United States Debt

IRA Charitable Rollover is back

As part of the "fiscal cliff" deal, Congress has resurrected a popular tax-law provision, known as the "IRA charitable rollover" that had expired at the end of 2011.

The rule allows many investors 70½ or older to transfer as much as $100,000 a year from an individual retirement account directly to a qualified charity without having to count any of that transfer as taxable income.

Read more... at the Wall Street Journal.

Ron Paul and the Fiscal Cliff

"Despite claims that the Administration and Congress saved America from the fiscal cliff with an early morning vote today, the fact is that government spending has already pushed Americans over the cliff. Only serious reductions in federal spending will stop the cliff dive from ending in a crash landing, yet the events of this past month show that most elected officials remain committed to expanding the welfare-warfare state.

Key Points

1. The last minute “deal” was the worst of both worlds
2. According to the Congressional Budget Office, over the next eight years military spending would increase 20 percent without the sequester and would increase 18 percent with the sequester. And this is what is called a dangerous reduction in defense spending?
3. Is it really healthy to think of our defense budget as a jobs program? Many of these allegedly free-market members sound more Keynesian than Paul Krugman when they praise the economic “stimulus” created by militarism.
4. While Congress ultimately bears responsibility for deficit spending, we must never forget that the Federal Reserve is the chief enabler of deficit spending. 
5. Without a central bank eager to monetize the debt, Congress would be unable to fund the welfare-warfare state without imposing unacceptable levels of taxation on the American people."

Read what Ron Paul has to say

Obama played the Republicans like a fiddle

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Not wanting to look like the "bad guys," Republicans capitulated early this morning and voted with Obama's $4 trillion of new debt over his new term as well as taxing more to 77% of Americans. The vote was 257-167. Republicans earlier had turned down Boehner's Plan B and this new "compromise" raises taxes even more.

Obama played them like a fiddle in what he knew was a no win situation for Republicans with 257 Congressmen delivering the American citizen a crap sandwich, knocking out John Boehner in the process.

Allen West said, "Raising taxes in order to increase federal government spending is illogical, and disrespectful to all hard-working American families. Sure, I support the "doc fix" and AMT solution, but again the DC way is to make a pot of gumbo and believe that it will taste good to enough people. The American people deserve better."

Fiscal Cliff avoided

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It went passed Midnight but in the end, Obama got most of what he wanted--more taxes on the wealthy and zero cuts in spending.

Tax rates will rise to 39.6 percent, up from 35 percent for individual incomes over $400,000 and couples over $450,000. Tax deductions and credits would start phasing out on incomes as low as $250,000. The wealthy will get slammed in 2013 as "fairness" was Obama's platform.

Spending cuts of $110 billion were deferred for two months. The delay will cost $24 billion.

Unemployment insurance has been extended for one year and that will cost $30 billion. Obama's two-percentage point cut to the payroll tax that has been going on for two years was not extended. Ironically, those who are working will be taxed more and those who are not will benefit for another year. With 800,000 unemployed in Florida, the average unemployment check is around $300 a week.

Eight Senators voted "no," one of whom was Marco Rubio.

Obama and the Fiscal Cliff

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Obama says we're close but not there yet. He just spoke to the American people and an audience stacked with his political props. He antagonized Republicans, setting the stage for his next political fight on budget cuts that will be coming up in a few months.

So far, the deal is close and includes the Bush Era tax cuts for all those making less than $250,000 a year; there are no spending cuts; there is one year extended unemployment. Unemployment benefits have been 99 weeks in most States and he is going to extend for another 52 weeks!

We have a spending problem and Obama wants to ignore it. We have an entitlement society and Obama makes it worse.

Doomsday?

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"I am writing to inform you that the statutory debt limit will be reached on December 31, 2012. The Treasury Department will shortly begin taking extraordinary measures authorized by law to temporarily postpone that date that the United States would otherwise default on its legal obligations.

~ Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary

Geithner's letter to the Congressional Leader. It is time to cut up Obama's credit card.

Quote of the day - Allen West

What the president is proposing is not pragmatic whatsoever and it really is a reflection of him, I suppose, living in some type of fantasy world. We’re telling the American people that they have to tighten their bootstraps, but we don’t seem to want to do that in Washington, D.C.

~ Allen West

Quote of the day - Warren Buffet

"I am optimistic the nation’s debt problems will be solved, despite the political fighting that’s threatening to put the country over the fiscal cliff. In the end, 535 people in Washington will not thwart the wishes of 312 million Americans.”

~ Warren Buffet

Marco Rubio

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Santa Baby, I'm falling, I'm falling

Obama just will not cut spending...ridiculous spending and pork is still going out the door. Obama's "main priority is to ensure that taxes don’t go up on 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses in just a few short days," so he says. The Whitehouse says that the president will work with Congress to get this done and is hopeful that they will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly that protects the middle class and our economy.

Nothing has changed for months. Republicans say more cuts, Obama says "no."  Republicans say you can't keep spending more than you take in and if you tax the wealthy more, it won't make one dent in our deficit. Both sides have been locked in a vicious blame game over the fiscal cliff. Obama actually believes he has some sort of a mandate to continue the spending. Those who elected him give the argument, "shut up; we won." They like all this debt and believe that Santa or some other mythical person will solve it all for us sometime in the future before we go bankrupt. We're falling and soon we will never be able to get up.

"The president put his own political interests ahead of our national security,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Some of the ridiculous spending:

$107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail.
$1.2 million to study the breeding habits of the woodchuck.
$150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud
$84,000 to find out why people fall in love
$1 million to study why people don't ride bikes to work.
$19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence
$144,000 to see if pigeons follow human economic laws.
Funds to study the cause of rudeness on tennis courts and examine smiling patterns in bowling alleys.
$219,000 to teach college students how to watch television
$2 million to construct an ancient Hawaiian canoe
$20 million for a demonstration project to build wooden bridges.
$160,000 to study if you can hex an opponent by drawing an X on his chest
$800,000 for a restroom on Mt. McKinley.
$100,000 to study how to avoid falling spacecraft.
$16,000 to study the operation of the komungo, a Korean stringed
$1 million to preserve a sewer in Trenton, NJ, as a historic monument.
$6,000 for a document on Worcestershire sauce
$10,000 to study the effect of naval communications on a bull's potency
$100,000 to research soybean-based ink
$1 million for a Seafood Consumer Center
$57,000 spent by the Executive Branch for gold-embossed playing cards on Air Force Two

Total: $ 45,980,000
There's more where that came from.

Boehner and Obama becoming BFF's?

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I dunno. It is all very confusing. You read one thing and then read something entirely different. A 45 minute meeting yesterday between the president and the Speaker of the House--can't imagine much being accomplished in that short of time. It probably went something like, "Mr. President, here's my compromise; do you accept it?" "No," said Obama.

The Fiscal cliff is almost on top of us and Republicans are trying to compromise--a little...Democrats not much at all and that's no surprise as they are spending us right into bankruptcy.

As Obama wants a two year extension of the debt ceiling, it has been stated that Boehner will stand by his condition that the debt ceiling be raised only if Washington cuts spending by an amount greater than the increase. The latest information out is that Republican Boehner is about to agree and give up on the debt ceiling, the entire platform of the Party...he and Obama are becoming best friends.

Obama is slow to negotiate and to compromise and is holding steadfast as he has not learned a thing about the importance of compromise after being in office for four years. He now has suggested cuts of $200 billion, split equally between defense and non-defense programs.

Republicans are opposed to higher tax rates because history shows that once rates go up, it is difficult to later reduce government revenue by lowering them again, a theory that we as citizens know all too well.

John Boehner’s proposal would generate about $2 trillion in savings over the next decade, split equally between new taxes and spending cuts. On the tax side, as much as $460 billion would be locked in by letting the George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire on income over $1 million a year. Obama wants to curtail all future cost of living increases for social security recipients although he says he wants us protected and a higher tax rate on those making over $400,000 rather than the $250,000 he has been touting all through the election.

Republicans need to get a backbone; make a case to the American people and one that we will finally understand. Government loves spending our money and all of us know the trouble we are in when we can't balance our personal budgets.

Who can you Trust?

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All of us know the truth about the liberal press and its liberal bias --now we can't even trust polls conducted by them.

Bloomberg News hid conflicting fiscal-cliff poll numbers, pushed results favorable to Obama--

Read more....

Fiscal cliff

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The cliff is this big

If there is anyone out there who has no idea of how serious the Fiscal Cliff is, then Click here

The time bomb

Four years later and as we approach the Fiscal Cliff--the electorate did not remember the promise.

It's all about class warfare

It has been stated over and over again that by increasing taxes on those making over $200,000 a year and couples over $250,000, it will generate $800 BILLION over TEN years. Throw in corporations and you have a tax increase of $1.6 trillion. Obama is spending at least $1plus TRILLION A YEAR and the Congressional Budget Office confirms that deficits would increase by $9 TRILLION over the same period.

"Boehner suggested that negotiations resume on terms discussed in 2011, when he offered to raise $800 billion over the next decade through a rewrite of the tax code. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) endorsed that general idea Tuesday but warned Obama not to overplay his hand, noting that the president’s $1.6 trillion tax request failed to receive a single vote in Congress in the Spring." Source:  Washington post

The Fiscal Cliff and Unemployment Benefits

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, last year, the median annual household income was $50,054, down 1.5 percent from 2010. It has now fallen back to the level it was in 1996. This is shrinking the middle class as an income group. Obama wants to save the middle class, then he needs to create jobs.