Thursday, February 4, 2010
The Tax Story That Reuters Spiked At White House Request
OldSouth just loves Junior Deputy Accountant!
Whoodathunk that anyone could make the Dismal Science into a truly funny running narrative. This LeftCoast lady does it, and she is not for the prudish or faint of heart. A heartfelt 'Whoo-Whee' sent in the direction of Miss Adrienne, the intrepid.
She shares with us the Reuters story that the Obama White House spiked, for fear that the truth of their intentions might see the light of day.
All it does is remind us what happens the day after the 2001 tax cuts expire. Which Obama plans to do, and hopes no one notices.
To quote Dr. Evil: 'Riiiiigggghhht!'
They do well to fear this news escaping.
The publication of that final little bullet point below surely will make Hopey-Changey's blood run cold. They might tumble to the fact that he's planning to screw everyone, everywhere, forever.
And, like Reuters, make anyone who dares talk about it sit down and shut up.
So, here's the article. If it were to find it's way into the inboxes of your colleagues, friends, and family in the morning, well, golly-gee, it might jest get some folks all riled-up. Whaddayathink?
[Begin copy]
Original:
Backdoor taxes to hit middle class
By Terri Cullen – Mon Feb 1, 4:09 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters.com) --The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.
In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth.
While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.
The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration's Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily scaled back the estate tax to zero in 2010.
If the provisions are allowed to expire on December 31, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. But lower-income families will pay more as well: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent. The special 10 percent bracket is eliminated.
Investors will pay more on their earnings next year as well, with the tax on dividends jumping to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increasing to 20 percent from 15 percent. The estate tax is eliminated this year, but it will return in 2011 -- though there has been talk about reinstating the death tax sooner.
Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a "patch" that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.
Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year's levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy -- the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.
Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:
* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes;
* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies;
* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses;
* Individuals who don't itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid;
* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.
[end copy]
Whoodathunk that anyone could make the Dismal Science into a truly funny running narrative. This LeftCoast lady does it, and she is not for the prudish or faint of heart. A heartfelt 'Whoo-Whee' sent in the direction of Miss Adrienne, the intrepid.
She shares with us the Reuters story that the Obama White House spiked, for fear that the truth of their intentions might see the light of day.
All it does is remind us what happens the day after the 2001 tax cuts expire. Which Obama plans to do, and hopes no one notices.
To quote Dr. Evil: 'Riiiiigggghhht!'
They do well to fear this news escaping.
The publication of that final little bullet point below surely will make Hopey-Changey's blood run cold. They might tumble to the fact that he's planning to screw everyone, everywhere, forever.
And, like Reuters, make anyone who dares talk about it sit down and shut up.
So, here's the article. If it were to find it's way into the inboxes of your colleagues, friends, and family in the morning, well, golly-gee, it might jest get some folks all riled-up. Whaddayathink?
[Begin copy]
Original:
Backdoor taxes to hit middle class
By Terri Cullen – Mon Feb 1, 4:09 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters.com) --The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.
In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth.
While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.
The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration's Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily scaled back the estate tax to zero in 2010.
If the provisions are allowed to expire on December 31, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. But lower-income families will pay more as well: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent. The special 10 percent bracket is eliminated.
Investors will pay more on their earnings next year as well, with the tax on dividends jumping to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increasing to 20 percent from 15 percent. The estate tax is eliminated this year, but it will return in 2011 -- though there has been talk about reinstating the death tax sooner.
Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a "patch" that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.
Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year's levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy -- the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.
Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:
* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes;
* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies;
* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses;
* Individuals who don't itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid;
* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.
[end copy]
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
You're So Tennessee If...
You are convicted of two counts of second-degree murder, serve five years before being paroled, and the State hands you back the medical license you surrendered upon conviction.
You then use this license to serve as a prescription-writing service for large quantities of pain-killers.
And don't get caught for years.
OldSouth began his ruminations last spring, when signs advertising 'wrestling midgets' began to sprout up in the little town where he visits the bank and post office. He had assumed, naively, he wouldn't see anything quite this ludicrous in his lifetime, so it seemed like a good jumping-off point.
Since then, we've had ObamaCare, Miss Nancy, and the Underpants Bomber. Gordon Brown claiming to save the world, Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize, Climategate, the takeover of GM and Chrysler, AIG, Zimbabwe Ben, TurboTax Timmy, Goldman rising from the ashes, the takeover of Fannie and Freddie, Tiger Woods, Hugo Chavez, Tea Parties, AstroTurf, Sarah Palin on a book tour, ACORN.
And Joe Biden.
Did OS leave anyone out? Undoubtedly, yes.
But this one is truly, breathtakingly extraordinary...
You then use this license to serve as a prescription-writing service for large quantities of pain-killers.
And don't get caught for years.
OldSouth began his ruminations last spring, when signs advertising 'wrestling midgets' began to sprout up in the little town where he visits the bank and post office. He had assumed, naively, he wouldn't see anything quite this ludicrous in his lifetime, so it seemed like a good jumping-off point.
Since then, we've had ObamaCare, Miss Nancy, and the Underpants Bomber. Gordon Brown claiming to save the world, Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize, Climategate, the takeover of GM and Chrysler, AIG, Zimbabwe Ben, TurboTax Timmy, Goldman rising from the ashes, the takeover of Fannie and Freddie, Tiger Woods, Hugo Chavez, Tea Parties, AstroTurf, Sarah Palin on a book tour, ACORN.
And Joe Biden.
Did OS leave anyone out? Undoubtedly, yes.
But this one is truly, breathtakingly extraordinary...
And, Meanwhile, At NBC...
It HAS to be Bush's fault!
It's the only possible explanation!
Someone, quick, call Keith Olbermann. He'll set everyone straight!
It's the only possible explanation!
Someone, quick, call Keith Olbermann. He'll set everyone straight!
Air America's Unlamented Demise
It's management's fault.
It's the economy's fault.
It's the affiliates' fault.
It's Rush Limbaugh's fault.
Or, maybe, nobody wanted to listen to the HopeAndChange they were serving up.
Naaah, couldn't be that.
It's management's fault.
It's the economy's fault.
It's the affiliates' fault.
It's Rush Limbaugh's fault.
No, wait for it....
IT'S BUSH'S FAULT! THAT'S IT!
Whew, glad we cleared that one up....
It's the economy's fault.
It's the affiliates' fault.
It's Rush Limbaugh's fault.
Or, maybe, nobody wanted to listen to the HopeAndChange they were serving up.
Naaah, couldn't be that.
It's management's fault.
It's the economy's fault.
It's the affiliates' fault.
It's Rush Limbaugh's fault.
No, wait for it....
IT'S BUSH'S FAULT! THAT'S IT!
Whew, glad we cleared that one up....
Greg Mankiw And The Obama Spend-a-thon
Seems Dr. Mankiw escaped his mother's basement, with all his teeth and no visible tattoos.
He landed on his feet on the economics faculty at Harvard.
Here's his take on what Obama and Miss Nancy plan to spend over the next few years, compared to historical averages.
He includes a simple, but telling chart!
No true attitude adjustment noticed as yet. Just posturing to appear populist.
Time for more attitude adjustment this November.
He landed on his feet on the economics faculty at Harvard.
Here's his take on what Obama and Miss Nancy plan to spend over the next few years, compared to historical averages.
He includes a simple, but telling chart!
1. The President is proposing significantly more spending than he proposed last year: 1.8% of GDP more in 2011, and roughly 1 percentage point more each year over time.
2. Spending is and will continue to be way above historic averages.
At its lowest point in the next decade federal spending would still be 1.7 percentage points above the 30-year historic average. Over the next decade, President Obama proposes spending be 12% higher as a share of the economy than it has averaged over the past three decades.
No true attitude adjustment noticed as yet. Just posturing to appear populist.
Time for more attitude adjustment this November.
Simon Johnson Weighs In On 'Move Your Money'
Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and a member of the CBO’s Panel of Economic Advisers. He is a co-founder of The Baseline Scenario.
In other words, Simon Johnson is not some angry middle-aged guy living with his gun collection and Confederate flag in his mom's basement. He's not AstroTurf, as the White House and Miss Nancy would wish to characterize anyone who dares to disagree with them.
Simon Johnson says it's time to take your deposits and run from the big banks. And he tells us why, with an insightful look into our history.
But his real conclusion is the most insightful of all: It's time to move your politicians.
I have no doubt, that somewhere in the bowels of the White House, Simon's picture graces a dartboard.
In other words, Simon Johnson is not some angry middle-aged guy living with his gun collection and Confederate flag in his mom's basement. He's not AstroTurf, as the White House and Miss Nancy would wish to characterize anyone who dares to disagree with them.
Simon Johnson says it's time to take your deposits and run from the big banks. And he tells us why, with an insightful look into our history.
But his real conclusion is the most insightful of all: It's time to move your politicians.
I have no doubt, that somewhere in the bowels of the White House, Simon's picture graces a dartboard.
Monday, February 1, 2010
A Success Story, Brought To You By People The Pundits Ridicule
It's not all bad news out there.
Consider Northern Ireland's Wrightbus.
From the FT, earlier in January:
Last week, when London’s authorities revealed the company that would design and build a new bus for the capital, mayor Boris Johnson heralded the planned vehicles as “state of the art”.
But behind the proposed cutting-edge buses is an old-fashioned family business called Wrightbus. Its workers still make the vehicles, partly by hand, on the site where it was founded – in God-fearing Ballymena, the Northern Irish town represented in parliament by the Rev Ian Paisley, and known as the “buckle on the Bible belt”.
In keeping with its traditional values, Wrightbus has a church within its grounds, tithes money to tuberculosis wards in Uganda, still has a tea trolley, employs a welfare officer, offers loans to staff in difficulty and has always stuck to a principle of little or no borrowing.
But, hold on folks! This success, in Paisley's old stomping grounds(likely at least someone in that plant voted for the man!)? You mean, it's not captive to the banksters? You mean, it takes care of its people?
It's not unionized?
It's not on government life support?
It employs craftsmen?
It hasn't moved to India, or China, or Mexico, to take advantage of the slave labor market?
Maybe it succeeds because it has steadily tread against the dominant cultural tide.
Green Shoots Nominee!
Consider Northern Ireland's Wrightbus.
From the FT, earlier in January:
Last week, when London’s authorities revealed the company that would design and build a new bus for the capital, mayor Boris Johnson heralded the planned vehicles as “state of the art”.
But behind the proposed cutting-edge buses is an old-fashioned family business called Wrightbus. Its workers still make the vehicles, partly by hand, on the site where it was founded – in God-fearing Ballymena, the Northern Irish town represented in parliament by the Rev Ian Paisley, and known as the “buckle on the Bible belt”.
In keeping with its traditional values, Wrightbus has a church within its grounds, tithes money to tuberculosis wards in Uganda, still has a tea trolley, employs a welfare officer, offers loans to staff in difficulty and has always stuck to a principle of little or no borrowing.
But, hold on folks! This success, in Paisley's old stomping grounds(likely at least someone in that plant voted for the man!)? You mean, it's not captive to the banksters? You mean, it takes care of its people?
It's not unionized?
It's not on government life support?
It employs craftsmen?
It hasn't moved to India, or China, or Mexico, to take advantage of the slave labor market?
Maybe it succeeds because it has steadily tread against the dominant cultural tide.
Green Shoots Nominee!
In Contrast To Cleveland, A Peek at Memphis
The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, in contrast with the Cleveland Orchestra, seems to be grappling with the realities of a changing culture.
This is a good thing, to borrow a phrase from Martha Stewart. Management and musicians alike decided that the way to survive and thrive in the 21st century is to actually be of real service to the community, to actually become part of the warp and weave of local life. Again. Like they used to do, before they decided that were minor gods who needed only practice and perform, always and only under a union contract.
The first need is to play fewer concerts. In countless communities, large and small, the concert supply outstrips demand. Orchestras are burdened with contractual obligations that compel them to produce - laboriously and expensively - concerts without a ready audience. Fundraising and marketing resources are overstretched and stretched again.
The second need is for orchestras to define themselves less narrowly as concert producers and more broadly as education providers, engaged with schools, universities, museums, with the community at large.
Music blogger Joe Horowitz offers some good words on behalf of this approach, and has more good words from an earlier post as well.
Why does this matter?
Well, let's assume we find our way through the economic maze, and five years from now, we emerge with a stable society that employs its people producing real goods and services, with healthy compensation, low taxes, civil liberties intact, etc.
We'll also want it to be a society that knows how to make music, write books, teach its children about Shakespeare and Bach, and remember that it stewards the cultural and spiritual riches of The West.
OldSouth's darkest fear is that we're failing at both big tasks, and wonders if we struggle with the first task in part because we failed so badly for so long at the second.
This is a good thing, to borrow a phrase from Martha Stewart. Management and musicians alike decided that the way to survive and thrive in the 21st century is to actually be of real service to the community, to actually become part of the warp and weave of local life. Again. Like they used to do, before they decided that were minor gods who needed only practice and perform, always and only under a union contract.
The first need is to play fewer concerts. In countless communities, large and small, the concert supply outstrips demand. Orchestras are burdened with contractual obligations that compel them to produce - laboriously and expensively - concerts without a ready audience. Fundraising and marketing resources are overstretched and stretched again.
The second need is for orchestras to define themselves less narrowly as concert producers and more broadly as education providers, engaged with schools, universities, museums, with the community at large.
Music blogger Joe Horowitz offers some good words on behalf of this approach, and has more good words from an earlier post as well.
Why does this matter?
Well, let's assume we find our way through the economic maze, and five years from now, we emerge with a stable society that employs its people producing real goods and services, with healthy compensation, low taxes, civil liberties intact, etc.
We'll also want it to be a society that knows how to make music, write books, teach its children about Shakespeare and Bach, and remember that it stewards the cultural and spiritual riches of The West.
OldSouth's darkest fear is that we're failing at both big tasks, and wonders if we struggle with the first task in part because we failed so badly for so long at the second.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Fran and Marlo Show Us How It's Done
Love and music, music and love. Two of life's great sources of joy.
Fran and Marlo Cowan remind us, at age ninety or so, after sixty-two years of marriage.
Fran and Marlo Cowan remind us, at age ninety or so, after sixty-two years of marriage.
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