Worried about the "fiscal cliff"?

[Whovian]

Heed the words of H.L. Mencken: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

[ProdigalJunkMail]

1. when a family's taxes go up by $4000-$6000 per year

that is not imaginary.

sP

[Whovian]

2. and what families will this increase happen to?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. oh, let's see

families of 4 making $60K-$100K per year. but you knew that...

sP

[Whovian]

4. Actually, i did not. Could you enlighten me?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

5. wow... there IS one left...

http://taxfoundation.org/blog/monday-map-tax-increase-fiscal-cliff-median-four-person-family-each-state

sP

[ProdigalJunkMail]

6. maybe this will cheer you up...

http://taxfoundation.org/article/how-would-fiscal-cliff-affect-typical-families-each-state

sP

[HughBeaumont]

13. Right, because I'm POSITIVE that the "non-partisan" (LOL) Tax Foundation . . .

. . . has OUR best interests in mind.

You do realize that if the cuts expire, not one Republican in congress would vote down a > $250k tax cut that will eventually be proposed, right? I mean, not if they wanted to be re-elected anyway.

We cannot afford the Bush Tax Cuts any longer. Do you deny there's a revenue problem, primarily caused by the billions of yearly free money we're giving the wealthy? The spending problems are the result of our multiple wars, which need to be stopped also.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

15. i guess the others don't matter either... n/t

[1StrongBlackMan]

16. IMO ...

You do realize that if the cuts expire, not one Republican in congress would vote down a > $250k tax cut that will eventually be proposed, right? I mean, not if they wanted to be re-elected anyway.

This is why it is important that every Democrat in Congress should, everyday between now and January 1 (including Xmas and New Years Eve) call a press conference demanding that Boehner put the Senate Bill that protects the working class cuts, while letting those for those "earning" $250K+, expire to a vote.

No ... Press conferences AND prime-time DNC paid for ads.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

7. maybe you read Yahoo!

nah, you'd have gotten it there, too.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-the-fiscal-cliff-may-affect-your-taxes.html

sP

[ProdigalJunkMail]

8. more financial rag-oriented...

http://www.fpanet.org/journal/FacingtheFiscalCliff/

sP

[ProdigalJunkMail]

9. hell, just prepping for it could hurt

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/11/26/fiscal-cliff-tax-hike-fears-could-hurt-retailers-white-house-wa/

sP

[ProdigalJunkMail]

10. hope you don't know anyone who lives on dividends (like a lot of seniors)

http://www.lifeplanningtoday.com/2012/10/02/how-much-could-the-fiscal-cliff-tax-increases-cost-you/

sP

[ProdigalJunkMail]

11. hell, even Bloomberg agrees

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-01/u-s-households-face-tax-increase-from-2013-fiscal-cliff.html

sP

[godai]

14. Isn't it more like $2000? That's $40 a week.

And these aren't poor people, who likely don't have to pay federal taxes. These would be rates which were in effect in the near past. I say, jump off the cliff. Short term pain, long term solutions.

[HughBeaumont]

12. A right-wing scare meme that's about as false as the WMD NOT in Iraq:

http://www.alternet.org/economy/fiscal-cliff-scare-talk-follows-shock-doctrine-script?paging=off

At the end of the year the Bush tax cuts expire. When this happens tax rates will rise modestly to where they were when Clinton was President. Also at the end of the year budget “sequestration” occurs. This means that the various cuts Congress approved to end the debt ceiling “crisis” will begin to phase in. (Remember, the debt-ceiling “crisis” was when Republicans refused to allow the country to honor its debts, holding the economy hostage, unless they got deep budget cuts in the things We the People do for each other.)

That’s it. That’s the “crisis.” All of the people who had been hysterical about the budget deficit “crisis” are now hysterical that taxes will go up and spending will go down. Go figure. Maybe — just maybe — I shouldn’t even say it — these “serious people” weren’t … serious … when they said they were worried about the deficit. You see, the hysteria now is because tax rates at the top will go up (cutting the deficit), and because a big part of those budget cuts (cutting the deficit) is military spending. Unfortunately the sequestration also cuts important things that help a lot of people and our economy. But these cuts do not take place all at once (a “cliff”), they will be phased in over time, and the Congress can act at any time to halt any of these cuts.

The “Fiscal Cliff” is not a cliff and the language itself is intended to scare people . The name itself is designed to create panic, evoking disaster imagery of people and the economy falling off a cliff. It is the latest manufactured “crisis” and we are all supposed to be terrified and demand immediate and extreme solutions.

Again, the very people screaming loudest about deficits are the people who passed tax cut after tax cut, and military spending increase after military spending increase, and started war after war. Then these same “serious people” terrify the public, telling them that budget deficits will lead to the destruction of the country — and soon. After a decade of screaming “9/11,” “9/11,” noun verb “9/11,” they screamed “deficit, deficit, deficit.” Now they scream, “fiscal cliff, fiscal cliff, fiscal cliff.”

[ProdigalJunkMail]

17. and YOU complained about a 'partisan' review...

wow...

sP

[woo me with science]

18. Kick