Grover Norquist against the world
We have seen enough statistics in our day to realize that most people agree on NOTHING. It is very hard to get consensus on anything. It seems as if the American people would fight over a piece of shit nowadays.
Well a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday has just proven that hell has frozen over and the American people can agree on one thing. HATING GROVER NORQUIST AND HIS STUPID TAX PLEDGE. Yes, that is right 85% percent of voters including 77% of Republicans think that the sacred goat of the Republican Party “not raising taxes on the wealthy” was a BAD BAD IDEA under any condition. What was going on in the Republic Caucus is beyond me but I have a feeling that most of them drank the “gold flake kool aid”
While the Norquist tax pledge wasn’t specifically mentioned. This insignificant figure wedged his way into our life’s with a stupid meaningless pledge that he expects all of his “bromises” to uphold. I have a feeling this Grover person deals with Napoleon Syndrome making himself to be more important than he actually is. I mean he isn’t the president or even an elected official. He is just some scraggly businessman with the balls of the very old in his hands that heads Americans for Tax Reform. . Why may you ask? I do not know. Maybe he has very deep pockets or a very deep throat.
Of course this is all just induction based upon the results of a simple poll question. Still one would argue that maybe this insistence on sheltering the wealthy does have something to do with good ole Grover since the Republicans drop his name every chance they get. Seriously is this guy a celebrity on AMC or something?
This poll question does hint on something much larger than it appears on the surface
Raising taxes on the rich is quite popular among those that aren’t rich. Surprise there ehhh? As a matter of fact 60% of those surveyed support it the other 40% are fans of Justin Beiber and Paris Hilton and don’t want a tax increase to hurt their acting careers.
Why pollsters neglect on having a polling question is beyond me. Maybe they think this Grover character has had his minute of fame. or maybe with the re election of Barack Obama people are waking up to the fact that the world doesn’t revolve around the wealthy. It is ok for the haves to suffer just as much as the have nots. I mean $250,000 a year could get you quite a pretty lifestyle. I think it is understandable for the wealthy discount riders to being paying their fair share. Lets approach this “fiscal cliff” in a balanced manner because money can only buy you so many votes and politicians. It looks like if the Republicans want to avoid taxing the wealthy they might want to look at updating their playbook from the age of the dinosaurs.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, Tax Law Tags: federal income tax, federal tax, fiscal cliff, income tax, republican, Repulbican Tax, tax pledge
Charities Lobby Congress
With the fiscal cliff looming and cuts on their way nonprofit organizations are descending upon capital hill to defend the charitable deduction tax credit.
Countless charities fear that the charitable deduction may be at risk and argue that cutting this tax credit to their groups they may be harming those that need the services these charities provide the most. By cutting these deductions charitable contributions may dry up effecting those most in need.
This isn’t the first time this deduction has been on the chopping block, but charities insist that with the economy recovering from such a crisis cutting this deduction would be a bad move.
“Over the last three years, I’ve never been more worried than I am now, partly because Congress is under enormous pressure to find new sources of revenue,” said senior vice president of United Way, Steve Taylor.
A nonprofit partisan group has estimated that by reducing this deduction annual giving could decline by 36% immediately after the change has taken place. This staggering cost tallies up to $7 billion dollars a year that won’t be going to help the needy.
President Obama, who once proposed this sort of deduction, came to their aid arguing that if these deductions were struck from the code or reduced that “every hospital and nonprofit agency across the country would find themselves on the verge of collapse.”
The president is proposing raising taxes on those individuals making $250,000 or more with a lot of pushback from Republicans. Republicans want to eliminate tax breaks and loopholes and keep the tax breaks on the wealthy citing their plan will save $800 billion dollars in tax revenue over the life of the plan.
The GOP remains vague on which deductions they will limit but Obama thinks the charitable deduction may be on the chopping block in their plan.
“There’s been a lot of talk that we can raise $800 billion or $1 trillion in revenues just by cutting loopholes,” Obama said. “But … the only way to do that would be if you completely eliminated, for example, charitable deductions.”
With the fiscal cliff looming both parties seem awash with ideas to curb our deficit and raise revenues.
Nonprofits argue that reduction of this deduction would be “catostrophic” and result in a “real fundamental change in our culture”. Charities receive about $300 billion a year through the act of giving. The deduction tax credit was meant to stimulate charitable contributions and from the looks of that number it looks like it is working.
A CBO report estimated that by eliminating the charitable contribution deduction the government would raise about $230 billion dollars over the next 4 years if giving levels were to remain constant.
The great recession led to dips in the amount of giving declining 7 percent in the last few years for wealthier households.
President Obama proposed capping itemized deductions to 28% of an individuals income down from the 35% it is now. This would obviously hit other deductions as well but charities are real nervous that this reduction will lead to hard times. .
Categories: Tax Law Tags: 501 c 3, charitable deduction, federal income tax, federal tax, income tax, nonprofit tax, tax code, tax reform
Grover warns of tea party resurrection; Mitchell: ‘fiscal cliff’ not the problem
With less than one month before the ‘fiscal cliff,’ both White House and Republican parties display an unrelenting tone and are still unable to come up with an agreement that will help avert the effects of the brewing storm of automatic spending cuts and higher federal tax rates by 2013.
Negotiations have been made, but so far no common ground has been reached. President Obama and his Democrat allies have earlier proposed a $1.6 trillion fiscal cliff proposal that presses mainly for higher federal tax rates for the wealthy, which is promptly countered by the $2.2 billion Republican plan that centers on curbing federal tax spending instead of levying higher federal taxes.
In NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Grover Norquist- author of the no-new-taxes pledge and one of the main influences in the GOP debates- warned of a tea party revival if Pres. Obama “pushes the country over the fiscal cliff.”
The fiscal cliff has serious implications: the expiration of the Bush federal tax cuts will raise the current federal tax rates; the expiration of Payroll Tax Cut will raise the rate to up to 2 percent; the commencement of the Budget Control Act will automatically cut back federal tax spending; and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act will result to additional federal taxes.
However, Cato Institute fellow Daniel Mitchell argues that the problem is not the fiscal cliff. “In a competitive global economy, for instance, it is bizarrely self-destructive to increase the double taxation of dividends and capital gains,” writes Mitchell.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, Tax Law Tags: federal income tax, federal tax, fiscal cliff, grover norquist, republican, tax code, tax pledge, tax reform