The "Taxpayer Relief Act" has just been signed into law

[Ian62]

As usual the name of the bill is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what it does inside the tin.

$300bn a year tax hike on the 99% to protect $1 trillion plus of annual Corporate Welfare and the top 0.1%.

Create a manufactured crisis.

Leave the decision to the last minute.

Spread some rumors of some terrible proposal (the shock tactic).

Create some sham arguments about trivial issues or trivial amounts of money.
Make sure the real issues are not even mentioned.

Rush through the legislation excluding the shock tactic and without letting people have time to think. People breathe a sigh of relief without realising they just got conned big time.

The Senate had a full 3 minutes to read the 154 page bill before the vote.

Dennis Kucinich speaks truth to Congress.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022112383

Corporate welfare was protected while marginal and middle class taxpayers got a huge tax hike.

Linking Social Security (and other government expenses) to chained cpi is now part of the public consciousness.
It needs time to permeate in - it was way too early to actually implement it. Public Opinion is against it at the moment.
They will keep working on ways to cut Social Security and bring it up again at some future date.

Corporate profits were protected, even though they are at record levels.
Corporations are to share none of the pain.
The top 0.1% derive most of their income directly from Corporate profits. So the income of the top 0.1% was protected too.

Facebook kept their 0.34% Corporation Tax rate.
Google can keep diverting US generated profits to Bermuda to pay almost no Corporation tax.
There are many ways for multinationals to pay very little or zero Corporation Tax - just about all multinationals do it.

Closing these Corporation Tax loopholes of diverting US generated profits to offshore tax havens would have brought in far more revenue than the expiry of the Payroll Tax break.

Mitt Romney's low tax rate was protected. He was a winner too.
Talk of higher taxes for dividend payments went nowhere. Carried Interest was not even mentioned.

Mitt Romney's donations to the Mormons are still to be treated as tax deductible.

The large subsidies to the oil industry were not touched.
Neither were the special tax breaks for the arms industry.
The big pharmaceutical companies are very happy with the fiscal cliff deal. Government gifts to them have not been touched.
Wall St is extremely happy - their subsidies and privileges were not touched.

The sum total of the fiscal cliff deal was to take $300bn or so a year from the 99% without touching the $1,000bn+ of annual Corporate Welfare.

To rub salt into the wound, the fiscal cliff deal was stuffed with even more Corporate Pork.

"Sec. 328 extends “tax exempt financing for York Liberty Zone,” which was a program to provide post-9/11 recovery funds. Rather than going to small businesses affected, however, this was, according to Bloomberg, “little more than a subsidy for fancy Manhattan apartments and office towers for Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Corp.” Michael Bloomberg himself actually thought the program was excessive, so that’s saying something. According to David Cay Johnston’s The Fine Print, Goldman got $1.6 billion in tax free financing for its new massive headquarters through Liberty Bonds.

$9B Off-shore financing loophole for banks – Sec. 322 is an “Extension of the Active Financing Exception to Subpart F.” Very few tax loopholes have a trade association, but this one does. This strangely worded provision basically allows American corporations such as banks and manufactures to engage in certain lending practices and not pay taxes on income earned from it. According to this Washington Post piece, supporters of the bill include GE, Caterpillar, and JP Morgan. Steve Elmendorf, super-lobbyist, has been paid $80,000 in 2012 alone to lobby on the “Active Financing Working Group.”

Tax credits for foreign subsidiaries – Sec. 323 is an extension of the “Look-through treatment of payments between related CFCs under foreign personal holding company income rules.” This gibberish sounding provision cost $1.5 billion from 2010 and 2011, and the US Chamber loves it. It’s a provision that allows US multinationals to not pay taxes on income earned by companies they own abroad.

Bonus Depreciation, R&D Tax Credit – These are well-known corporate boondoggles. The research tax credit was projected to cost $8B for 2010 and 2011, and the depreciation provisions were projected to cost about $110B for those two years, with some of that made up in later years. "

The 99% get a 2% increase in taxes while these corporate pigs go oink, oink, oink.

Fiscal Cliff Deal Sneaks In Wall Street Gifts, NASCAR Perk
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/fiscal-cliff-wall-street_n_2397933.html


From NASCAR to rum, the 10 weirdest parts of the Pork Laden #FiscalCliff bill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/02/from-nascar-to-rum-the-10-weirdest-parts-of-the-fiscal-cliff-deal/


Senators got 3 minutes to read the 154 page bill before voting on it.

More details on what the Fiscal Cliff deal actually means.
America and Americans have just been thrown under the bus.
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/america-and-american-workers-have-just.html

[JoePhilly]

1. The deal was rushed through?

[Ian62]

7. I don't know about you but it takes me longer than 3 minutes to read 154 pages of legalese

They have had months to come up with some sensible proposals to deal with the Fiscal Cliff and the debt ceiling.

They waited until just before the deadline before starting discussions.

Yep, Kucinich voted for it. I am very disappointed.
It was still a very powerful speech in less than 60 seconds.

[RomneyLies]

8. Please see post 87. eom

[JoePhilly]

13. I predicted this outcome almost 2 years ago.

The basic details were OBVIOUS and anyone paying attention knew what they were.

And btw, the Senate and the Congress members have STAFF members specifically dedicated to sections of important legislation. Their job is to know what issues the particular member is most concerned about.

The discussion about the particulars continued for WEEKS AND WEEKS. The deal itself includes a smaller number of items than were included in the early discussions.

What do you think, the Senate and Congress members had no insight into what was in the deal during those weeks? You think the President, Harry, and Nancy weren't counting the votes?

The entire premise is silly.

[RomneyLies]

2. Are you still here?

[ProSense]

3. Silly: "Dennis Kucinich got it right. "

Yes, he voted for it.

You know who didn't vote for it: the lunatic Ron Paul

[BeyondGeography]

4. Where is that confounded unrec button?

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. If only racist crank Ron Paul were President!

[RomneyLies]

6. Please see post 87. eom

[Ian62]

9. Please see comment 90

(it's not one of mine)

P.S. I like your tagline.

[RomneyLies]

11. .

[obnoxiousdrunk]

10. Fuck Ron Paul. eom

[JaneyVee]

12. I'm getting a tattoo.

[Ian62]

14. I'll leave you guys to pony up to Goldman Sachs, Lockheed Martin & the Koch brothers etc.

There are some very sensible and knowledgeable people on this site.

But not too many sensible comments about the issues in the comments on here.

I agree with Robert Reich "we need to cut military spending and Corporate Welfare"

He wrote another piece about why this was such a bad deal - but I haven't got it to hand.

[ProSense]

15. "But not too many sensible comments about the issues in the comments on here. "

Speaking "not too many sensible comments," have you checked the lunatic posts at the site you linked to?

I mean, you aren't making much sense yourself

"Mitt Romney's low tax rate was protected."

Not only is Mitt's income going to be taxed at Clinton rates, the capital gains rate went up more than under Clinton.

Capital gains goes to 23.8 percent and a tax increase also applies to incomes at $250,000
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022116613

...and you support Ron Paul.

[NYC_SKP]

16. "site you linked to..." Do you mean that ass-cracker Blogspot UK site?

If so, then yes, wtf, it's one mess of a set of conspiracy theorist Jesse Ventura Ron Paul woo sites I've ever seen constantly included in these posts.

Happy New Year, ProSense!

[Ian62]

17. What is the new tax rate on Carried Interest?

I support drastic reductions in military spending and Corporate welfare.

I support better living standards for the poor and middle classes.

I support better job prospects for all Americans.

I support addressing the balance between record Corporate profits and 40 year lows in real median wages and rapidly increasing poverty. The trend needs reversing - dramatically.

I support social mobility. America has one of the worst records of social mobility anywhere in the developed world.
http://www.oecd.org/centrodemexico/medios/44582910.pdf See chart on page 187

I support wealth creation and a wide distribution of that wealth.

I support a thriving middle class.

I am against pre-emptive war. I advocate a Jeffersonian foreign policy.

I support making Healthcare in America more efficient and affordable.

I am against the farcical prohibition of drugs which costs US taxpayers $200bn a year and massively increases criminality, corruption and violence on the streets. And it creates more hard drug addicts.

I am against the class warfare justice system. The poor can get 20 years jail time for minor drugs possession. When was the last time you heard of a Wall St banker getting jailed for snorting cocaine?

I am against the banks being above the law.
I am in favor of reinstating Glass-Steagal and the big banks getting broken up.
I believe the banks should be prosecuted for their frauds and money laundering and top execs should get long stretches of hard jail time for their crimes.

I am against large multinationals getting tax breaks, when small and medium businesses do not. There should be a level playing field.

I am against Oligarchies.

I support drastic Campaign Finance Reform.
I support getting money out of politics.
I am against the system of lobbying and the revolving door between government, lobbyists and big business.

These are some of the things I support and are against.

What do you support?

[ProSense]

19. "I support making Healthcare in America more efficient and affordable. "

You support this guy:

Ron Paul's hypocritical vision of health care: charity or death, "that's what freedom is all about"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/100288476


"Ron Paul hates govt intervention, likes mandatory vaginal ultrasound probes"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002161152

[Ian62]

18. I said they were creating sham arguments about trivial amounts of money

The total amount in your link is $62bn a year.

What about the $1,100bn plus a year of Corporate Welfare?