THE FISCAL CLIFF IN TERMS YOU CAN UNDERSTAND

The White House estimates that the average American family will pay $2,200 more in taxes next year if an agreement is not reached. In fact, the final tally could be even higher.

So with rising Democratic opposition to cuts in social spending and teapublican leaders reiterating their opposition to raising taxes on the wealthy, talks on avoiding the fiscal cliff were at a standstill Thursday.

Officials on both sides of the debate say the political jockeying is likely to continue this week. But they warn that the details of a compromise must emerge next week if an agreement is to be reached in time.

Erskine Bowles, the co-chair of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction task force, said on Wednesday that he was skeptical that a deal would be reached. Bowles put the chances of an agreement before the end of the year at roughly one in three.

"I believe the problem is that we are going over the fiscal cliff," Bowles told The New York Times, "and I think that will be horrible."

Bowles just happens to be right. While potential tax increases on the rich have dominated the political debate, a raft of taxes on the middle class will increase if an agreement is not reached. The scope will vary, depending on a person's income. White House officials estimate that the average American family will pay $2,200 more in taxes next year if an agreement is not reached. But, if an agreement is not reached at all, even after the January 1 deadline, the increase could be higher, particularly for households that make over $100,000 a year. Here's why:

Alternative Minimum Tax: An obscure tax created in the 1960s to ensure that the super-wealthy paid a minimum amount of tax, inflation and other factors have resulted in the AMT now applying to the four to five million Americans who make $200,000 to $1 million, according to the Washington Post. In recent years, Congress has enacted a "patch" that prevents the AMT from applying to Americans who make less. Unless an agreement is reached, no "patch" will be enacted, and another 31 million Americans will have to pay the tax.

The non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates that over half of all married couples will owe an additional $4,000, the Post reported. And a third of families with children will have to pay the AMT as well, with parents of three or more children facing an extra tax of up to $4,700.

The center estimates that 84 percent of married couples that make a total of $75,000 to $100,000 and have at least two children will pay a significantly higher tax bill this year because of the AMT.

The impact would be much higher in some areas, with the number of AMT-paying taxpayers in New Jersey rising to 50.3 percent, the highest rate in the country, according to the Post. And the percentage of taxpayer paying the AMT in California, New York and Connecticut would rise to over 30 percent.

Given the breadth of the potential AMT increases, experts predict that Congress will enact a "patch" even if a broader agreement is not reached. For middle class families, let's hope they are right.

Payroll tax: A payroll tax holiday that was enacted in 2010 is set to expire, according to the Fiscal Times. The tax holiday cut employee Social Security contributions by two percent for households that make less than $11000 a year. The end of the measure could mean that the average American family pays another $1,000 in taxes per year.

Deductions: Increases in deductions that were part of the Bush tax cuts will expire. Marginal tax rates will change as well, as described in this Washington Post piece. Exactly how this will play out for families depends on multiple factors. One calculator that could help you estimate the impact on your family is here.

A short-term deal will likely be made to not increase middle class taxes. Allowing that to happen would be political suicide for both parties. But I think the chances of a long-term deficit-reduction deal are low. The failure of both parties to seize this post-election moment, show political courage, and compromise is tragic. This missed opportunity will haunt us and our economy for years.

If our elected leaders can't agree with this type of a political and economic gun to their head, I doubt there will be an agreement any closer to the 2014 midterm elections. Even if a short-term deal prevents middle class taxes from rising, our fiscal dysfunction is likely to continue.



NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

TEAPUBLICANS CAVE

This "Tea Party", these teabaggers, radical teapublicans are like a science project gone horrible wrong. They are Dr. Frankenstein's Monster gone awry, the Petri dish mold that becomes the worst airborne disease of our time.

For three days, House Republicans refused to back a compromise that would prevent payroll taxes from rising on January 1, hitting the pay checks of 160 million American workers.

Speaker John Boehner, the Republican leader, rejected a deal passed overwhelmingly by the Senate because it only extended tax cuts for two months rather than a full year.

But under withering fire from the White House and a growing chorus of discontent within his own party, Mr Boehner caved in tonight and agreed to pass the short-term bill. Quoting Johnny:

"It may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world but our members waged a good fight," he said when asked whether he regretted his initial opposition to the deal.

For heavens sake teabaggers, even Karl Rove, John McCain, and Mitch McConnell where saying you screwed up!

After the announcement that Boehner had backed down he said: "This is the right thing to do to strengthen our families, grow our economy, and create new jobs. This is real money that will make a real difference in people’s lives".

John Boehner Wins RINO Award

Look, readers, we appear to have finally figured out what it takes to get House teapublicans to agree on something: Having every other person on the planet scream at them for several days!

Aren't you going to miss this irritating shallow go-nowhere procedural psychobabble nonsense from the teabaggers during the holidays?

The teapublicans mission to destroy the POTUS and the economy has failed this round.

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

In stead of "kicking the can down the road", lets kick John Boehner's keyster down the road. Hopefully we have seen the last of this useful idiot as speaker of our house! Hopefully this is the nail in Johnny's political coffin.

Let this message resound loud and clear teabaggers, America will no longer tolerate your bullshit, your "high stakes" poker, your "take it or leave it" mentality, and your choke and puke radical right wing hold the poor at bay hostage any longer!

Last mid-term elections we were inundated with freshman teabaggers. These same teapublcians are the ones holding our country hostage, and the very ones forcing Ronnie Reagan (RINO) republicans to cowl behind closed doors. Consider yourselves on notice - America is tired of your crap, and rest assure that this next election cycle you too shall be kicked down the road like your proverbial can! Quoting Rep. Renee L. Ellmers (R-N.C.):

“We were elected for a reason,” said after a Republican huddle in a Capitol basement meeting room Monday night. “That was because the American people were tired of business as usual.”

Well Renee guess what, your fifteen minutes of fame are up. Americans have spoken loudly this round, and you, Johnny and the rest of your radical clan have been served notice! Enough is enough.

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

Political Grandstanding 201

BREAKING NEWS:

Teapublicans Now Agree to Tax Cuts

Just like the political grandstanding during the debt ceiling "negotiations" the teabaggers/teapublicans/GOP held out for as long as possible to hurt as many people as possible - they'll hold hostage a working American's $50.00 per week tax reduction to protect a millionaire's $600,000 tax cut - which costs our treasury 12 million dollars an hour. Please join me in saying, screw you, teabaggers/teapublicans/GOP! Your horrendous reign of terror over the American people will soon be over! C'mon Nov 2012!


NFTOS

Merry Christmas From The Teapublicans

Speaker cuts off C-SPAN cameras when Dems attempt to bring vote on payroll tax cut.

John Boehner Cutting off CSPAN TV

During a quick pro-forma session of the House yesterday morning, Republicans rebuffed a Democratic attempt to force an up-or-down vote on the Senate-passed payroll tax holiday extension, which Republicans have thus far refused to allow. Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who was serving as the speaker pro-temp, ignored shouts of “Mr. Speaker!” from Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), quickly adjourning the House.

Hoyer continued talking undeterred, saying, “You’re walking away, just as so many Republicans have walked away from middle-class taxpayers [and] the unemployed.” “We regret, Mr. Speaker, that you have walked off the platform without addressing this issue of critical importance to this country,” Hoyer added.

Moments later, the mic appeared to cut out. A few seconds after that, the video feed switched away from the House floor to a still image of the Capitol Dome. It appears someone in House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) office cut the feed, as C-SPAN tweeted afterwards: “C-SPAN has no control over the U.S. House TV cameras – the Speaker of the House does.”

With so much at stake - (160 million tax payers to get an increase in payroll taxes) this is not the time for Boehner and his radical band of banshees to be playing high stakes poker.

House Republicans may have taken their war on the middle class one step too far with their unfathomable opposition to extending the Obama payroll tax cut. And for a group that usually has a concise message, they’re flailing at their explanations.

For the last three years, the Republicans’ message has been clear and concise — tax cuts will solve all of our problems. Deficit? Cut taxes. Recession? Cut taxes. War expenses? Cut taxes. They support tax cuts for the wealthy, tax cuts for corporations (they’re people too!) tax cuts for Big Oil. They support tax cuts for basically anything.

Except, apparently, middle-class families. If the House Republicans have their way, taxes will go up for 160 million Americans on Jan. 1. That’s a serious lump of coal for Americans struggling to find work and make ends meet.

Merry Christmas from the teabaggers

One House Republican referred to the political brinksmanship as “high-stakes poker.” That’s a great metaphor if not for the fact the House Republicans are playing their games with our money. If only we all could play such high-stakes games with other people’s money.

The Democrats’ message is clear: We won’t raise taxes on 160 million Americans when they can least afford it. They know it’s a bad idea to punish the American people with a tax increase for Christmas to pay for Washington’s dysfunction.

The GOP message is also clear: tax cuts for every special interest, but not for the American people. When working Americans unwrap their first pay stubs for 2012 and find they’re paying higher taxes, that’ll be a tough message to sell.

Over and over readers we send you these messages, which depicts a far right radical regime - hoping that you see the picture crystal clear. With a country so strapped in every aspect of its functionality, this is not the time for radical teapublican gamesmanship, nor is it a time for far right teabagging extremism.

We write these blogs so that you may get as angry as we do over this mentality of screw the poor, the working poor, and the middle class. The next step is up to you readers, your voice, your letters, and your vote are the only tools that can turn this inherent ideology to where it belongs. For if you fail to make your voice heard loud and clear, then you deserve all the misery laid upon you via the far right extreme machine.

Chris Matthews once compared the far right wing of the Republican Party to the Khmer Rouge, the genocidal Cambodian communist party led by Pol Pot.

I tend agree with Chris Mathews analogy on the extreme regime - Mathews is host of MSNBC' Hardball whom says:

"The Republican Party is under assault from its far right," Matthews said. "I don't think I can remember either party being under assault by its extremes. I mean, there seems to be a new sort of purity test that unless you're far right, you're not a Republican, and this sort of tea party testing they're doing now."

Matthews called the party's pull from the far right "frightening" in comparing it to the Cambodian regime.

"So what's going on out there in the Republican Party is kind of frightening," he said, "almost Cambodia reeducation camp going on in that party, where they're going around to people, sort of switching their minds around saying, 'If you're not far right, you're not right enough.' And I think that it's really - there's going to be a lot of extreme language on the Republican side. And maybe, it will be a circular firing squad when this is all over."
 

I guess that about says it all! While it's an extreme depiction, its the reality of teapublican ideology circa 2012.

America has to work for everybody, not just the nitwits of the radical right.

 

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West