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Not Much to Celebrate with Obama's Tax Deal
It could spell trouble for Social Security.
We enter 2011 with a few more dollars in our paychecks. For about 98 percent of Americans, the extension of Bush tax cuts and the new payroll tax holiday will make it easier for us to afford a gallon, rather than a quart, of milk for our families each month, and to fill our tanks almost as high as we did with lower gas prices last year.
(We ought to be consuming less gas and driving electric cars, but I'll leave that for another commentary). On the other side of the Great Divide: the richest two percent of Americans will get vast windfalls from the deal Obama made with the GOP--ample enough to refurnish second and third homes, or get those boats they've always needed.
But studies show us that they won't. They'll sock that money away for the kids' inheritance. We'll get no stimulative boost to the economy, but it sure will help some dynasties from dying. To give the rest of us some lunch money, House and Senate Republicans insisted this Christmas season on stuffing huge lumps of gold into Paris Hilton's velvet stockings. That's what happened when they extended tax cuts for the highest-income Americans and lowered the estate tax, which only gets levied on the wealthiest of the wealthy.
The rich keep getting richer. And richer. But, there is some stimulus in this deal, and it's better than no deal at all. And hey...didn't we all get a boost from the "payroll tax holiday?" We didn't have that before! A holiday after Christmas, for a whole year! Hallelujah, Auld Lang Syne, and Happy Valentine's Day!
Let's hold the confetti for a minute and take a closer look. Just because the deal was better than no deal, that doesn't mean it was a good one, even given this difficult political climate.
In addition to non-stimulative and expensive tax cuts and estate tax favors for the wealthy, this package has another poison pill in it. In the 2009 Recovery Act, the Making Work Pay provision gave those of us making less than $95,000 annually ($190,000 for couples) a refundable tax credit. Income above that level didn't see a tax credit. It was progressive. Those most likely to use the money, stimulating the economy, received the money.
The new tax deal replaces this Making Work Pay credit with the Payroll Tax Holiday.
According to the Center on Economic Policy Research and the Tax Policy Center, a little more than half of tax-filers will indeed get a bigger paycheck due to a tax holiday than they would have under the Making Work Pay credit. However, about 42 percent of taxpayers will actually pay more taxes in 2011 than they would have if the Making Work Pay Credit had been extended.
So, the less you earn, the more you need, the less you get under this tax deal.
Further, critics of this aspect of the tax deal worry that this payroll tax holiday could become permanent. Congress has been more than squeamish in the past to reinstate taxes after temporary cuts--the incoming Congress even more so. But either way, this shift signifies political willingness to start altering the way we pay for Social Security in way that has never been politically possible before.
As Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) cautioned in a floor debate in December leading up to the vote, “You’re talking about the beginning of the end for Social Security.” Couple this with a deficit-hysteric incoming Congress and it's hard not to fear for the long-term well-being of America’s imperiled middle- and low-income families.
Entering the New Year, I am feeling less financially secure. There's not much to celebrate with Obama's tax deal, which accomplished far less than what is necessary or possible.
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56 Comments so far
Show AllThis is selling Everyman into poverty for a few dollars more.
And the march goes on.... into 2011 and 2012. Is there anyone going to impeach and stop him, or reward him for another 4 more years? All indication shows him still have the majority Dem. supports especially near 90% Black votes.
"Critics of Obama's tax deal" need not worry about it being "the beginning of the end for Social Security", they need to kiss Social Security goodbye.
Prior to Congress approving the deal Republicans told the world that when Democrats try to end the "tax holiday" Republicans will scream tax hike and Democrats will make the "holiday" permanent, giving Republicans the first opportunity ever to honestly claim Social Security funding is part of the deficit. This all Obama (if he is still in DC) and the Republicans will need to kill Social Security.
This was no covert action. The Republicans told the world that they will use this tax deal to kill Social Security and Democrats passed the deal anyway.
He offers you a donut and slices off your xxxxxxxx.
For a 1099 self-employed person like myself without making enough money to even afford the lowest-cost health insurance and thus needs as much from my income as I can get, the Making Work Pay credit was a very, very nice welcome. I didn't even know about it when I did my taxes last year and the IRS sent me a revision -- a $700 difference. So I guess the lower contribution to SS will help me in the self-employment tax area, but SS is all I have for the future -- although at 54 I don't have much hope that it will even be around by the time I could retire, although as I've looked at my SS statement year in and year out I've come to the realization that retirement is just not in the cards for me.
In any case, the whole system is wrong. I was talking about the simple problem with employment and elderly people working jobs that young people should be doing as an after-school job or a beginning job and making it impossible for people to retire, and/or pushing the retirement age up is making life very difficult for the younger generation. The unemployment rate among young people is what, an official 25% with 50% or more among urban youth?
And let's get back to those young people in college racking up inconceivable (at least to me) debt that they will never be able to pay off bar a miracle, studying in fields where everybody says that jobs are now, but may not be there when they graduate, or the field will be incredibly. I know we talked about this on another thread yesterday.
Total 100% madness, that is life in these United States. A rich person who wants to invest in ordinary people is still considered crazy -- and I say still because I have watched the original "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" twice this year, and there you have this guy who inherits $20 million and finds himself surrounded by greedy, creepy people asking for a handout, so his plan is to divest himself of the money and give ordinary folk a leg up, so to speak. In that movie our hero -- Gary Cooper in a beautiful performance -- wins the day and doesn't get locked up in the loony bin. Today I don't believe there would be such a happy ending, however, for Mr. Deeds or the people whose lives he touches in such a positive way.
Dear samalabear:
I do see what you are saying about the need for college grads and other younger workers to get jobs, but I just don't see jobs for anyone.Lots of volunteer jobs are out there too. The weird thing about seniors working is that I don't see anyone with grey or white hair in most jobs.
I see the "white haired people" working as crossing guareds, but I have always seen that. I figured that they did that because they couldn't live on their social security. It does seem like a couple of hours -a -day job, and who could live on that anyway?
It's very strange, but the only place that I see "white haired people" seems to be in Congress and in CEOs. I never see them in retail or in food service or even in car repair places, or even art museums. I do think that a lot of the military/lobbyist people have white hair though. Maybe more seniors are hidden behind closed doors,: I don't even see them in banks. Maybe they are hidden somewhere in health care; I just don't see them. ( even at the community health clinic.)
I see younger people in retail and fast food. I heartd that Walmart has greeter jobs, but I never go there, so who knows. Is 20 the new 80?
Since so many jobs for anyone are now 1099 or p/t hourly with no benefits, then I really can't see anyone getting a fair deal. Jobs do seem to be going back to what they were before the Industrial Revolution ,when people worked out of their homes; now many jobs seem to be going that way.
I have a feeling that when almost all jobs are in the service industry, (and who has had any service lately anyway,) that then jobs won't need to pay unemployment, since so many will have a 1099 job. Certain politicians will be very happy because the total safety net, including OSHA, Workers Comp, Unemployment and possibly Social Security will be gone. We can all work at home in a self imposed sweat shop, getting paid piece meal l by the digit , whether it's a phone call or a keystroke.
I see all ages of workers suffering from the same problem, and very soon , as is already happening, lawyers, accountants, reporters, and even teaching go the way of the "paid by the piece worker".It's sort of like Upton Sinclair's book, THE JUNGLE, where an illness, an injury, or a political reason can block people from work access.
It's not an age thing , I don't think, it's just that at a certain economic level, some of those people don't see that a healthy working and protected society benefits everyone. The New Deal seems to be slipping away and THE RAW DEAL is being substituted, piece by piece with INjustice for all, and the " UNcommon good" being made a" Divine Right" by qualification of a digit of income level. Whether a worker is new or old doesn't seem to matter, because devaluing the human and the environment seems to be the focus.
Throughout history, wage and class wars have made people fight among themselves; I suppose becuse that "enemy" is close and at least visible, but the real "Enemy of the People" are those unseen corporate and lobbyist faces, and how do people fight an unseen enemy? I don't know the answer to that, but the last thing any of us should do is to point at each other who are not members of the "Raging Golden Calf Society." Young people shouldn't blame the old and the old shouldn't blame the young. That's hard to do though when so many are running out of shelter and food.
Petitions and letters and phone calls do some good, but maybe what is really needed is "silence, "where people stand with candles outside of their congressperson's local office, and stand is complete silence and wait for them to speak. There would be no need for police or water canons or men on horseback when people are silent and not moving. That's all that I can think of right now. Maybe Candle -MASS could work!
P.S. Commondreams: I'm sending you $15 because that's all I have left, but I'm really glad you're here. I hate to do this, but I'm going to use Paypay because otherwise it won't get there soon enough. I figured that your need out weighs their awfulness.
Jobs for all who want. I see more oldies in retail than previously but I believe there are few jobs for any USA citizens, its all outsourced.
How does that saying go? Your actions speak so loudly, I cant hear what you are saying.
The Dems SAY they they are for the working class and poor, and are for social security, but one only needs to look at what they are DOING, to know that appears not to be so.
Also IMHO simply extending unemployment benefits is short sighted. HR departments come right out an say that they are not interested in hiring the long term unemployed. So if you can't get a job after being out of work for 99 weeks, it is only going to be even harder after 198 weeks, (or whatever it is being extended to.) I think some kind of WPA program, where people work for their benefits while learning a skill would be a much better idea. That would probably look better to a potential employer.
Of course we all know that will never happen.
So much the better to crush the spirit through bureaucratic dependency.
The tit may keep you infantile.
Karen, I'm disappointed with this too but I've been disappointed with Obama ever since January 2010 and have joined the Green Party. Unlike the Democratic and Republican parties, the Green Party will slay the Bush tax cut package. Will you join us? You won't be disappointed.
Marco Nanto and Karen: I saw all of this coming down the pike from the get-go, well before the last POTUS Election, when Obama voted in favor of FISA and for continued funding of our war on Iraq, promised to ante up and escalate our war on Afghanistan (which he's certainly done), and took the exact same positions as John McCain during the pre-POTUS Election Foreign Policy debate. The healthcare "reform" bill that this Administration passed and signed into law is a 20 y/o, warmed-over, early-1990's GOP-written bill that will still leave millions of people without protection and coverage, and will result in steep hikes in premiums, co-payments, and deductibles, as well as not being able to get access to care for a pre-existing condition for another four years (2014, to be exact). The fact that abortion rights were thrown under the bus in order to get this bill passed is equally, if not more disgraceful. If there's anything redeeming about this bill, it's that people can't be turned down for health insurance who need it, and that young people in their early to mid twenties can stay under their parents' coverage if need be.
What the Obama Administration and the Democrats could've and should've done was to do away with that GOP 1990's healthcare "reform" bill entirely, gone back to the drawing board, really put their heads together and then constructed and implemented a genuine healthcare reform bill that entailed Single Payment with Universal Healthcare and Medicare for all Americans, regardless of age, risk, etc. Instead, the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Congress took the easy way out and passed and signed into law this toxic body of legislature called a healthcare "reform" bill, when it's really not.
What this Administration allowed BP to do to the Gulf was also a total disgrace, and the fact that Obama and Salazar kept most of Bush/Clinton's BP minions on is disgraceful in its own right. Long-lasting, if not permanent damage was done to the Gulf, and the ecosystems that sustain other forms of Gulf life, not to mention the loss of 11 eleven oil rig workers' lives, as a consequence of this totally human-made oil gusher that came as a consequence of deep-water oil-drilling that was 100 miles offshore, and at least 5, 000 ft. down, as opposed to only 400-500 ft. down under. So saying, I haven't given the Obama Administration a free pass on this either, and I won't.
All of the above having been said, it comes as no surprise that the Obama Administration allowed such a lousy, paltry tax deal to come through. Sickening...really sickening, all in all.
I was ignorant about FISA at that time. I didn't think that networking corporations would go too far to let the government have it all. My big mistake. The health care bill looked meaningless without public option and BP showed his ability to take on the oil companies. He could have told Congress to just leave the tax bill alone but he scared me when he made sure it got extended. I'm sorry I campaigned for him in 2008 and voted for him. We need the Green Party in 2012 and Nader, Mckinney, or someone should run for that party's nomination.
Your ignorance plus many Dem. got us to the shit hole today. Many more Dem. still clueless and will keep you longer into the shit hole in 2012. FISA, is important and I knew it then. I believe only 6 or 8 Senator voted against it. You can Google and find the Senators. I remember it was Hillary, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders (not sure), Patrick Leahy and one more. Correct me if I am wrong?
Too late to regret now, I hope you learn your lesson and too be like me. I did not vote for Obama and will NEVER VOTE DEM. I will place Green Party 2nd on my list. Republican first and only Green Party, if Ralph Nader the candidate or a competence person. No Messiah or the like of late Pastor Jim Jones.
"I will place Green Party 2nd on my list. Republican first"
The Republicans also voted on FISA and you're still supporting them just because the Democrats screwed that one up? Why pick between the two evils? It only enforces the status quo we're up against.
Both are evils. But if the Republican in power, I know the Dem. will fight tooth and nail. Right now the Republican and Obama hand in hand a smooth rides, without any resistance and checks and balance.
It took Obama only two years to kill Net Neutrality and Dubya spend 8 years and two FCC Chairmen and failed miserably. Do you really need brain to figure it out, you might be beyond stupid, am I wrong?
"But if the Republican in power, I know the Dem. will fight tooth and nail."
There have been arguments and proof to disprove that.
"It took Obama only two years to kill Net Neutrality and Dubya spend 8 years and two FCC Chairmen and failed miserably."
So a President Mccain would have kept Net Neutrality?
"Do you really need brain to figure it out, you might be beyond stupid, am I wrong?"
There's no need to be insulting. Ever heard of logical fallacies?
My apology if I have offended you, my sincere regret, trying hard to show you the different between the two parties. Both parties are evils. But when the Republican in power, the Dem. did a damn good job checking the Republican. Even Dubya said recently he regretted not able to privatized SS. Obama less than two years will soon destroy S/S with the recent Tax-cut, sooner or later it will be privatized. If McCain and Palin have tries to destroy Net Neutrality, you bet Commission Copps would have done the same as he did go around the country to gather support. I still remember signing the petition.
I didn't see it that way but thanks for the scoop and apology accepted. We could use more than two parties for better checks and balances.
Why dun you just forget the Democrats, they don't exist and vote Republicans! You can't go wrong you will get screwed either way.
Vote Green and be guilt-free that a vote was not wasted. That's what I'm getting interested in.
independentminded sez: "The healthcare "reform" bill that this Administration passed and signed into law is a 20 y/o, warmed-over, early-1990's GOP-written bill that will still leave millions of people without protection and coverage ...
***
Actually, it's more like the bill Nixon couldn't close the deal on in the early '70s. Raygun didn't even attempt to, it is so regressive.
Call me intuitive or pessimistic or maybe even intelligent but I intuited that SS would not be viable as a retirement fund for me as long as 40 years ago.
This is going to be just another free market system market correction. In a free market economy when there are too many people and not enough money, you get rid of the surplus people. You do this through innovative free market solutions such as, long term unemployment, denial of health care, malnutrition, starvation, and exposure. Maybe that was the plan all along?? Could never happen in a free democracy such as the USA, right?
I sincerely hope this post does not get booted by the censor as once again I have inconveniently pointed out that people actually die and are being killed through active US government policy.
I can't figure out why some things get censored here. I've had it done to me several times even though I didn't think I really said anything that provocative.
Anything too raw in emotion. Anything that might directly threaten-- that's just not the liberal way. I've been censored for that too--try sarcasm--they seem relatively tolerant of that--perhaps they don't get it. My comment on war seen below is probably right at the borderline of toleration.
Don't forget about war. War is an excellent way to get rid of the "surplus" population and it always makes the rich richer.
We haven't had a "free market" since the industrial revolution.
It is Corporate Socialism.
Corporations are backstopped by the state. In return for that assumption of risk by taxpayers, corporations agree to care for the worker well enough that they stay satisfied and happy to let the aristocracy and executives work the levers of power. The political class keeps the skids greased for the corporations....
It really wasn't a bad deal for a while. But greed always wins. The circle of trust has been broken, the symbiotic relationship abused.
Now what remains is the blowback. Problem is that sometimes the cure ends up being worse than the problem.
I don't like the Payroll Tax Holiday because it's a sneaky way to borrow from Social Security.
However, one notable aspect is that it benefits those whose money is all on their W2. It's not a boost for those already claiming less in income than they really earn due to labor trading and just plain not claiming work for cash.
My preference would have been to cut the 2 percent making sure it's offset by taxing the earnings in excess of the $106,800 cap. They could continue capping the employer contribution at 106,800 but let those earning a million to contribute on the remaining $893,200.
As you correctly suggest, it really is a simple solution. It just doesn't fit well within the confines of a me-first, winner-take-all structure.
We are being royally screwed, and both "parties" are standing in line to do it. The people who came to me in my local area, seeking my vote with a warm smile and a concerned look on their face while I spoke of my concerns for only a few moments are nowhere to be found now. They came hat in hand, so to speak, needing my vote to get 'em in office. Now that they're in, it seems I and others like me can just go to Hell, because returning an e-mail, a phone call, or a letter is just asking too much of these self-anointed kings and queens. I say both parties are scum, by and large, with a very few exceptions (Kucinich, Saunders to name two of a very few) and have thrown us to the wolves.
The tax bill includes $20 Billion in tax credits for corporate investment overseas. Why couldn't that credit have been for new investment inside the US? A credit, remember, is directly subtracted from taxes owed, not a normal deduction. This is a taxpayer giveaway to the corporations that will create yet more jobs overseas.
The powers that be, corporations, are no longer nationally based, they are global.
So mostly only what benefits corporations not nations, is commanded.
You are, of course, 100% correct. Still, if we pretend that the corporations are not controlling our government, the bill could have been written to give the multi-nationals a tax credit for investment in the US. We have so obviously gone beyond fascism already -- call it post-fascism maybe? Within fascism the government and corporations work together. In our post-fascist situation the corporations and their elite moneyed owners, and especially the "financial services industry" are obviously in total control. I guess its called corporatism.
When his lips are moving, switch channels.
When his pen is moving, pay attention.
Social Security has, until this law, been a pay as you go plan. Having to pay back from the general budget what Obama and his Republican allies removed, makes Social Security a genuine target. How many imagine that this was not Obama's plan all along? The Manchurian candidate is not Chinese but a dedicated agent of Wall Street. Younger members of the population will have the glorious opportunity to have to provide for their own parents thanks to the decline in Social Security. Later the will have the joy of having to fend for themselves in their own retirement and beg their offspring for assistance.
They won't have to provide for those parents very long, because the gutting of Medicare will condemn the parents to die rather quickly.
About 2 weeks ago, Max Kaiser suggested to Paul Craig Roberts that the ruling class might soon institute a "final solution" for America's no longer wanted working class ( http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27054.htm ). But in fact that's what is about to really start as they withdraw support from Medicare. The plan is to have everyone but the elite themselves on $5000 deductible or higher medical policies, so that all medical expenses are essentially out of pocket. Only the elite will be able to afford better insurance. Then poorer people will die much more rapidly from treatable medical conditions that they will ignore until it's too late. Presto, no more working class, and it won't be just the parents. "Final solution" implemented ...
Do I think the populace will wake up before it's too late, and take action? Signs so far are not good. Most are easily distracted by scapegoats (Muslims, illegal immigrants, welfare recipients, indigent poor people, etc.) ...
very poor quality article - I give it a D-
Nothing new of any sort that hasn't been discussed already ad nauseum
very few facts and only on link (although the graph in that link says it all)
No link to quotes from GOP senators that in a year when the payrol expires, they will say that the failure to extend the payrol tax is a "tax increase"
fool me once fool me twice ........
There really is no middle class stimulus to this tax cut. It's smoke and mirrors. Like the Bush tax refund of 2007, the few dollars being tossed to the middle class will be eaten up immediately by higher prices at the gas pump. So in a way, it's another gift (transfer of wealth) to big business, in this case, big oil. Meanwhile, it's the thin edge of the wedge to systematically dismantle and eventually gut social security.
This country is circling the drain.
And it's not just at the gas pump. Keep an eye on the food and utilities prices.
The old game where if everyone just gives one person a penny, that person can quickly amass a fortune, has been coming to mind a lot lately.
Speaking of gas, do you still remember how much gas cost in the 60s' (34/37 cents per gal). It's cost less than the drinking water (39 cents) I bought in Safeway Supermarket CA today. In 1998 I was living in Tulsa, OK, gas cost 65/67 cents per gal.
sorry, posted twice.
So I did the math for a $12 per hour job to see just what you get,
$12 Hr * 40 Hrs = $480 Week
$480 Wk * 52 Wks = $24,960 Year
$24,960 Yr * .062 (6.2%) = $1547.52 Month
$24,960 Yr * .042 (4.2%) = $1048.32 Month
$1547.52 - $1048.32 = $499.20 (Difference between 6.2% and 4.2%)
$499.20 Yr / 52 Wks = $9.60 Week ($19.20 BiWeekly or $38.40 Monthly)
So for less than 40 Bucks a month, we get to witness what is probably the only true retirement system for the average working person get dismantled.
To add insult to injury, our President (and all who champion this mess) are touting this as a way to stimulate the economy. In other words our elected officials are counting on the vast majority of Americans to spend and squander the extra money that used to be put aside for their retirement in old age. They are probably right. This little bit of money will quickly go away and unlike a large lump sum of money, most people will probably not even know where it was spent.
Sold out for a very few dollars so that the very rich can become even more obscenely rich. The average worker gets about 40 bucks a month, those top 25 hedge fund managers got an extra 4 Million 1 Hundred Sixty Six Thousand per MONTH via the capital gains rate not going up by 5 percent.
When will the general public EVER quit buying this bullshit about how cutting taxes benefits them. All it EVER does is enrich the already wealthy while slashing the real government services that working families count on to maintain any semblance of a decent standard of living.
Karen Can we celebrate continued tax cut for 100 million families , tax credits for students and jobless pay for millions ? Lets also celebrate saving GM -Chrysler
and its many 1000's of jobs - keeping them off unemployment and paying taxes.
Celebrate stopping a long deep depression. 2 yrs is NOTHING not after so many years under Reaganomics Bush Cheney Goldman FED boys huge tax cuts- DEBT- long Wars based on Lies- greed- fear tactics- war profits . which led us to Bush Paulson
2008 global crash - 700 billion TARP- loss of jobs- lower wages - lost homes
millions due to predatory lending made possible by Reagan Bush Grenspan deregulation aka wealth favoring policies- cuts and perks to Co's
that sent our jobs overseas to China ..
Yes, there are some things to celebrate in this bill, like extension of UI, EITC, Child tax credit, tuition tax credit. Those were good and necessary. But this is not a $900b stimulus bill. It is far less than what we need and it his highly regressive. It gives large windfalls to the wealthy and less to the working poor than they were receiving under the 2009 Stimulus' Making Work Pay tax credit. And, it opens the door to the erosion of Social Security. By all means, celebrate the good in this bill, but ask yourself at what price? Did obama really need to make all of those concessions to the Republicans? I do not believe that he did, I think he made a bad deal whose ramifications will be felt for a long time to come...
An object of this tax bill was to cut Social Security. I just applied for Social Security today. The monthly income estimate for tday is 2% less than last year. The cuts to Social Security have begun.
If this:
"An object of this tax bill was to cut Social Security."
really is the case, then Obama is just as much of an a**hole as his predecessor(s).
It just makes me sick. Never in my life had I thought that a Democratic president would sign off on a deal that shorted 51 million low income Americans in order to put the cash into the pockets of upper income Americans. At $220 per on the average, that amounts to a 11 billion wealth transfer -- felt by people earning under $20,000 where that kind of money is real wealth. Unfortunately the average is more likely around $550 if you add the no property tax deduction impact on poor people in states that do not have low income or elderly property tax relief. That's around $28 billion dollars - not quite half the current annual cost of the war in Afghanistan. With victories like this, who needs defeat?
I agree. I do recognize the little stimulus that is in the deal and some deal needed to get passed so that there would not be even greater misery and drag on the economy. good things like extending EITC and Child Tax Credit and UI are welcome parts of the bill. But what baffles me is why so much had to go to the rich in exchange for such pittance for those in need. I agree with the Nader supporters and the Green Party, etc. But Obama is our best shot unfortunately in 2012. I don't think we can bury our heads in the sand. Yes, by all means vote Green or Working Party or write in Dennis Kucinich. I sometimes write in Angela Davis just as a good conscience vote. But at the same time, hold Obama and his economic advisors accountable. Don't be silent in cynicism. This is not directed toward Bob Krause or any other thoughtful commentor in particular, just my own thoughts as I read and also comment on and learn from readers. thanks, karen
I am glad to have found this site and see that their are people who get it. Unfortunately so many in our country are happy to be ignorant to such truths and I'm beginning to think I should join them because I voted and defended Obama and his administration for too long, no more! Sure they have passed many historic bills, but they are historically weak bills that give the appearance of truth (verisimilitude) of strength, and they have been compromised to the point of being weak, useless and/or vulnerable to the courts. This compromise is another GOP victory just like the healthcare bill (no public option or single payer even truly fought for by our POTUS), financial reform (weak) and now this sell out to the ultra mega rich (so happy JZ can buy Beyonce another island with his tax savings on top of $250,000 in Hermes purses for Christmas) and their children (estate tax reduction). The world must be in awe of our governments willingness to choose this tax break over reducing our deficit by 1/3 and giving in to blackmail. Obama and his administration are looking at re-election, this deal was a sell out to get some much needed policy passed (DADT, unemployment benefits extension and START all are very important, needed and sensible) but the cost to our Social Security, Medicare, social programs and increased deficit will be much greater. Passing sensible, intelligent and much needed legislation should not require giving in to obstructionists! Rise and rage against this madness!