Fiscal Cliff

[DarthMonk]

Summary of what passed in the Senate:

— Tax rates will permanently rise to Clinton-era levels for families with income above $450,000 and individuals above $400,000. All income below the threshold will permanently be taxed at Bush-era rates.

— The tax on capital gains and dividends will be permanently set at 20 percent for those with income above the $450,000/$400,000 threshold. It will remain at 15 percent for everyone else. (Clinton-era rates were 20 percent for capital gains and taxed dividends as ordinary income, with a top rate of 39.6 percent.)

— The estate tax will be set at 40 percent for those at the $450,000/$400,000 threshold, with a $5 million exemption. That threshold will be indexed to inflation, as a concession to Republicans and some Democrats in rural areas like Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.).

— The sequester will be delayed for two months. Half of the delay will be offset by discretionary cuts, split between defense and non-defense. The other half will be offset by revenue raised by the voluntary transfer of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs, which would tax retirement savings when they’re moved over.

— The pay freeze on members of Congress and all other federal civilian employees, which Obama had lifted this week, will be re-imposed, .

— The 2009 expansion of tax breaks for low-income Americans: the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit will be extended for five years.

— The Alternative Minimum Tax will be permanently patched to avoid raising taxes on the middle-class.

— The deal will not address the debt-ceiling, and the payroll tax holiday will be allowed to expire.

— Two limits on tax exemptions and deductions for higher-income Americans will be reimposed: Personal Exemption Phaseout (PEP) will be set at $250,000 and the itemized deduction limitation (Pease) kicks in at $300,000.

—The full package of temporary business tax breaks — benefiting everything from R&D and wind energy to race-car track owners — will be extended for another year.

— Scheduled cuts to doctors under Medicare would be avoided for a year through spending cuts that haven’t been specified.

— Federal unemployment insurance will be extended for another year, benefiting those unemployed for longer than 26 weeks. This $30 billion provision won’t be offset.

— A nine-month farm bill fix will be attached to the deal, Sen. Debbie Stabenow told reporters, averting the newly dubbed milk cliff.

[Deadskins]

How very Marxist.

[Countertrey]

$41 in taxes for every dollar reduced from spending?????
This is a joke, right?

Huge problem... We don't have a revenue problem... we have a spending problem. This will result in continued printing of money... and will continue to push ALL prices up.

Repubs need to stick to their guns... The Dems have put a dress on a pile of pig manure, and called it a compromise... crap.

[Skins Fan in Indy]

I think it is time for Mr. Speaker Boehner to go take a hike and it is time for a REAL conservative to take control of the House.

[Countertrey]

I think it is time for Mr. Speaker Boehner to go take a hike and it is time for a REAL conservative to take control of the House.

^^^ THIS!!!

[Redskin in Canada]

How IRRESPONSIBLE is it negotiating a compromise half before midnight?

It is IMPOSSIBLE to maintain any healthy economy with such a DEFICIT!


Problem is ... if your government does not get its act together SOON, it will bring our (and others') economy down too.

IRRESPONSIBLE almost CRIMINAL.

We are all happy with the playoffs and the most important political negotiation may leave us bankrupt while cheering for NFL games.

[DarthMonk]

How very Marxist.

Someone steal your password?

[1niksder]

[HEROHAMO]

[HEROHAMO]

This is for 2011 but the figures still remain about the same. The Nation is still spending more then it takes in. We are about a trillion short every year which adds to the federal debt.

I think a cut in discretionary spending, Social Security, Medic care and the Military is possible. An equal cut in each should do the trick. But we will see.

[welch]

No sign of inflation. US bonds at at about 0% interest. US is the most-trusted country in the world.

This is not Greece, or Europe in general. Over there, many of the social programs and all economic policy is handled at the country level...European countries are not much bigger that an American state.

Result is that sopcial security and medicare come from the US government. Overall, Maryland and New York pay far more into the US givernment that we get in Federal services. It gets spread to the poor states, like Mississippi and Arkansas.

European financial policy is controlled by Germany. American policy os controlled by Washington, and has been for 100 or 200 years.

I did not notice the Bush tax cuts, and won't notice their leaving.

I hope that the House will drop the suicidal obsession with the debt ceiling. You pay down the national debt when the economy is growing; you spend government money when the economy is in recession.

[Cappster]

I wish they would stop calling social security and entitlement program as I have been paying into it for 15 years. I liken it more to a ponzi scheme that politicians now want to cut after many of us have paid into ever since we started working.

[Countertrey]

Of COURSE it's a ponzi scheme... It was NEVER funded at start up, which, of course, means that your SSI taxes DON'T fund your retirement. They fund the retirement of someone whom has already retired. Efforts to make it, in fact, a true endowment have been rejected by Democrats since it's inception. It will NEVER be solvent. Beyond that, the number of Americans whom are actually funding social security, continues to shrink in relation to those receiving benefits... that is a recipe for future disaster.