An old Dutch proverb says, "We grow too soon old and too late smart." That proverb is quite appropriate as "Dear Leader" President Barack Hussein Obama's "fiscal cliff deal" actually increased taxes on his supporters. As Joseph Curl provided some quotes in The Washington Times:
from Meet Virginia: "Really, how am I ever supposed to pay off my student loans if my already small paycheck keeps getting smaller? Help a sister out, Obama."
from Bake: "My paycheck just went down. So did my wife's. This hurts us. But everybody says it's a good thing, so I guess we just suck it up and get used to it. I call it a tax increase on the middle class."
from a poster on DemocraticUnderground.com: "My paycheck just went down by an amount that I don't feel comfortable with. I guarantee this decrease is gonna' hurt me more than the increase in income taxes will hurt those making over 400 grand. What happened?"
from RomneyLies: "I know to expect between $93 and $94 less in my paycheck on the 15th."
from DemocratToTheEnd: "My boyfriend has had a lot of expenses and is feeling squeezed right now, and having his paycheck shrink really didn't help."
from Nancy Thongkham: "F***ing Obama! F*** you! This taking out more taxes s*** better f***ing help me out!! Very upset to see my paycheck less today!"
I am not making this up. I even provided a link to Curl's article.
Curl also wrote:
"Shocker. Democrats who supported the president's re-election just had NO idea that his steadfast pledge to raise taxes meant that he was really going to raise taxes. They thought he planned to just hit those filthy "1 percenters," you know, the ones who earned fortunes through their inventiveness and hard work. They thought the free ride would continue forever."
So, what happened? Obama, with the help of Congress, in 2009, enacted a "holiday" on the payroll tax deduction from employees' paychecks. But his "fiscal cliff deal" didn't extend the holiday. Nor did it even pretend to address Social Security entitlement spending, which now comprises the single largest budget item. But not to worry since the Social Security Trust Fund has the back of all us retirees. Suuuuuuuuuure!
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Glenn Contrarian
Yeah! Give us all back that payroll tax holiday (which was always meant to be temporary)! Who needs Medicare or Social Security or Unemployment Insurance! Nobody ever uses those things anyhow!!!!
Look, Honey Boo-Boo Chile, there's an old saying: you get what you pay for. If you aren't willing to pay the taxes required to maintain a first-world country, then move to a third-world nation where you can pay a lot less (or none at all). And maybe, just maybe you'll find out first-hand how nice it is to live in a nation where there's enough tax revenue to pay for the things that we Americans take for granted.
2 - Igor
Much heavy breathing over nothing. Obama said all along he wanted to lapse the temporary Bush tax cuts. And everyone knew that the payroll tax holiday was temporary.
To get effective and fair taxes we have to decide who to target for benefits and who to target for tax increases.
Back in 2001 Bush excused the disproportionate tax cuts for the rich by saying "they pay most so they should benefit most", and "the rich will use the money to hire people".
Now we see, from Romneys returns for example, that the rich do NOT pay the most, and from the failures of the labor market since the tax cuts that the rich do NOT hire people with their windfall tax savings.
Two premises of republican tax policy demolished in the Great Bush Tax Cut Experiment.
Back to the drawing board.
3 - Not the liberal actor
Re: comment # 1 & 2, Glenn and Igor, why are both your feeble attempts to pontificate and try to change the subject not a surprise to me? Say what y'all will about jobs, tax cuts, and Social Security, the FACTS are that taxes increased, and Obama (or someone who writes for his teleprompter) lied. Obama said, "[This bill] raises taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans while preventing a middle class tax hike that could have sent the economy back into a recession." (emphasis mine) The bottom line is that Obama lied! Taxes did increase for the middle class. Or can y'all provide sources that define the middle class differently and show me the error of my ways? And that same sentiment goes for subsequent commenters as well.
4 - Igor
Taxes returned to their pre-Bush levels, that's all.
The Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 were sold as TEMPORARY. They had to be lapsed sooner or later, especially when they proved counter-productive.
5 - Glenn Contrarian
Warren -
The FACT is that Obama was referring to allowing the temporary Bush tax cuts to lapse - and then only for those who were already wealthy. The payroll tax holiday was itself never meant as anything more than temporary.
But of course since those are only facts and not rabid anti-Obama rhetoric, they mean absolutely nothing in Warren World.
6 - Glenn Contrarian
And Warren -
You DO remember the tax levels the last time America had a budget surplus, don't you? And the time before that? And the time before that?
Don't you?
Hm?
7 - troll
Warren - you are concerned that the statement [This bill] raises taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans while preventing a middle class tax hike that could have sent the economy back into a recession. is a lie
I challenge you to parse or reanalyze the proposition assigning meanings in such a way as to render it true
your liberal friends have been trying to help you with this
8 - troll
...an attitude of reflexive falsifiability would improve your articles generally
but that's just my opinion
9 - Dr Dreadful
Warren claims the ending of a temporary tax relief measure counts as a tax increase. You what?
Why don't we apply this logic to another area of government? Suppose there were a temporary amnesty in place for illegal immigrants. And then let's suppose Obama signs an executive order ending the amnesty. Would Warren give the President credit for introducing stronger immigration laws, I wonder?
10 - Jet Gardner
...Like I said, the ear-piercing Hussein-screaming brat in the middle of a grocery store that nearly every one is too polite to say something to-impossible to reason with and just as annoying.
Oh dear, I've missed his point again.
Hussein the boogie man!
Hussein the boogie man!
HUSSEIN THE BOOGIE MAN!!!!!
{:^PbPbP~~~~~~~~~
11 - Baronius
Igor, Troll, and Glenn - You misread the article, and apparently aren't familiar with the issue. This isn't about the ending of the Bush tax cuts; it's about the ending of the payroll tax cut. Warren made it pretty clear that's what he was talking about.
Maybe rather than slamming Warren without understanding his article, you could do what Jet apparently does, and slam Warren without reading his article. No, wait, that's no better. I don't know what to tell you.
12 - troll
nope - the article is about Obama telling a lie...Baronius clearly misread my comment at least
13 - Dr Dreadful
Baronius, both Glenn and Igor acknowledged that Warren's complaint was about the payroll tax holiday. They expanded their responses to include the Bush tax cuts for context, which I think is valid.
Troll, on the other hand, is simply encouraging Warren to try and look at the President's statement on the bill differently than his predetermined conclusions about it. Good luck with that...
14 - troll
...just establishing a benchmark in the therapeutic process as I would with any paranoid type
Warren makes it clear in #3 that the lie is 'the bottom line' for him...so I thought that's what should be responded to
15 - Cindy
Meet Virginia?
And I thought the article was about meeting a Vagina. Not nearly as interesting an article as I had hoped for.
16 - Jet Gardner
Clearly Baronius missed Igor, Troll, and Glenn's point... and I did read the article. About as amusing as the sunday funny papers and not nearly as intelligent
17 - Glenn Contrarian
Um, Baronius -
My first comment - that's #1 above - didn't address the Bush tax cuts at all. I addressed only the payroll tax cuts and what those payroll taxes are used for.
Sometimes I pull a real boehner and misread what's written, but not this time. This time, it's you who misread my comments. That is not a hit on you, however, because I'm at least as (and probably more) guilty of it than you are, so no big deal.
18 - Dr Dreadful
Meet Virginia?
And I thought the article was about meeting a Vagina.
No, Cindy, that would be "Unnecessary Pap Smears"...
19 - Cindy
Very astute, my dear Wats...er...Dr.D.
20 - Dr Dreadful
Damn! My secret identity is revealed.
21 - Jet Gardner
Don't you hate it when that happens? ... especially when you have to buy a new cape
22 - Cindy
lol, you sillies :-)
23 - Not the liberal actor
I find these comments to be quite amusing as most of you try to obfuscate, change the subject, and spread mis-information.
For example, for comments # 4 and # 5, Igor and Glenn, the "fiscal cliff deal" bill actually extended the (so-called) Bush tax cuts for most Americans. That allowed the Senate to claim it was cutting taxes. Bush, BTW, had nothing to do with the (so-called) tax holiday. If Obama had been truthful, he would have not let the "temporary" tax holiday lapse either. But, noooooooooooooooooo! He let it lapse, while lying and saying taxes on the "middle class" will not increase.
Re: comment # 10, Jet, Is someone holding a gun on you forcing you to read my articles? If not, DON'T READ THEM!
Re: comment # 13, Doc, you say, "They expanded their responses to include the Bush tax cuts for context, which I think is valid." (emphasis mine) Well, Doc, had you done ANY research, you would know that the "fiscal cliff deal" bill signed by Obama extended the (so-called) Bush tax cuts for a vast number (those making under $250,000 per year) of Americans.
Re: comment # 15, Cindy, what an erudite (NOT) comment you made. And that goes for comments # 18 through # 22, as well.
24 - Jet Gardner
Warren you're like the Howard Stern show-I can't help watching to see what assinine thing you're going to say next.
By the way, I'm dissappointed that you haven't copied Limp-baugh's recent equating homosexuals to pedophiles yet...
or did I give away your next article (ooops)
25 - troll
...any non-paranoid watching the clip of the offending statement in full can see that it's reasonable to think that Obama was talking specifically about income taxes
should he have pointed out additionally that SS withholding was going back up? perhaps...but then he would have had to explain that the entitlement system couldn't afford to carry private business by stimulating consumption any longer without nasty long term consequences