Congress Needs to Act Now On Tax Relief

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Bush era tax cuts, Business, Congress, Politics, politics as usual, Tax, United States, United States Congress

Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via Flickr

If Congress doesn’t get its act together and extend Bush-era tax cuts, people at all income levels will be hit with significant tax increases at the end of this year.  According to Fox News:

“A typical family of four with a household income of $50,000 a year would have to pay $2,900 more in taxes in 2011, according to a new analysis by Deloitte Tax LLP, a tax consulting firm. The same family making $100,000 a year would see its taxes rise by $4,500.”

via FOXNews.com – Expiring Tax Cuts Hit Taxpayers at Every Level.

Mary Curtis: Jeb might be trying to present a different image than

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government and politics, Politics

Mary Curtis: Jeb might be trying to present a different image than.

Barton to BP: “I’m Sorry” You’re Kidding, Right?

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BP, Congress, Energy & Commerce Committee, Gulf oil disaster, Gulf oil spill, Halliburton, House, Joe Barton of Texas, Politics, politics as usual

Republican Joe Barton of Texas is ranking minority member of the House's Energy & Commerce Committee. A receiver of big oil money, he told BP's Tony Hayward, "I'm sorry."

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing but there he was, an elected Representative, apologizing to BP’s CEO Tony Hayward on the floor of the Congress of the United States!

“I’m sorry,” Representative Joe Barton, the Republican from Texas, said to Hayward who sat in front of the Energy & Commerce Committee as hearings got under way this morning.  Referring to the meeting yesterday with President Obama at the White House as “a shakedown,” Barton said he was “ashamed” for how Hayward and BP were treated “at the White House yesterday.”

What?

It’s unbelievable what big-oil money can do.  I know that Barton has received over $1 million from oil companies to fund his campaigns since 2000.  And I know that he has, because of that funding, always supported legislation favoring more drilling and less alternative resources.  But, that’s different, right?  Or it should be.

Taking money from big-oil and favoring legislation supporting them are politics as usual.  I’d like to see campaign finance reform but that’s for another day.

Right now, we’ve got the worst oil disaster in history on our hands, and it has not yet been stopped.  We don’t know what all the consequences will be or what the cost will be financially, environmentally, and to us as a people.

Politics as usual is one thing, but to let BP off the hook for their irresponsibility?  And to do it on the floor of Congress?

BP was warned by Halliburton and others in the industry not to continue with the well at the Deepwater Horizon facility before it exploded on April 20.  They chose to ignore all warnings even from within their own ranks.  They also chose to go cheap on their operations.

After yesterday’s meeting, BP’s Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg referred to American citizens of the Gulf region as “small people” and he said this right on the White House lawn!

And today Barton apologizes?!

Let’s hope that the residents of Texas’ 6th District, who are close to the Gulf region, realize that by his apology to BP, that Barton is looking at them as “small people” too, and that they vote him out in the Fall.

As Poll Numbers Drop Obama Pushes to End Healthcare Debate

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Congress, government, government and politics, government-run healthcare, health care, healthcare, News, Obama, ObamaCare, Politics, politics as usual, Rasmussen, Washington

New poll numbers show that the majority of Americans now oppose Obama’s plan for healthcare reform because of concerns about negative changes to their own healthcare programs if the government option is put in place plus the likelihood of tax hikes on the middle class to pay for it.

A new Rasmussen poll from Friday, July 17, 2009 shows that only 35% percent of voters favor the government-run option which is down from 41% from a national poll taken just a few weeks earlier in mid-June.  Voters expressed concern about the cost which would ulltimately raise taxes on the middle class.  They also fear that their own healthcare program would be changed because of government intrusion.

Nevertheless, President Obama is insisting that debate over his health reform end and that the Congress move quickly forward to pass the legislation, wanting it on his desk to sign into law by the August recess about two weeks from now.

At Childrens National Medical Center in Washington, D. C., today, Obama called for ending the debate saying, “We’ve talked this problem to death,” referring to the complicated issues, like costs into the trillions,  surrounding healthcare reform.

Obama is proving to be more of a typical politician rather than a statesman.  Rather than the inspiring leadership Obama showed as a candidate during the elections, he is now resorting to the old standard of fear mongering to try to get his political way in Washington.

Obama fearfully stated as fact that “more children will be denied coverage” unless we pass his program now.  Obama evidently conveniently forgot another fact:  the  SCHIP program, which our tax dollars pay for,  makes sure that all children can get medical care whether or not their parents can provide or afford private insurance.

If trying to scare about the “children” wasn’t enough, Obama continued the fear, saying that “jobs will be lost, take-home pay will be lowered, businesses will shutter.”

For all the fear Obama is dishing out, however, it doesn’t appear to be working.  Over the weekend, more moderate Dems joined the growing chorus of naysayers against ObamaCare.

We can only hope that these lawmakers continue to be skeptical about this massively expensive program and that they don’t buckle to Obama’s scare tactics!

White House Considers Benefit Tax to Pay For Obama Health Plan

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government and politics, government-run healthcare, Obama, Obama Care, ObamaCare, Politics, Washington, Washington Post

Remember during the campaign when Obama promised us that no one making under $250,000 would see a tax increase of any kind if we elected him president?

Well, now that we elected Obama president, he is reversing his position.  According to the Washington Post, the White House is now considering “a tax hike on health insurance plans that would hit middle-income Americans” to pay for ObamaCare.

Back in the campaign however, Obama made a “‘firm pledge’…that families making under $250,000 would not see ‘any form of tax increase, not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,'” according to the Washington Post.

Read this:  White House Won’t Rule Out Taxing Middle-Class Workers’ Health Benefits – washingtonpost.com.

Change We Can Believe In?

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Obama, Politics, politics as usual, Washington

It seems that President Obama’s promises of change have turned into more how many times Obama can change his mind!

The latest change for the president is to quietly reverse his campaign pledge to allow a 5-day public review period online for all bills before he signs them into law.

“Now, in a tacit acknowledgement that the campaign promise was easier to make than to fulfill, the White House is changing its terms” about when it will post bills, according to the New York Times.

Obama, in his five months in office, has “almost never” waited the promised period before signing 24 bills, according to the NY Times.

Obama, having been a U. S. Senator prior to running for the Presidency, should have known about any “unexpected technical hurdles” which the NY Times reports is the White House’s excuse for not following through with public review for bills.  It seems now that candidate Obama was only interested in saying what he thought we wanted to hear, to get our votes.

Change?  No, more just another vote-seeking politician.

White House Changes the Terms of a Campaign Pledge About Posting Bills Online – NYTimes.com

 

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