Well, the big news on the Hill this week was the House passing the Payroll Tax extension, which keeps the 2% cut intact for another ten months... This was a lose/lose situation for Republicans. You vote for it, you just jacked up the deficit $93 Billion, and defunded the already teetering Social Security fund. You vote against it, and you just raised taxes 2 points on 160 million voters - good luck getting elected! In short, the GOP got owned on this one. Mark it a loss, and move on...
Now, the bigger concern we have.... According to every Sunday morning show we're watching, this will be the ONLY major legislation will come out of Washington this year. That's it... Nothing. Not even a budget.. Of course, that's par for the course lately. The Senate hasn't voted on a budget in three years. Getting the House, the Senate and the Executive Office to agree on anything has been almost impossible, and this year will be no different..
Yeah, it's an election year, and it's common for less to get done in that year. Let's reflect on that for just a second... Congress gets voted on every two years, and they spend 50% of it NOT working together. Gives you an idea of WHY we don't get anywhere. Someday, they'll all realize if they just forgot whether they had an 'R' or a 'D' in front of their name, and just did what was best for America, they'd ALL get re-elceted... No, we're not waiting on that either.
Our advice to everyone in DC is this: get back to work! We'll start at the top.. President Obama may be feeling comfortable with the economy seemingly going in the right direction, and is all set to put the country on cruise control. That's a bad move. 8.3% unemployment is nothing to be proud of - no President has been re-elected with the rate that high since The Great Depression. Our post about the unemployment rate and re-election shouldn't give him solace, because that history hasn't been written yet. What matters is the six months before the election, and if Obama takes a vacation to just campaign, it will hurt him. You get paid to lead, not campaign. Leading takes care of the rest...
Congress really had better not do nothing.... they do that already, and what little they do doesn't go anywhere. When your approval rating is pegged at 10%, standing pat is a bad idea. It probably won't work, but they need to continue to send legislation to Obama's desk - legislation that will pass - and force him to make decisions. Some of it won't be easy, and some may include letting upper class tax cuts go away. Some of it BETTER include cutting spending.... Letting Obama dictate the lack of an agenda isn't the right move.
It's simple. We voted everyone in DC to represent us, and doing nothing is essentially taxation without representation.. There's too much work to be done, by all of us. An empty to do list - an agendaless year - is not what we expect from DC.
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2 comments:
Let me see, that "tax" being cut is a Social Security tax, the "trust fund" that has been "raided" by too many brats reaching into that cookie jar to fund other largesses.
In Shakespeare's terms this recent move is "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". In Bohner's terms, thi scould have been done last year and not lost behind Whitney Huston's funeral coverage.
That is true. Continuing an existing tax rate isn't a cut, it's an extension. Taking that into consideration, it looks like Congress in action - I mean Inaction- will be the same as the payroll tax.... zero.
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