Pres. Obama has proposed and enacted thousands of dollars of tax relief for middle-class families

[bigtree]

Right now, President Obama is going all out to extend the payroll tax cut for the middle class -- and expand it for 2012.

In his first year in office, President Obama cut taxes for 95 percent of working families through the Recovery Act with the Making Work Pay tax cut.

With that same piece of legislation, he created the American Opportunity Tax Credit -- which is currently helping more than 9 million families afford the cost of college.

The Recovery Act also lowered the threshold for refunds through the Child Tax Credit -- providing a tax cut to 11.8 million working families.

The President also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit for families with three or more children -- giving them a tax cut of up to $640 this year.

President Obama has passed tax cuts for small businesses 17 times. These measures range from allowing corporation to expense 100 percent of their new investments until the end of 2011 to creating a new deduction for health care costs for the self-employed.

And just this week, the President also signed legislation to create tax credits for businesses that hire veterans.


read: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/22/president-obamas-record-taxes

[Liberal Veteran]

1. Grrr!!! Socialist Commie Republican Ivory Tower Sellout policies!

Did I miss anything?

Most of these sound fairly decent to me, but I expect both ends of the political spectrum to hate it with the heat of a thousand white hot suns.

[Myrina]

2. oooh, lookie at all the pretty hyperlinks!

That $600 tax cut nets me one extra tank of gas per month.

Wow, I'm livin' the high life, aren't I?

:eyes:

[MineralMan]

3. You might want to try reading those hyperlinks.

I'm glad you benefited from the cuts. A tank of gas is nothing to sneeze at these days.

[bigtree]

11. nice to be able to shrug off $600.

good for you

[TBF]

14. Maybe there's a class we can sign up for to learn how to do that ...

I'm getting tired of all the blue ... maybe there's a way to make them multi-colored

[KittyWampus]

24. I only net about $9,600 a year. $600 is a huge chunk of change for me.

[mmonk]

4. I know about all the tax cuts.

The relief from tax cuts however is limited from a macro-economic long term impact when budget cuts in domestic spending are also in the equation. I was hoping infrastructure spending could be in the equation but our government is broken. Only cuts are allowed in either.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. Great, as long as it's not used as a bogus excuse for another

attempt to raid Social Security.

You forgot to mention that Obama also passed the three Bush "free" trade bills and is lining up more of the same, and that his administration has allowed the banks to tremendously increase the amount of taxpayer cash they can gamble with.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. I am wondering how the payroll tax cut helps in funding Social Security?

:shrug:

[ecstatic]

9. The 98% is not what keeps SS afloat

It's the top 2%--and of course, they need to be taxed more!

[mmonk]

10. It doesn't. While the poor and middle class will spend their tax cuts

in the economy which is good, the payment comes later (which to me is counter productive).

[TBF]

15. Well that's a good question - we'll get the answer when they completely

cut Social Security and Medicare because they haven't been properly funded.

[Itchinjim]

20. 21...

[MadHound]

6. Tax cuts and tax credits are the least effective form of economic stimulus going,

Not to mention the fact that a large part of the problem with the debt is that there simply not enough revenue coming in. Which leads to layoffs in the public sector, which means more unemployment, etc.

Not to mention that if we continue to keep the payroll tax low, we're essentially starving Social Security, which means a cut in benefits coming down the road.

We don't need more tax cuts and tax credits right now. What is needed is a true WPA style jobs creation program on a large scale. But sadly, with this Congress, with this president, that's not going to happen. So instead we're treated to more right wing half measures, tax cuts and tax credit, that are ineffective at solving our current mess, and in fact contribute to the long term economic problem of the debt.

[bigtree]

16. so middle class tax cuts are now 'right-wing'

. . . and keeping middle class taxes high is progressive?

I'm glad that's just DU rhetoric.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[progressoid]

8. It's a good thing tax cuts create jobs and stimulate the economy.

Oh, wait, that's a republican thing.

Never mind.

[jaxx]

12. K&R

[woo me with science]

13. Even while putting into place a TRILLION in austerity cuts

during the worst economy since the Great Depression,

and even while actively pressuring attorneys general across the United States for settlements that will prevent criminal prosecution of the corrupt bankers who drove millions into poverty.

and even while supporting payroll tax holidays that deliberately starve Social Security and tie it directly to the general fund.

Woo hoo. He wrote a few checks to poor people, too.

[bigtree]

17. name ONE of those cuts

. . . and bullshit on Social Security 'starving' because of the payroll tax cuts. They haven't cost the fund one cent.

[woo me with science]

25. It doesn't matter. Slashing a trillion from the budget

in an economy like this is bad news, period. All your frantic spinning to the contrary does not erase the fact that this is textbook Republican austerity policy, now adopted and made bipartisan by the corporate, Third Way elements of our party. Hundreds of economists warned the President that this policy would be destructive to an economy that is already causing a world of pain.

And *of course* the payroll tax holiday threatens Social Security by reducing the funds dedicated directly to it. Obama has been trying all along to tie SS to the general fund, more and more.

People are sick and tired of being shat upon and told that they are receiving a spa treatment. This president has been working for the one percent since Day One of his Presidency, and that has not changed.

You have fun spinning, bigtree. Meanwhile, the 99 percent continues to mass in the streets. Support OWS.

[bigtree]

28. oh. I see. I disagree with you so it's 'spinning'

got it.

Just remember that I'm not a politician, I work for a living; 6 or more days a week manual labor. I've been a union worker for almost 29 years. I'm not the President, I'm not Congress, I'm just a working man with a point of view. Nice how folks look to be just itching to marginalize those who disagree with them and then come on with the 99% slogan. Who do you believe the OWS movement intends to represent? Is there some other 99% I'm not aware of?

I just showed you where the President has acted in the interest of middle-class Americans and you dismissed it out of hand. You want to 'shit' on those who are benefiting from the tax relief he initiated and provided those middle-class Americans, all the while offering NOTHING realistic or achievable in this current political environment.

I guess you'd be satisfied with these same middle-class Americans waiting and waiting for you to produce whatever political transformation that would make all of your ideals a reality. Well, no thanks. I'll take something over nothing any day.

[Bluenorthwest]

29. Some middle class families are not equal to others

Obama sez: only some are Sanctified!

[bigtree]

31. right

. . . but, its not a simple as 'Obama sez' and you know it.

[Bluenorthwest]

32. Yeah, grab onto the wise crack and evade the point it is used

to make. He does say that, you know. Point is, when you post this stuff, each time you type 'family' you should type 'some families' and yet you do not even mention the unfair treatment that has been extended with each reuse. You leave us out, and you know it.
Edited to note that equal is equal, less than that is wrong, and those who casually accept injustice create injustice.

[bigtree]

33. well, I appreciate your point

and I did thoughtlessly (not deliberately) leave out a sizable number of Americans in relationships and families not yet recognized by the government in the dispensation of these tax breaks.

But, no, I don't think it makes sense to wait until that political issue is resolved before accepting, proposing, enacting tax breaks for the middle class. In that political equation, the President certainly isn't the deciding factor, although, he could well be a positive influence if he adopted the stance of recognizing relationships, marriages, partnerships which fall outside of the present, narrow definitions. That's what I meant by pointing out it isn't just a matter of what the President sez.

[Itchinjim]

21. 22...

[Martin Eden]

18. I'm middle class, and I'd rather see the money from my tax cuts spent elsewhere

Instead of tax cuts that I can get by just fine without I'd rather see Social Secirity, Medicare, and education protected instead of cut. I'd rather see jobs created through investments in green technologies and infrastructure. I'd also like to see the deficit reduced as much as possible without hurting economic recovery and people in need.

I'm not an economist so I can't quantify the stimulative effects of middle class tax cuts, but it strikes me as more a product of political calculation than "doing the math" on the economy & deficits. I think the Republican framing of tax cuts as "tax relief" has been too readily accepted by Democrats, and that our elected representatives are too fearful of asking for a minor sacrifice from their constituents.

IMO Obama's critical test on this came when he extended the Bush tax cuts rather than let all the tax cuts expire, including for the middle class. Did we (in the middle class) really need those Bush tax cuts in the first place?

[Itchinjim]

22. knr

[Quartermass]

23. We'll just have to pay it back eventually.

Tax cuts don't really help.

What would help us better is to lower the cost of things like food and gas, and to stop those prices from rising so freaking gosh darned much. That's what's hurting us.

And to stop taking away our hard earned money period.

But that will never happen.

One can only hope to dream.

[FarCenter]

26. Spurring consumption was the wrong policy: investments in the future would have been better

The use of short-term consumption stimulating measures would have been an appropriate Keynesian solution if the crises of 2008 had been a recession due to normal business cycle issues.

However, the financial crisis is much more extended than previous recessions, and stimulating consumption in a consumer economy with a high percentage of expenditure on consumption of services has no beneficial long term effects.

A better course of action would have been to increase government spending on investments that would have a pay back to retire the resulting debt in future years.

[bigtree]

30. you know the President tried that course several times

I don't think middle-class relief should have to wait for the political equation to produce an infrastructure plan. I don't think middle-class tax relief should have been held hostage to Congress' refusal to set the right priorities.

[FarCenter]

34. I agree that Congress in his first term was a huge problem

Obama and Congress spent all their effort and political capital during the first two years on health care non-reform.

Instead, if they had focused on fixing the economy with a good long term plan, there is a good chance that an effective program would be in progress now, two years later.

They had the time to do it. They didn't have the right priorities.

[Bluenorthwest]

27. Note, dear OP, all the tiems your post tells us that these things

benefit 'families' when what you mean is that they benefit some families, but not others. To be counted as a 'real family' in this country, you have to be 'Sanctified' and fit into the dogmatic narrowness of the 'one man, one woman' hypocrites. Only Warren/McClurkin approved families get any of this stuff. Other families are subjected to discrimination, and denied equal treatment under the law.
This is why, if one wishes to get mileage out of half measures for 'families' one should make sure all families are equally served by the law. The families who are not approved under Obama/Palin religious dogma are treated as strangers under these laws you come to brag about. Good stuff. For some. Not for all, and that is wrong. I hope you all enjoy your tax breaks. But we want them as well.

[Ratty]

35. Really hate the words tax relief and tax burden

Just say "tax cut" and don't orwell it into something laden with added meaning.

[ThomWV]

36. The President has "enacted" nothing. The Congress enacts.

The President executes the law, he doesn't create it, its why his is called the executive office.

[Fumesucker]

37. Obama's last tax deal raised net taxes on those making under $20K.

Lower income Americans already know what Obama's about.

[bigtree]

39. lower income Americans benefited from the Making Work Pay program which expired in 2010

That was a program that the President initiated and enacted. The lower tax rate that lower income Americans took advantage of was, in fact, a direct result of the President's own initiative.

When that program expired, the President sought to enact another break in taxes for the middle-class. The compromise that Congress eventually agreed to happened to be less than the president's original program. Regrettable, but that was a function of Congress, not the President.

Lower income Americans certainly realize that the first program the President initiated and signed into law had expired. They certainly knew that at that point they were left with nothing at all. They certainly recognized that it was the President who initiated and negotiated a compromise with Congress that at least restored most of the tax breaks.

In fact, it is the President who has taken the lead on initiating and helping enact middle-class tax relief. There isn't anyone who has been more involved and responsible for the tax relief they've received so far. Both tax relief initiatives were the President's proposal before Congress parsed them out.

Further, there really is no proof at all that lower income Americans somehow blame the President for Congress' shortcomings and alterations of his tax proposals as you so confidently purport to speak for them.

[freshwest]

38. It wasn't reported on MSM, so it *never* happened. Just so you'll know.

[Romulox]

40. The middle class needed JOBs, not tax-cuts. nt

[bigtree]

42. thus, the President's stalled Jobs plan and his tax incentives to hire workers

We also need temporary relief which the tax measures provide.

[Romulox]

45. Like "free trade" with Korea, you mean (part of Obama's "jobs bill", according to him.)??? nt

[bigtree]

46. you can't warp reality to make that part of his 'jobs bill'

I'm certain you'll try, but that effort would make Romney blush.

[Romulox]

48. It was a centerpiece of the President's big "Jobs" speech. Why do the President's supporters hate

his policies? :wtf:

From the President's "jobs" speech, delivered to Congress on September 8, 2011:

So, some things we can do on our own. Other steps will require congressional action. Today you passed reform that will speed up the outdated patent process, so that entrepreneurs can turn a new idea into a new business as quickly as possible. That’s the kind of action we need. Now it’s time to clear the way for a series of trade agreements that would make it easier for American companies to sell their products in Panama and Colombia and South Korea -– while also helping the workers whose jobs have been affected by global competition. (Applause.) If Americans can buy Kias and Hyundais, I want to see folks in South Korea driving Fords and Chevys and Chryslers. (Applause.) I want to see more products sold around the world stamped with the three proud words: “Made in America.” That’s what we need to get done. (Applause.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/us/politics/09text-obama-jobs-speech.html?pagewanted=all

[bigtree]

52. a speech isn't policy or legislation

The trade treaties mentioned in the speech were never part of the 'American Jobs Act'. No matter how hard you try you can't find trade initiatives in the 'American Jobs Act', the President's 'jobs bill'.

More distortion there than from the media. For what purpose? Isn't this type of prevarication that we properly excoriate the media for?

from the speech:

"The American Jobs Act answers the urgent need to create jobs right away. But we can’t stop there. As I’ve argued since I ran for this office, we have to look beyond the immediate crisis and startbuilding an economy that lasts into the future – an economy that creates good, middle-class jobs that pay well and offer security. We now live in a world where technology has made it possible for companies to take their business anywhere. If we want them to start here and stay here and hire here, we have to be able to out-build, out-educate, and out-innovate every other country on Earth.

This task, of making America more competitive for the long haul, is a job for all of us."


The trade initiatives were mentioned as separate measures that he considered vital to economic growth, not included in ANY part of his jobs bill ( the jobs bill that capitalist :eyes: Bernie Sanders voted for).
The trade initiatives were part of a 'competitiveness' strategy for stimulating the economy, not part of any plan to jump start employment.

[DefenseLawyer]

41. The middle class isn't over taxed, it's under paid. n/t

[bigtree]

43. to me, relating that sentiment to my own life, that's just rhetoric

I'm overtaxed and underpaid.

[DefenseLawyer]

47. What tax bracket are you in?

What taxes in particular are particularly onerous?

[SomethingFishy]

44. +1 Underpaid and overworked...

Is there anyone left in the "middle class" who only works a 40 hour week and manages to stay out of the red?

[Skittles]

49. we need JOBS AND PAY RAISES

and he needs to STOP MESSING WITH SOCIAL SECURITY

[JNelson6563]

50. K&R

[fascisthunter]

51. and how much did he give away to the wealthy?

exactly

[deacon]

53. k/r

[Marrah_G]

54. Pretty blue links from the White House!

All of which mean nothing to me as I work 2 jobs, one at minimum wage because the economy destroyed the first better paying job.

Tax credits and cuts mean jack shit to me.