Tax Cuts
 

What do you guys think?

Not a good precedent. A 2-year extension might as well be a 4-year extension, because in 2 years Obama won't be worrying about midterms he'll be worrying about his job. Pretty much made the Bush cuts permanant.

Meh, this is pretty much what i expected from our centrist-in-chief. If obama gets re-elected i think he'll start doing the balls out stuff that people expected him to do this time around... if he gets re-elected.

Interesting that you call Obama a centrist. He's actually a hardcore Democrat with no balls - there is a difference.

I liked Obermann better when he was on Sportscenter and didn't use such big words.

Not a practical one. With one exception he's been extremely middle of the road.

Fuck Olberman. "Idle" rich? Not everybody gets their money for being a raging fucking asshole Keith. The rich "keep" their money? That's new, here I thought they were the ones doing the vast amount of spending, investing, and paying all the taxes.

Funny how he should mention money at all since he is ultimately paid by the government since GE got a huge multi-billion dollar bailout from the government.

I realize he is there to counteract that O'reily's and Beck's of the world, but he is at least as bad and usually worse.

The unemployed are the job creators? What a crock of shit; as long as unemployment insurance provides a pretty decent pay, which it does right now, people will not be motivated to get off it. Unemployment insurance is one thing, but we have long passed the point of "insurance" and moved into welfare, people are taking way more out of the system then was ever intended.

And for the record, not raising taxes is not "a tax cut"

Not raising taxes IS a tax cut when you renew a temporary tax cut.

In a way the rich should be upset about this, not pleased. Yes, you get to keep more money, but the bad news is, it's DOLLARS and dollars are going to go to shit if the gvmt keeps running up debt.

Pump yer brakes Beebs. These "bailouts" were loans. Just because you borrow money from the government that does not make you a government employee.

The guy is a moron. The unemployed are the job creators? That doesn't even sound rational.

The liberals love to throw around the word "rich" like it's a new word they just learned in 2nd grade vocabulary class. $250,000/year is not rich. A net worth of $5 million is not rich. The true rich of this country could give a fuck about these tax cuts. That's why assholes like Keith, whose net worth is close to $25 million, can damn such tax cuts as more money for the haves taken from the have nots. The true job creators of this country are the small business owners. These owners who are being bled out by taxes. And assholes like Olbermann place them in the category as rich because they make $200,000 a year. Olbermann makes several million a year, fuck him.

Someone needs to tell Olbermann to pump his brakes.

Loans that could not be obtained on the free market, therefore loans that are not at market value, with the extra cost being carried by the taxpayers in the form of otherwise unacceptable risk.

More to the point though, the guy claims to be a journalist, yet neither he nor anybody at his network disclosed the fact that their owners received a huge amount of money from the government.

Not making much sense, you get to keep whatever form of currency you want, you only have to pay in dollars.

$250k a year is pretty rich. Come on meow.

Beebs, if I'm someone in the top tax bracket and paid in US dollars, I see this tax cut and I convert as much as I can to other currencies. Right now I am keeping all of my paycheck in GBP, but I still have more than 50% in USD and I would like to convert a chunk of it to CAD/AUS or some asian currencies. I think this is the point you were making, that I don't have to keep my USD?

We keep spending money as if it's OK.

I expect this will be the Democrats' rallying cry in two years. "Uhh... we know he didn't do anything in the past four years, but if we re-elect him, we'll really see some changes this time!!"

I don't see what the relative "richness" of $250k has to do with anything, especially when you are talking as if the dollar is going to be hugely inflated

Not sure what exactly you are saying with the rest; as long as you pay your taxes in USD, you can use any currency you like for everything else. In some circumstances you don't even have to pay in USD, just the equivalent value. I mean it's a continuation of a tax break, not a tax rebate: they aren't going to be cutting you a check in USD.

So the idea that people should be mad that they are getting a tax cut because it is in USD makes no sense, even if the dollar does become devalued. People might be mad at the actual devaluation of the USD, but that would be true with or without having to pay less taxes.

Also it's not like the USD is doing particularly bad against the Euro or the GBP, a lot of places are forecasting that the USD will actually gain in relative value against both.


So basically, I'm just not understanding why you think people should be mad at not having their taxes raised.

1) USD doing well against the GBP or EUR is not saying much considering Ireland just got downgraded and Portugal may be next, with Italy in the wings. Not great company there.

2) I'm bearish on USD, a lot of people are bullish but I disagree with them. DXY is a pretty good way to look at how the USD is doing without comparing it directly to another currency.

Well they are the 3 major reserve currencies in the world, so it is still pretty important how valuable they are in relation to each other.

Overall, I just don't get why you think having to pay less money in taxes would upset people, even if dollar was suddenly halved in value.

If governments aren't responsible all currencies will become worthless. Wealthy people have the incentive to keep the system stable. I'd prefer if governments funded their budgets.

I think the US is pretty far from societal collapse / hyperinflation.

I would prefer governments funded their budgets as well, but would like it to be done with as small of a budget as possible.