Basically, Republicans are attacking Obama where he is least vulnerable and at a time when they have minimal credibility. It isn’t working. By trying to turn everything into a scandal rather than saying Obama’s policies are wrongheaded—and rather than fixing their own image problems with minority, female, younger, and moderate voters—Republicans are focusing on attacking a guy whose name will never again appear on a ballot.Polling guru and political analyst Charlie Cook, explaining why Republicans’ attacks on President Obama may ultimately fall flat. Despite the media feeding frenzy over the three concurrent scandals to hit the Obama White House, the President’s approval rating has hardly suffered at all: In general, it’s hovered around 51%, with one poll even showing an uptick since April. Meanwhile, a recent CNN poll showed the Republican Party with the highest negative ratings—59%—that either party has received in more than 20 years. “Americans may not be ecstatic about President Obama and his policies,” Cook writes, “but compared with the Republicans, they think Obama doesn’t look so bad.” source
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has released a comparison of the budgets offered by President Obama, House Republicans, and Senate Democrats. They’re a lot similar than you’d expect given how much the two parties are at each others’ throats about things like Social Security and taxes, huh? Anyway, for those who enjoy charts and graphs, the CBO’s blog post on its budget projections will not disappoint. (h/t Ezra Klein) source
If you’ve got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and nonpartisan way, then that is outrageous. It is contradictory to our traditions, and people have to be held accountable.President Obama • Commenting on an admission that the IRS targeted conservative groups, many associated with the tea party, during the 2012 election cycle, following an apology from an IRS official on Friday and this morning’s leak of the Inspector General’s report to ABC News. President Obama’s comments came during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, who’s currently visiting Washington D.C. to discuss the war in Syria. source
Senate passes bill allowing states to tax online sales
(Photo: Lenny Ignelzi / AP)
The Senate sided with traditional retailers and financially strapped state and local governments Monday by passing a bill that would widely subject online shopping — for many a largely tax-free frontier — to state sales taxes.
It was fun while it lasted, you guys.
Not a sure thing the House will pass this bill, however.
Worst possible time for TurboTax to go down? The day before tax day. Oops.
So why don’t you have the ability to fill out your tax forms automatically—oh, and for free? Well, partly because the makers of Turbotax are fighting it.
FAKE EDIT: Who just realized they have to do taxes as a result of this post?
Because the sequester is (and is likely to continue to be) very ill-defined in the minds of most Americans, the politics of it will devolve into a popularity contest between the major players. Which gets us to the fact that Obama is at (or close to) his high-water mark in terms of job approval, while Congress sits in political reporter/used car salesman territory.The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, theorizing that there’s no way possible way Congress can win the sequester battle against President Obama. The thinking here is is based on three premises: One, that Obama believes the sequester ultimately will not be avoided, because Congress is dysfunctional and if they could have struck a deal on these cuts, there wouldn’t have been a sequester to begin with; two, that effects of the sequestered cuts will be felt by many Americans once they come into effect; and three, that Obama is significantly more popular than Congress. Given these three assumptions, it seems reasonable enough to conclude that if the sequester happens, Congress—and the GOP-led House of Representatives—will be blamed by the American public. It’s not a bad theory, though it’s still quite speculative given the assumptions. More information on the sequester here. source
In which logic flips itself on its head and introduces new wrinkles.
Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were close to a deal Monday to cancel historic tax hikes for most Americans. But they were still hung up on spending, with Democrats resisting a Republican proposal to delay automatic spending cuts for just three months.
As President Obama prepared to deliver remarks about the “fiscal cliff” at 1:30 p.m. at the White House, negotiators for the administration and McConnell (R-Ky.) appeared to have nailed down many of the most critical tax issues, including a plan to let taxes rise on income over $450,000 a year for couples and $400,000 a year for individuals, according to people in both parties familiar with the talks.
The “fiscal cliff” situation is still looking pretty grim, but Democrats and Republicans continue to insist that they’re making headway in their continued negotiations on Monday. While we’re certainly hopeful that the two sides can come together in agreement to prevent tax hikes for 90 percent of Americans, it’s hard to have much faith when they’ve got less than twelve hours to reach a compromise that has eluded them for months.
We guess now would be as good a time as any for everyone to start crossing their fingers…
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Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
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One of the touted benefits of “Plan B” is that it only raises taxes for those making $1 million or more. As Eric Cantor said this morning, the plan would raise revenue “without hurting many small businesses” or taxpayers.
But a closer look at the tax impacts of Plan B shows that while it raises taxes on most million-plus earners, it also raises takes for many low-income earners.
According to the Tax Policy Center, the tax code adjustments contained in Speaker Boehner’s ‘Plan B’ proposal would only bestow a tax cut on those making between $200,000 and $500,000 annually. Worse, approximately 20 percent of those making $20,000 or less will see their taxes increase by $1,070 - an increase of at least five percent for each taxpayer.
He Said What?!: With the threat continuing to loom over Washington, new reports suggest that President Obama and Speaker Boehner might be making some headway in their “fiscal cliff” negotiations. President Obama has allegedly agreed to consider conceding on Social Security cost-of-living increases in exchange for Speaker Boehner’s acceptance of tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans. If true, this might be the biggest compromise that either has made since taking office, though we suspect that neither will receive much support from their base. (Photo via US Department of Labor) source
We are not going to be able to come up with comprehensive tax reform package that gets it all done just in the next two weeks. We are not going to be able to come up with necessarily a comprehensive entitlement reform package that gets it all done in the next two weeks. When you look at what Ronald Reagan did back in 1986 working with Bill Bradley and others, that was a year-and-a-half process … Let’s essentially put a down payment on taxes. Let’s let taxes on upper-income folks go up.President Obama • Demanding an end to top-end Bush tax cuts during his first post-election interview with Bloomberg News’ Julianna Goldman. While he may have signaled some willingness to compromise, the President told Goldman that Republicans needed to give more, and that the most recent “fiscal cliff” proposal from Speaker Boehner was “still out of balance.” source
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