Late last night the 112th
Congress passed the “American Taxpayer Relief Act”. It is a horrendous piece of legislation that
does NOTHING to address the deficit or debt and actually increases it. The very last two paragraphs will tell you
just how bad it is by saying that none of it can be added to any PAYGO
scorecard. Anyone remember the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010?
In other words, this bill goes directly against the very law that Nancy
Pelosi, Harry Reid and the Petulant President himself insisted on in 2010. For brevity’s sake, we have chosen to
highlight portions that we consider to be the most horrendous.
1. There are NO tax breaks. This bill simply extends the tax rates we individuals
were already paying via tax credit extensions.
Let me make this as clear as I possibly can. An EXTENSION is not a tax break!
2. Businesses will continue to pay the same
taxes via the same extensions. Of course
my favorite extensions are the ones for businesses extending or starting up in
Puerto Rico and America Samoa. Don’t you
just love how the liberals love to extend those tax breaks that actually keep
or send jobs outside the states themselves?
3. Next we have those wonderful extensions
of tax breaks for “energy efficient homes” and anything “green”. I love how those people paying $40,000+ for
Chevy Volts are going to get an extension of tax breaks because they choose to
own a vehicle that likes to catch on fire for no other reason than it is plugged
into the wall in their garage. Of course
that could hurt that tax break they’ll get on their mortgage interest after the
house burns down around their ears and the insurance pays it off for them.
4. For those unemployed because there are
still NO JOBS, your unemployment benefits are being extended for a full 52
weeks. There is no requirement that you
actually look for a job, they’ve just decided that you can live off them for
another year. Businesses will still
receive their tax breaks for providing “job training”. Of course, those same businesses still don’t
have any real incentive for expanding and/or creating new jobs unless of course
they want to put some shrimp on treadmills.
Now we get into the SPENDING PORTION of the bill:
5. Medicare extensions are plentiful in this
bill. How dare they want to actually do
anything to prevent the fraud so rampant in Medicare though! This is evident in how they have addressed
the issue of “overpayments”. I find it
absolutely adorable how they are allowing a non-efficient bureaucracy MORE time
to find these overpayments and figure out a way to get that money back.
6. And now we come to a brand new way to
spend money. The establishment of…wait
for it…“The Commission on Long-Term Healthcare”. This is the creation of a brand new
non-elected group of people who will determine HOW and WHO shall receive “long-term
healthcare”. Can you say “death panel”
boys and girls?
7. Those lovely agricultural programs have
all been extended. Our personal favorite
is the extension of benefits for “Socially Disadvantaged Farmers or Ranchers”,
you know because their cattle really do need the internet. I honestly believe that a lonely cow without
access to cowmatch.com is completely unacceptable.
8. The sequester “can” has officially been
kicked two months down the road so we can expect another last minute ordeal on
February 28th.
9. The Congress did decide that they would
not give themselves any “rate of living” increase. But…it’s contingent upon “any other laws
notwithstanding”. I’m thinking that they
put that in there so the Petulant President’s executive order will override
their “symbolic gesture”. Any takers on
that one?
And the “cake they have covered with shit icing
and are now calling a cupcake”, as my friend Matthew Vermillion over at
libertybellradio.com says, is crowned with a beautiful cherry on top…
NUMBER
10:
Taken directly from the bill without any other
comment from me:
SEC. 1011. BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
(a)
PAYGO SCORECARD.—The budgetary effects of
this
Act shall not be entered on either PAYGO scorecard
157
MAT12564 S.L.C.
maintained
pursuant to section 4(d) of the Statutory Pay-
As-You-Go
Act of 2010.
(b)
SENATE PAYGO SCORECARD.—The budgetary
effects
of this Act shall not be entered on any PAYGO
scorecard
maintained for purposes of section 201 of S.
6 Con. Res. 21 (110th Congress).
All in all, I
will admit that the extensions of the tax breaks we were already enjoying are a
good thing. With that being said, an
extension is NOT a tax CUT. But these
extensions do nothing to address the issue of much need spending cuts that
would reduce the deficit and ultimately the national debt. Instead, they’ve added all kinds of
additional spending that will increase the debt by about $4 trillon over the
next decade. But don’t take our word for
it...here is the link to the actual bill. http://www.scribd.com/doc/118551686/Mat-12564
Make sure you
have a copy of the current tax code handy when reading it though!
No comments:
Post a Comment