I must turn in but before I go I will leave you with a synopsis of tday's tax bill which was passed by the senate....please read it and pay particular attention to the last sentence.
Quote:
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a far-reaching, $136 billion corporate tax package (search) Monday that cuts taxes for businesses ranging from film companies to bow and arrow makers while closing tax loopholes and bringing U.S. exporters in line with international trade rules.
With the 69-17 vote, the legislation that was two years in the making and required a rare weekend session in the Senate to complete, goes to President Bush for his signature.
"About 200,000 American manufacturers will receive a benefit to help create jobs," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
Senators also passed by voice vote two spending bills for 2005, a $33 billion homeland security bill and another including $14.5 billion in relief for Florida hurricane victims and drought-ravaged farmers in the Plains states, before their belated departure for the campaign trail.
The House adjourned on Saturday after finishing its actions on the three bills.
Monday's vote was made possible by a Sunday night agreement to satisfy the concerns of several Democrats threatening to immobilize the Senate with a weeklong filibuster.
Sens. Mary Landrieu (search), D-La., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., sought to protect measures left out of the corporate tax bill, while Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, objected to a cut in spending for a farm conservation program linked to drought assistance.
In the settlement, the three senators were promised mostly symbolic votes in which the Senate will reaffirm positions it has taken in the past, but which have been opposed by House Republican leaders.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, blamed politics for the difficulties in getting the bill through Congress. "Certain members of this body don't want a Republican president signing a jobs bill a few days before the election," he said.
Harkin held up action on the hurricane aid, attached to a $10 billion military construction spending bill, to protest the decision to pay for the $2.9 billion in drought relief by cutting a farm conservation program that he has championed.
The hurricane money, intended mostly for the election battleground state of Florida, is not budgeted and will increase the federal deficit.
Landrieu won agreement for a vote on a measure giving a 50 percent tax credit to employers who compensate workers up to $30,000 in lost pay when military Reservists or National Guard (search) members are called to active duty. It was estimated to have a $2.5 billion cost over 10 years.
Her proposal had been in the Senate version of the corporate tax bill but was taken out when House Republicans opposed it. Given that opposition, it was unlikely to win House passage.
Harkin got a vote Monday on a Senate resolution to instruct members of an upcoming budget conference committee that the Senate wants funding restored for the agriculture conservation program.
The corporate tax bill grew out of the need for Congress to respond to a World Trade Organization (search) ruling that a $5 billion annual subsidy for U.S. exporters was illegal. As a result, 1,600 American exports to Europe are being hit by penalty tariffs that now stand at 12 percent and are rising by one percentage point a month.
The bill became the vehicle for the most significant overhaul of corporate tax law in nearly two decades. It includes $76.5 billion in new tax relief for the manufacturing sector, which was broadly defined to include oil and gas producers, architectural and engineering firms and film and music companies.
The package also provides benefits for a wide range of groups, from native Alaskan whalers, importers of Chinese ceiling fans, NASCAR (search) race track owners and residents of states without state income taxes, who would be able to deduct state and local sales taxes from their federal tax returns.
The measure includes a $10.1 billion buyout for tobacco farmers. Several senators from both parties objected strenuously that the final version of the bill drops Senate-approved language that would give the Food and Drug Administration (search) the power to regulate tobacco.
The Senate late Sunday approved two measures pushed by Kennedy and Harkin to reassert FDA authority over tobacco and to ban implementation of new Bush administration rules that critics say will deny overtime pay to millions of workers. Both proposals are unlikely to win approval in the House.
In addition to the tax relief for manufacturing, the tax measure has $42.6 billion in tax relief for multinational companies. All the tax breaks are paid for by $136 billion in measures intended to close corporate loopholes and tax shelters.
#397603 - 10/12/0401:08 AM
Re: Political Discussion: One Thread Only!
Baitrunner
Member
Registered: 04/12/02
Posts: 1366
Ice Buster, As usual, you're right on top of things. I would, however, like to add that the pipe dream that a Kerry win will cure all ills is just that; a pipe dream. Even if Keery should win the Presidency, still a toss up as of today, the House of Representatives shall still remain in Republican hands; the Senate, highly probable.
How this reality endows Mr. Kerry with carte blanche, escapes me. Divided government shall still remain. Tax increases, aka Bush rollbacks, are not automatically guaranteed. (The congress is not world-renowned for hasty legislation.)
I can still take some solace in this fact. So, if one is under the delusion that a "floor for the poor" is on its way, all I can say is, keep dreamin' Alice!
"I think, that all right-thinking people, are sick and tired of being told that they are sick and tired of being sick and tired. I, for one, am not. And I'm sick and tired of being told that I am!"
#397604 - 10/12/0401:33 AM
Re: Political Discussion: One Thread Only!
Anonymous
Unregistered
Tell me something BR, IB, and others, do you feel that it's only OK for republicans and corporations to keep their own money, but that democrats should pay a higher rate, and that there should be a totally seperate tax code for democratic Presidential candidates? Because that's sure what it sounds like to me?
I see none of you have the b*lls to address this question or explain how it is that you reconcile your postion on defending the wealthy's right to keep their money, with your positon on criticizing Kerry for doing exactly what you say it is the wealthy's right to do.
TEL AVIV, Israel - The war in Iraq (news - web sites) did not damage international terror groups, but instead distracted the United States from confronting other hotbeds of Islamic militancy and actually "created momentum" for many terrorists, a top Israeli security think tank said in a report released Monday.
Great job Georgie, I think you "Took your eye off the ball", as some one else has said. Bush was right , we will never win the war on terror, when he is in charge.
Icebuster,The republican congress under newt gingrichs contract on america passed into law a line item veto hopeing there would be a republican president to use it.The first time clinton used it they took it to court and it was ruled unconstitutional.
According to an article in mondays usa today $24million of that corporate tax give away went to bow & arrow,tackle box and fish finder manufacturers.
#397607 - 10/12/0403:16 AM
Re: Political Discussion: One Thread Only!
Baitrunner
Member
Registered: 04/12/02
Posts: 1366
Quote:
Originally posted by nu2salt: Tell me something BR, IB, and others, do you feel that it's only OK for republicans and corporations to keep their own money, but that democrats should pay a higher rate, and that there should be a totally seperate tax code for democratic Presidential candidates? Because that's sure what it sounds like to me?
I see none of you have the b*lls to address this question or explain how it is that you reconcile your postion on defending the wealthy's right to keep their money, with your positon on criticizing Kerry for doing exactly what you say it is the wealthy's right to do.
HYPOCRITES!! TO THE LAST MAN!!
N2S, Might I respectfully suggest you schedule a visit to your personnal physician for an Aprazolam prescription? You need some chill pills, dude. You're getting way too worked up over this.
I, nor anyone else here, has any obligation, to respond to every issue within this thread; it is an impractical request in a thread this long.
Just this once, however, I shall yield to your request, and respond to your query. While your idea of 2 tax rates, one for Republicans, one for Democrats, is, indeed, a tantalizing suggestion, I'm sure the Supreme court would not stand for it. But thanks for the great idea, any-hoo!
I would have hoped that the issue in question would have been self-explanatory, but, since it seems not, I shall elaborate for those rose-colored glasses individuals who see not the forest for the trees.
The point being not the legality of Kerry's tax return, but duplicitious hypocrisy he shows by claiming the "rich" do not pay their "fair share".(Which, by the looks of what returns have been uncovered, seems to be true! He, (they) certainly do not!) Frankly, I would think honor would dictate outrage on your part upon your candidate, rather than upon those who merely point it out.
Tis your boy, who is the hypocrite, not I. Some real damage may well have been thrust upon the Dem's this day; we shall see soon enough. 'Nuff said.
"I think, that all right-thinking people, are sick and tired of being told that they are sick and tired of being sick and tired. I, for one, am not. And I'm sick and tired of being told that I am!"
Hey T-Man, and you thought reading the other thread gave you a headache????? Ooo Boy!
Where to start? Let's see a bunch of you think because GW hunts and fishes he's good for the sportsman. Where you gonna hunt when he allows clear cutting of the forests, after building all those roads through them. After you clear cut the woods down and sell all the lumber to Japan and China, they declare that the demand for lumber is way up the price of building our homes is gonna be Way up. The rivers get all the crap washed off the banks because the woods are overseas. Then pump all kinds of his buddies oil all over Alaska, cause someone say's oop's I guess our technology aint all that after all. The rest of the oops end's up in the ocean, and guess what thats not a problem, it will go away by itself, try to fish thru an oil slick and tar globs. Good luck gettin it off your boat, at least it will preserve your hull. I have personally seen a carb on a car that his oil buddies have hidden away, that allows a car to more than triple the gas mileage of the best car on the road today, with no loss of power, they know we need to keep paying thru the nose for oil, don't we?? The only good place to hunt or fish will be on his ranch, or at KenniBUNKport, if you can get past the secret service. GW is a boob, and a liar at best, but I'm not sure I want to vote for Kerry either.
Tight lines, warm breezes, good friends, plenty of bait. It doesn't get any better.
It's not hard to predict what President Bush, who sounds increasingly desperate, will say tomorrow. Here are eight lies or distortions you'll hear, and the truth about each:
Jobs
Mr. Bush will talk about the 1.7 million jobs created since the summer of 2003, and will say that the economy is "strong and getting stronger." That's like boasting about getting a D on your final exam, when you flunked the midterm and needed at least a C to pass the course.
Mr. Bush is the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a decline in payroll employment. That's worse than it sounds because the economy needs around 1.6 million new jobs each year just to keep up with population growth. The past year's job gains, while better news than earlier job losses, barely met this requirement, and they did little to close the huge gap between the number of jobs the country needs and the number actually available.
Unemployment
Mr. Bush will boast about the decline in the unemployment rate from its June 2003 peak. But the employed fraction of the population didn't rise at all; unemployment declined only because some of those without jobs stopped actively looking for work, and therefore dropped out of the unemployment statistics. The labor force participation rate - the fraction of the population either working or actively looking for work - has fallen sharply under Mr. Bush; if it had stayed at its January 2001 level, the official unemployment rate would be 7.4 percent.
The deficit
Mr. Bush will claim that the recession and 9/11 caused record budget deficits. Congressional Budget Office estimates show that tax cuts caused about two-thirds of the 2004 deficit.
The tax cuts
Mr. Bush will claim that Senator John Kerry opposed "middle class" tax cuts. But budget office numbers show that most of Mr. Bush's tax cuts went to the best-off 10 percent of families, and more than a third went to the top 1 percent, whose average income is more than $1 million.
The Kerry tax plan
Mr. Bush will claim, once again, that Mr. Kerry plans to raise taxes on many small businesses. In fact, only a tiny percentage would be affected. Moreover, as Mr. Kerry correctly pointed out last week, the administration's definition of a small-business owner is so broad that in 2001 it included Mr. Bush, who does indeed have a stake in a timber company - a business he's so little involved with that he apparently forgot about it.
Fiscal responsibility
Mr. Bush will claim that Mr. Kerry proposes $2 trillion in new spending. That's a partisan number and is much higher than independent estimates. Meanwhile, as The Washington Post pointed out after the Republican convention, the administration's own numbers show that the cost of the agenda Mr. Bush laid out "is likely to be well in excess of $3 trillion" and "far eclipses that of the Kerry plan."
Spending
On Friday, Mr. Bush claimed that he had increased nondefense discretionary spending by only 1 percent per year. The actual number is 8 percent, even after adjusting for inflation. Mr. Bush seems to have confused his budget promises - which he keeps on breaking - with reality.
Health care
Mr. Bush will claim that Mr. Kerry wants to take medical decisions away from individuals. The Kerry plan would expand Medicaid (which works like Medicare), ensuring that children, in particular, have health insurance. It would protect everyone against catastrophic medical expenses, a particular help to the chronically ill. It would do nothing to restrict patients' choices.
By singling out Mr. Bush's lies and misrepresentations, am I saying that Mr. Kerry isn't equally at fault? Yes.
Mr. Kerry sometimes uses verbal shorthand that offers nitpickers things to complain about. He talks of 1.6 million lost jobs; that's the private-sector loss, partly offset by increased government employment. But the job record is indeed awful. He talks of the $200 billion cost of the Iraq war; actual spending is only $120 billion so far. But nobody doubts that the war will cost at least another $80 billion. The point is that Mr. Kerry can, at most, be accused of using loose language; the thrust of his statements is correct.
Mr. Bush's statements, on the other hand, are fundamentally dishonest. He is insisting that black is white, and that failure is success. Journalists who play it safe by spending equal time exposing his lies and parsing Mr. Kerry's choice of words are betraying their readers.
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