April 08, 2008
I read the News Today Oh Boy....
More interesting tidbits from today's Wall Street Journal. First on the tax bomb that will hit us if the Dems/Liberals get their way. Check this out:
Still, we stand on the verge of a very large tax increase, one that will occur unless the next Congress and president agree to rescind it. Letting the Bush tax cuts expire will drive the personal income tax burden up by 25% – to its highest point relative to GDP in history.This would be the largest increase in personal income taxes since World War II. It would be more than twice as large as President Lyndon Johnson's surcharge to finance the war in Vietnam and the war on poverty. It would be more than twice the combined personal income tax increases under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The increase would push total federal government revenues relative to GDP to 20%.
Why this large tax increase? The tax code changes enacted in 2001 and 2003 are scheduled to expire at the end of 2010. If they do, statutory marginal tax rates will rise across the board; ranging from a 13% increase for the highest income households to a 50% increase in tax rates faced by lower-income households. The marriage penalty will be reimposed and the child credit cut by $500 per child. The long-term capital gains tax rate will rise by one-third (to 20% from 15%) and the top tax rate on dividends will nearly triple (to 39.6% from 15%). The estate tax will roar back from extinction at the same time, with a top rate of 55% and an exempt amount of only $600,000. Finally, the Alternative Minimum Tax will reach far deeper into the middle class, ensnaring 25 million tax filers in its web.
You can read the entire article here
Secondly, another appropriate editorial on the new Liberal Taboo -- free trade. Bubba championed free trade and pushed NAFTA. But the new Moveon.org Democratic Party is receding back to its leftist protectionist roots:
The WSJ notes:
That's the meaning of Sunday's sacking of strategist Mark Penn from Hillary Clinton's campaign. In his noncampaign job with a PR firm, Mr. Penn had met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. to discuss the free trade agreement that President Bush sent to Congress yesterday. When word of that meeting leaked to a Wall Street Journal reporter last week, big labor went bonkers and Mrs. Clinton gave him the heave-ho despite more than a decade of loyal service. Maybe if Mr. Penn had called General David Petraeus a con man, he'd still have a job.Mr. Penn's dismissal follows the previous humiliation of Barack Obama's economics adviser, Austan Goolsbee, for telling Canadian diplomats that Mr. Obama's anti-Nafta talk was merely campaign jive. Mr. Goolsbee has since all but entered the witness protection program. The grownups in both campaigns realize that free trade is good for the country, yet they must take a vow of public silence.
As Bill Shakespeare once said ... the "silence is deafening!"
Posted by Cigar Mike at April 8, 2008 09:07 AM
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Comments
great pic.
Posted by: Henry "Conductor" Gomez ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 8, 2008 05:27 PM
Mike -
I sincerely believe that these tax increases have about as much chance of passing in Congress as most Americans had a chance at getting Bill Clinton's fabled "Middle Class Tax Cut." It is all election year window dressing aimed at getting the "Envy Vote." Should these people actually be elected, these proposals will disappear like the foam on the crest of a wave. The actual damage in Foreign Policy that they can and would do is another matter. -S-
Posted by: Dr.Shalit at April 8, 2008 07:27 PM
The tax increase will happen and they don't have to do a thing. The expiration of the Bush tax cuts will put taxes back to where they were.
So watch your wallets folks.
Posted by: Cigar Mike Pancier at April 8, 2008 07:37 PM
Mike's right. The existing tax cuts are unusual in that they have an expiration date. There is no tax legislation to pass for the taxes to go up. All the Democrats and gutless Republicans have to do is sit on their hands while letting the tax cuts expire -- this way if people are unhappy with the tax hike, they can say "I didn't vote for it".
Posted by: Zhangliqun at April 8, 2008 08:45 PM
Henry,
It's especially a shame what they're doing to Colombia
Posted by: nguirado at April 8, 2008 11:14 PM
With regards to the Free Trade Agreement?
Yes. It's a crime.
Posted by: Henry "Conductor" Gomez at April 9, 2008 08:40 AM
"The estate tax will roar back from extinction at the same time, with a top rate of 55% and an exempt amount of only $600,000."
Mike, I do not think that is factually correct. The estate tax is repealed in 2010 and its rate is zero. In 2011 it does not revert or "roar back" as the WSJ says to $600,000 but does "roar back" to $1,000,000 with a top rate of 50%.
In 2009 it is $3,500,000 with a top rate of 45%.
The last time I believe it was $600,000 with a 55% rate was 1997.
Posted by: JackW at April 11, 2008 08:07 PM
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