President of the United States!!!
So what can we expect from a Republican House that bitterly, and literally hates the president.? We can expect grid-lock that’s what! We can expect the president will not be able to get anything done to help a country who is in desperate need to be helped.
Blogger Joe is part of the problem, like most of his cronies on the right.It makes me sick when I see the Racist posters on this and some of the other WHITE RACIST blogs.

Joe said...

QM: "...that tax cuts add to our deficit."

Actually they don't. They result in more people keeping more of what they earn and making evil rich people able to hire more folks to earn more to pay taxes to lower the deficit.

List for me the people or companies you have worked for that were as poor or poorer than you.

DM: "...guilty of obscuring the issue."

No. That would be you.

sh: Thanks.

Flowerbomb: I can understand completely.

weasey: "We can expect grid-lock that’s what!"

Good. That's what we neeed. We don't need the feds "getting anything done."

"We can expect the president will not be able to get anything done to help a country who is in desperate need to be helped."

There is nothing he can do to help except get out of the way! That's what EVERY president should do.

"Blogger Joe is part of the problem, like most of his cronies on the right."

"It makes me sick when I see the Racist posters on this and some of the other WHITE RACIST blogs."

You are the racist. I marched and faught for your rights along side of Dr. M.L. King in St. Augustine, FL. Don't make me sorry I did that.

Joe said...

QM: It works like this:

If you have 5 workers paying $100 in taxes, the govt. gets $500.

Raise the 5 workers' taxes to $120 and the govt gets $600.

Increase the number of workers to 10 at the old rate of $100 and the govt gets $1,000.

Which is more, $600 or $1,000?

5 more workers equals more revenue than raising taxes on the 5 original workers.

Make it easy for the "rich" hire more workers and you increase revenues more than if you make them nervous about their future and cause them not to hire more workers.

If you can't understand that, you flunk economics 101.

It's not related to race, it's related to 3rd grade math.

For Your Eyes Only said...

I’m afraid that nothing is going to change in this country, it looks like the majority of the citizens in this country don’t really want to change. Maybe they are to damn lazy or they just want handouts and entitlements. Maybe that what they want as long as they get their welfare and food stamps . All the talk in the world is not going to change any thing. And all the bitching, complaining, and blogging isn't going to change anything either.
Where is the outrage from the good politicians, can there be so few of them that they are just out numbered so much ?

If this is what us Americans really want then I guess there is no need to complain.
We had our big chance in November at election time, it seemed as if it was going to be a slam-dunk for anyone to defeat Obama and the people put the same old lying, sleazebag politicians right back in. And Obama really is going to sock it to us this time.

stryker714 said...

The Bozo in Chief will shout, insult the republicans, and maybe that weasel john boehner might give in and give P’Bozo more then he should. But when push comes to shove, nothing will happen, O’Bozo will eventually get what he wants. . Us Conservatives will all scream and shout and then john boehner will bend over anyway.. We are not like the Libs, and therefore we get nothing. The Left has gotten what they have by actions, they do whatever it takes, no matter how dirty it may be, but they get it done. riots, protests, boycotts, write-ins, black-mail. etc. The far left always gets their way, Civil obedience is not in their vocabulary

Ducky's here said...

I notice a couple items, Joe.

1. You talk about paying off the debt.
We are not going to pay off the debt ever. The nation has always carried some level of debt.
What we need to do is control the rate of growth of the debt and keep it lower the GDP growth.

2. You are still spouting the line about high earners paying more than their fair share.
Well, revenues are nearly evenly split between payroll and income taxes. Payroll taxes are payed primarily by the working and middle class while the high earners are taxed at 15% (dividends and capital gains) while controlling over two thirds of the nations wealth.
Yet somehow your distorted Calvinism sees them as being oppressed.

3. You aren't going to let go of this nonsense that the extremely wealthy take a look at their brokerage statements and if things are good they go out and hire a few hundred folks.
Utter nonsense which you really should let go.


Spidey, when the budget is in reasonable balance, Social Security and Medicare are merely money we are paying ourselves (Joe loves Medicare). They are not going to contribute to financial disaster. Now, call it income redistribution if you wish and argue from that perspective but don't go on as if the comptroller of the world's demand currency operates like your household budget. You'll sound foolish.

Dave Miller said...

Joe, I am not the person who said tax cuts add to the deficit, that was the Republicans after they were asked why, in 2011, they would not support ctrnfingbthe payroll tax cut... Until they caved and extended the Obama payroll tax cut, they insisted that for them to extend the 2% tax cut, it had to be paid for, a tacit admission that tax cuts raise the budget.

If they were not making that argument, why the need to pay for that cut?

Also, please let me know where I obscured the issue in my response to your misleading post...

Joe said...

Ducky: "What we need to do is control the rate of growth of the debt and keep it lower the GDP growth."

Surprisingly, I agree with you to a great extent on this one.

That is why I never suggest that we will ever pay off the debt.

But our debt has skyrocketed to unsustainable heights and we need to get it down to reasonable levels.

"Yet somehow your distorted Calvinism sees them as being oppressed."

I do NOT see them as oppressed. I see them as having a right to keep the same percentage of what they earn as I do. That is why I support an across the board flat taxe with NO deductions after the poverty level is exceeded.

"...if things are good they go out and hire a few hundred folks."

They certainly hire more people than I do.

BTW, the flat tax would (in my demented little mind) apply to paychecks, every earned dollar by any entity, corporation, investment income, interest on bank accounts and whatever other entiry earns money (after the poverty level is reached, that is).

DM: Whether Republican, Democrat, Whigs or Torries, increased taxes only hurt the job market and the economy.

Xavier Onassis said...

Jo Joe - You are under the silly delusion that rich people are just chomping at the bit to create new jobs if only the Gummint would get out of their way and remove all uncertainty in the market place.

Complete and total NONSENSE.

Wealthy people don't want to create ANY jobs EVER!

Creating jobs and hiring people are the LAST RESORT for rich people looking to expand their own wealth.

They would much prefer to make a profit by having their accountants move their money around from one private equity firm to another, maximize their carried interest and export their earnings to off shore tax havens.

The LAST thing they want to do is invest in the American economy by creating jobs. That's a chump game for financial rookies.

The wealthy conservatives that you worship don't care about you or this country.

All they want to do is suck the wealth out of this country by getting rubes like you to elevate them into the "job creator" mythology.

It amazes me that they have actually been successful in getting the slave class (that would be you) to "take a knee" and praise your oppressors.

This is why intelligent people question your ability to process data and arrive at a logical conclusion.

Xavier Onassis said...

Jo Joe - "I paid into that "federally funded healthcare" system since the day it came into being.

If it had been properly invested and had grown interest, it would have more than paid for what I've used of it."

Then why didn't you make your own investments, grow your own interest, and use that money to pay for your own hip replacement and prescription drugs instead of relying on me, Ducky and Craig to provide for you in your old age?

You're a smart guy. You knew full well that Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid weren't individual "investment" accounts drawing interest.

Yet you are all to eager to take advantage of the arrangement and allow the working taxpayer to fund your health care while parroting the lame "I paid into the system" justification.

You paid into the system to pay for your parents. I'm paying into the system to pay for you.

Isn't that what a civilized society is supposed to look like? The younger generation taking care of the generation that came before them?

Joe said...

XO: The only jobs I ever had were working for people wealthier than I was.

"Then why didn't you make your own investments, grow your own interest, and use that money to pay for your own hip replacement and prescription drugs instead of relying on me,"

Because the government forced me to pay into Medicare...since its inception. They took it out of my paycheck, failed to invest it, and now have to "borrow" from the general fund to pay for it.

That's the way government does everything it does.

"...Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid weren't individual "investment" accounts drawing interest."

Yep. A Ponzi scheme from the get-go.

"You paid into the system to pay for your parents. I'm paying into the system to pay for you. Isn't that what a civilized society is supposed to look like?"

No.

For Your Eyes Only said...

New Flash!! The Clown who is currently occupying the White House nominates Pro-Islam, Jew Hating, Chuck Hagel to Be Secretary of Defense!
Obama Appoints Islam’s Apologists. Obama is about to appoint three regime members who are as naive about the Arab/Israeli relations who have ever walked.
Hagel, John Kerry, and Brennan. All of these candidates are pro-Islam, pro-Arab, and anti Israel. How about Jack Lew who served under Hillary Clinton. It was Lew’s failed foreign policy toward Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya during their upheaval, and the the Arab Spring. How did that work out for our interests ? This has been Obama’s plan all along.
All are apologists for Arab causes. All are strong proponents of Obama’s vision of a more sympathetic approach to Islam….Brennan for example has been against Iranian sanctions from day one. Obama’s piss poor pick for secretary of Defense, Charles Hagel, an apologist for the Palestinian suicide bombings against Israel, his explanation for this was that desperate people resort to desperate measures, Israel, well Golly gosh darn it, I guess that explains it!

And this surprises who?? For an administration that has made “diversity” an important issue, he has surely picked a bunch of pro-Islam, pro-Arab, radicals and haters, or pro- both.
This is what you should expect from people who worship at the Church of Hitler’s Dick.
But Obama killed Osama Bin Laden and GM is alive!

Question, did we have people like "The Question Man" (above) making these radical comments prior to Obama's presidency? I don't think so. Obama has empowered these racist clowns to come out of the woodwork.

Dave Miller said...

Joe, you've still not shown where I obscured the issue, or explained why you connected the 2% payroll tax cut with the Bush Tax cuts...

Mista Anonymous said...

@Dave Miller,
Oh please, stop being so damn naive, there WILL be at least a 2% tax increase this month on everybody who gets a paycheck. Under the guise of social security. I will see it and so will you if you are a member of the working force in America. But then again if you are a liberal and I think that you are, then you may be a grubber or as they kindly put it, a recipient of entitlements. There is no getting away from this one. It's a done deal. Sealed and delivered by Emperor Obama. And let us not forget that it was Remember, it was old Smirkin Joe, the braying donkey, the grinning Veep who told us that it was patriotic to pay taxes! I’m sure you can remember that one .

Xavier Onassis said...

The Views Of A Tea Party Member - It IS patriotic to pay taxes. Taxes are the cover charge for getting to participate in the American economy and benefit from our free market. Also, taxes are how we fund civilization.

Dave Miller said...

Yes Tea Party, I am an everyday go to work God loving foreign missionary liberal.

And yes, on January 1 our payroll taxes went back up to 6.2% from 4.2%. But that increase had nothing to do with the tax increase to individual making more than 400k, and couples making more than 450k.

This particular increase is because the GOP never liked the 2% cut that President Obama and the Dems included in the stimulus bill.