While going off the "fiscal cliff" might be the only way to make the rich pay their fair share in taxes again – a bunch of unemployed struggling Americans will be forced off the cliff, too.
At the end of the year, more than 2.1 million Americans could be screwed when their extended unemployment benefits expire. Part of going off the "fiscal cliff" means that any American who's been unemployed for more than six months and is currently collecting extended unemployment benefits will stop receiving a check. As ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Sander Levin said, "We cannot forger the human cliff looming for more than two million Americans scheduled to lose their economic lifeline during the upcoming holidays." Expect Republicans to act like the Party of Scrooge and to hold these benefits hostage at the end of the year to make sure taxes on their billionaire overlords don't go up. Stay tuned.
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Middle class tax rates are at 30 year lows.
ReplyDeleteThe cost of the middle class tax cut? 2.7T over a decade.
The cost of the rich tax cut? .67T over a decade.
It's time for everyone to pair their fair share, while it's also time for the gov't to go back to fiscal sanity. Cut spending, increase taxes, and do the tough work no one in DC has done in over a decade.
Union officials are sweating bullets trying to figure out what to do with the pension funds that are now worth nothing. US Labor Dept, which according to fed law, has to categorize penision funds lists 1/2 of them as being either endangered or critical.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those on the edge of the cliff and likely to lose unemployment benefits January 2013.
ReplyDeleteI've applied for 100's of jobs, got a call Wednesday about working 2 days every two weeks. Best offer I've had in months, hardly enough to avoid possible foreclosure on a home with only 10 years to pay off and surely the surrender of my car to the bank first or second month of 2013.
If you think I'm just a taker, go ahead and offer me aliveable wage shoveling crap right here and now and I'll take it!
In the interest of "fairness" everyone should do their fair share. Afterall it's fairness we are talking about. While of course there are those who cannot pay more in taxes, they can contribute their fair share in other ways. All food entitlements should be changed to and modeled after WIC which limits food products to those only deemed healthy thus saving the governement not only money in the food assistance program but also in Medicaid since everyone knows (thanks to M. Obama) unhealthy food contributes to medical problems. If their children are a recipent of the free school lunch program then the parent/guardian could do some work in the schools in exchange. Anyone in possesion of an Obamaphone could repay that gift by a couple of hours of community service monthly, same as any type of renters assistance.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who already has a child that they must rely on the government to pay for should choose to undergo sterilization. These proceduces can be reversed when the person becomes self sufficient. That would only be fair.
The unions get their money before they look out for the employees they are robbing.
ReplyDeleteI argued with my parents for years about this, later in life, both their unions didn't avoid causing them early retirement and reduced benefits for working hard all of their lives.