• American Debt Linit,  American Economy,  Harry Reid,  John Boehner

    Senate Democrats Send Speaker Boehner a Letter Favoring an American Debt Default?

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pictured as he speaks to the press following more U.S. debt reduction talks on Capitol Hill, July 26, 2011

    Well, something like that because their letter promises to reject Boehner’s Debt-Limit Plan.

    Fifty-three Democratic senators have signed a letter to House Speaker John A. Boehner saying they intend to vote against his plan for an increase in the debt ceiling, virtually assuring its defeat in the Senate even as the speaker lines up Republican votes to pass it in the House on Thursday.

    Votes are not final until they are cast. But if the Democrats hold to their promise in the letter, Mr. Boehner’s plan for a six-month increase in borrowing authority will not make it to President Obama’s desk.

    “We heard that in your caucus you said the Senate will support your bill,” the senators say in the letter. “We are writing to tell you that we will not support it, and give you the reasons why.”

    In the letter, the senators argue that a short-term extension of the debt ceiling would “put America at risk” and “could be nearly as disastrous as a default.”

    Some compromise there, eh?

    I say the House GOP and whatever Democrats who dare, pass the bill anyway and dare Dingy Harry to hold it up for defeat in the Senate.

    To the Democrats then, you voted twice against House passed plans, so if it breaks the American economy, you own it baby – House/Senate Democrats and President Obama.

    Here is the double dare letter to Boehner:

    Dear Speaker Boehner,

    With five days until our nation faces an unprecedented financial crisis, we need to work together to ensure that our nation does not default on our obligations for the first time in our history. We heard that in your caucus you said the Senate will support your bill. We are writing to tell you that we will not support it, and give you the reasons why.

    A short-term extension like the one in your bill would put America at risk, along with every family and business in it. Your approach would force us once again to face the threat of default in five or six short months. Every day, another expert warns us that your short-term approach could be nearly as disastrous as a default and would lead to a downgrade in our credit rating. If our credit is downgraded, it would cost us billions of dollars more in interest payments on our existing debt and drive up our deficit. Even more worrisome, a downgrade would spike interest rates, making everything from mortgages, car loans and credit cards more expensive for families and businesses nationwide.

    In addition to risking a downgrade and catastrophic default, we are concerned that in five or six months, the House will once again hold the economy captive and refuse to avoid another default unless we accept unbalanced, deep cuts to programs like Medicare and Social Security, without asking anything of the wealthiest Americans.

    We now have only five days left to act. The entire world is watching Congress. We need to do the right thing to solve this problem. We must work together to avoid a default the responsible way – not in a way that will do America more harm than good.

    And, here I thought Dingy Harry “The Iraq War is Lost” Reid was a deal maker?

    Default, here we come….

  • American Debt Linit,  American Economy,  John Boehner,  Paul Ryan

    John Boehner’s Debt-Limit Plan is a Good Start?

    It is a good start towards replacing Obama as President next year.

    It is, as many conservatives have said in floor speeches and statements of support for the Boehner bill, an important first step. The immediate cuts are small relative to our $14 trillion debt, but the trajectory of spending will now go down.

    Before we get ahead of ourselves, it is important to remember this has to come to a vote in the House. (I suspect it won’t be all that close, unfortunately relieving some die-hards of the necessity of discarding their political purity.) It also has to get through the Senate, where other hardline Republicans, not to mention a whole lot of Democrats, will have to decide: Boehner or default?

    And should this get through both houses, the president will have zero choice in the matter. He will sign it, and we will avoid default. And then the spinning begins. As for those GOP pols and pundits who favored the burn-down-the-building approach, there is perhaps time to reconsider whether they want to be on board with a vote that may change the course of our fiscal future and the shape of the Republican party.

    Read Rep. Paul Ryan’s treatise on the revised legislation here.

    And, looking at the polls today in the key battleground states, in another year, the GOP House Leadership  will not have to worry about negotiating with Harry Reid or the White House.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 27th on 14:23

    These are my links for July 27th from 14:23 to 15:29:

    • White House ‘rickrolls’ Twitter critic – Tensions may be high in Washington amid a stalemate in talks to raise the US debt ceiling but the White House is keeping a sense of humor.
      White House officials were replying to questions on Twitter on Wednesday when a Tennessee man named David Wiggs complained that the discussion was "not nearly as entertaining as yesterday's."
      The White House quickly fired off a reply to @wiggsd on its Twitter feed, @whitehouse.
      "@wiggsd Sorry to hear that," the White House said. "Fiscal policy is important, but can be dry sometimes.
      "Here's something more fun: tinyurl.com/y8ufsnp."
      The link is to a video by pop star Rick Astley singing his 1987 chart-topper "Never Gonna Give You Up."
      "Rickrolling" is an Internet phenomenon begun several years ago whereby an unwitting user who clicks on a link is directed to the video of Astley's song.

      ======

      Glad they have the time to do this on the taxpayer's dime.

    • Will Janice Hahn Run For The "Black" Seat After Redistricting? – Newly minted Rep. Janice Hahn faces a tough choice if she wants to stay in Congress for more than a year. By the looks of the latest redistricting maps, she will be drawn into a coastal district that also includes Rep. Henry Waxman.

      Waxman has been in Congress for 36 years, and is as close as it gets to an immovable object. So that leaves Hahn with one other option: run for the "Gardena-Compton" seat.

      The problem with that is it's supposed to be a "black" seat — and Hahn is not black.

      The idea that she would run for the seat — and cut L.A.'s black representation in Congress from three seats to two — is already stirring anger among the black political community.

      In an email making the rounds today, activist Basil Kimbrew accuses Hahn of having "disrespected and betrayed the black community." Kimbrew claims that Hahn told him she will run for the Gardena-Compton seat, which also includes Hahn's home in San Pedro.

      Kimbrew goes on to say that African-Americans who worked to elect Hahn in her special election were "duped" and "tricked" — and would have been better off supporting Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

      Also running for the Gardena-Compton seat are Assemblyman Isadore Hall and Rep. Laura Richardson. Hahn represented Watts on the L.A. City Council and has enjoyed strong support in the black community, in part due to the legacy of her father, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

      =======

      Janice Hahn should enjoy her time in DC and hope to get a job in the second term of the Obama Administration.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 27th on 13:51

    These are my links for July 27th from 13:51 to 13:59:

    • Carney makes an accusation – The Obama administration has never been backward about leaning forward on Fox News. The network has proven a durable, go-to villain to rally the base and stoke indignation against a perceived antagonist on the right.

      But White House press secretary Jay Carney, going after Ed Henry from Fox News on Wednesday, misfired all over the place by also insulting House Speaker John Boehner for being a "showboat" and exposing a level of secrecy and political calculation in the debt limit negotiations that runs counter to promises President Obama ran on.

      The day after the two tangled over Henry's request for specifics on Obama's plan, Carney and Henry were back at it again. Henry asked at the briefing when Obama's plan might be submitted to the Congressional Budget Office.

      "Ed, I understand, we can do this again, OK?" Carney said. "Has the speaker of the House shown you the positions he took in detail in the negotiations that were designed actually to achieve a compromise, as opposed to having a showboat?"

      "We put forward a budget, we put forward a framework," Carney said.

      Questions about Obama's plan — where is it, what's on it — are proving tricky for the White House, because the omission is suddenly getting traction. Talking about an appealing, detailed plan doesn't work if you don't produce the plan. The lack of disclosure also doesn't track with Obama's pledge on transparency.

      The White House explanation — that any plan must be held close so it won't be instantly politicized and defeated is very backroom, politics-as-usual — a way of doing things that Obama vowed to reject.

      ======

      Read it all

    • Obama’s Towering Inferno – This is a make-or-break week for me with my own deadline — hence the relative radio silence from me around here. I’ve been trying very hard to reserve a few brain cells on the side to follow the debt-ceiling stuff as I wade through more obscure research. Yesterday, I took time out to watch the Jay Carney grilling discussed in the Corner yesterday. I think it may, in a small way, be a watershed moment. No, not for the country. But for the WH press corps. Carney seemed to be providing a real “Hey I guess you’ve just figured out we’re full of shi…nola” moment.

      It is an amazing thing that the press corps has taken this long to really pin the White House down on the simple fact that Obama is the one playing political games here, creating rules for others to follow while not following them himself.  The public explanation for why he doesn’t want to put forward a plan of his own makes as much sense to me as the Korean-language instructions for a photocopy machine.  All I know is that the White House says it doesn’t want to release a plan because it will be held accountable for having a plan, but no one should criticize the White House for not having a plan because they actually offered one verbally that was full of “specifics” nobody will specify and the Republicans are in the dark about. 

      Oh, and even though the president insists that if we don’t raise the debt ceiling on August 2 — cats will sleep with dogs, disco will come back, Carrot Top will move into the apartment over your garage, the Chinese will put saran wrap over our toilet bowls — he insists that he will veto any plan he doesn’t like should it actually pass Congress. Of course, saying he will veto a plan makes it less likely to pass Congress and hence prevent Götterdämmerung. So there’s that.

      =======

      Read it all….

  • President 2012,  Sarah Palin

    President 2012: Sarah Palin to Keynote Iowa Tea Party Rally on September 3

    A movie poster advertising the Sarah Palin documentary “The Undefeated” is seen at the film’s premiere in Pella, Iowa June 28, 2011. The documentary traces Palin’s rise from mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska, to state governor and her rise as the Republican vice presidential nominee and John McCain’s running mate in 2008

    It is not as if Sarah will announce her candidacy for President or anything.

    In the latest indication that her sights are still set on a presidential run, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has accepted an invitation to keynote a Tea Party rally in Waukee, Iowa, on Sept. 3, RealClearPolitics has learned.

    The Labor Day weekend visit to the nation’s first voting state comes after Palin indicated during an appearance on Fox News earlier this month that she would make her decision about whether to launch a campaign in August or September.

    All signs now point to September as the month when Palin would throw her hat into the ring, as logistical concerns ranging from fundraising to getting her name on the ballot in various states would likely preclude further delay.

    Many prominent political analysts and Republican operatives have expressed skepticism that Palin is seriously considering a presidential bid, since she has not taken many of the steps that candidates traditionally take before jumping into the race, such as signing early-state consultants, contacting key powerbrokers and boosting their travel schedules.

    But Palin has a long history of shunning the Republican Party machinery and taking an unconventional approach to campaigns — a mind-set that appears to have been in play throughout the past several months.

    Palin’s latest appearance in Iowa will come just two days after “The Undefeated,” a documentary film spotlighting her accomplishments in Alaska, will be released on Pay-Per-View and video-on-demand. In the film, Palin is portrayed as a continual thorn in the Republican establishment’s side. And it is the GOP, rather than the Democratic Party, that garners the better part of the movie’s scorn.

    If Palin were to announce a White House run, the theme of her campaign would almost certainly focus on resisting the ingrained political culture and what she sees as being wrong with the status quo, and much of the Republican Party itself, in addition to continuing to offer one of the most strident contrasts to President Obama’s policies.

    The outdoor rally on the first Saturday in September will take place at a field in Waukee, located just outside of Des Moines, and will be hosted by the Tea Party of America — an Iowa-based political action committee that was founded in May.

    The midday affair will be the new group’s kickoff event and is sure to generate a large crowd and massive media attention.

    I am tired of try to prognosticate what Sarah will do, because she is unpredicatble. I can dare say though, that if she runs, so will Rick Perry and Rudy Giuliani.

    Sarah is the “wild card” without a doubt in the race for President in 2012.

  • Amazon Tax,  California State Board of Equalization,  Mary Kay Tax

    California Legislature and State Board of Equalization Harass California Small Business With Mary Kay Tax

    The California Legislature and Democrat Governor Jerry Brown REALLY think they will be able to capture additional state revenue with the Amazon tax?

    Their track record with the California “Mary Kay Tax” is not so good, as exposed in this piece over at Cal Watchdog.

    Call it the Mary Kay Tax. It hits small businesses —  such as Mary Kay and Avon distributors — with heavy administrative costs, while bringing a pittance to the state treasury.

    It’s a tax program the Legislature passed in 2009 to help balance the budget. Then it was signed into law by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it has been a colossal failure as well as absurdly expensive. Despite the failure and added expense, the program is not getting the ax.

    AB X4-18 created the Board of Equalization’s Qualified Purchaser Program
    to collect use taxes from the smallest business owners who were not usually registered for sales and use-tax purposes.

    But the taxes collected in the ensuing two years are 80 percent below projections. Adding insult to injury, the program is costing taxpayers an additional $10 million a year to administer, while adding 137 state employees.

    I remember that this tax when it was passed created quite a bit of buzz in the dental community since all dental offices were required to file additional forms and paper work. As if dentists did not have enough compliance to navigate in California.

    But, like everything the Democrat dominated California Legislature seems to touch there are many unintended consequences, including compliance costing almost as much as the tax revenue gain. How smart?

    Despite the dismal collection numbers and the expansion of a state agency during the worst economic crisis in state history, the program is not being shelved. Because the tax was passed by the Legislature, only the Legislature can repeal it. But all is not lost. The BOE can make changes to the program.

    The 2009 law requires business owners who receive only $100,000 in gross annual receipts to register with the State Board of Equalization to remit a “use tax.” But the $100,000 threshold is not the amount of income going into the business owner’s pocket. That $100,000 is the total amount of money earned by the business. Owners say that most of that money goes right back into the business to pay expenses, employees and vendors.

    The motive for the tax was typical of the California Legislature. It was created to help balance the state’s budget. In these inflationary days in this expensive state, a $100,000-a-year business could be just one or two people.

    The program has registered 500,000 California small business owners, targeting sole practitioners such as doctors and dentists, tax preparers and CPA’s, as well as contractors, lawyers, real estate agents and even Avon and Mary Kay cosmetics representatives.

    Most of the BOE registrations have been “involuntary.” According to BOE Board Member George Runner, a former Republican state senator, this means that if BOE employees determine that an individual meets the definition of a “qualified purchaser,” the business owner is automatically registered to pay the tax.

    Runner held a press conference Monday at the offices of the National Federation of Independent Business. He said that, because so few qualified purchasers have filed use tax returns with the BOE, the agency staff decided to send out 305,000 “delinquent” notices. The notices identified the small business owners as “tax delinquents,” and threatening them with “estimated use tax determinations.” According to Runner, this was done by BOE staff, without the knowledge of BOE board members.

    Board members found out about the delinquent-notice mailings when more than 175,000 angry small business owners immediately flooded the agency with phone calls. The BOE legal department was consulted and quickly determined that there was no way to estimate use taxes. According to Runner, this was ample proof that the program should be drastically modified.

    Runner said that most people are understandably confused about the use tax. Many area small business owners have had to hire CPAs just to navigate through the new tax process. Most small businesses do not have accounting departments. Even those with accounting departments say that accounting staff is spending far too much time on the cumbersome and confusing tax reporting.

    I love it. The Sacramento Board of Equalization staffers on their own decided to call 305,000 business owners tax delinquents. Yeah, that will really help compliance. People will simply go even more underground and avoid paying any taxes.

    Or, better yet, leave California for Nevada and Colorado.

    Then, there is the cost of compliance to the small businesses that do remain in California. Costs that will be passed along to consumers.

    “The average qualified purchaser pays almost as much to their accountant to comply with this program as they pay in use tax, resulting in much more of a burden upon businesses than benefit to the state,” Runner said. “It costs taxpayers an average of $75 for their accountant to prepare the BOE return, even though many owe far less than this amount.”

    Expected to generate $264 million in the two years since the law was passed, instead the program has collected only $56 million in taxes. But it has cost a total of $23 million in additional BOE administrative costs. Add in businesses’ tax-preparation costs, which are tax-deductible, and the state well could be losing more in revenue than it gains from this program.

    NFIB Executive Director John Kabateck said that his organization represents 20,000 small California businesses and 350,000 across the country. As anti-business laws continue to be imposed on California’s businesses by government bureaucracies, the game of “gotcha” government policies are fast becoming “we’re going to get you,” Kabateck said.

    “Small businesses have been closing at a clip,” said Kabateck. “And there are now 2.2 million Californians unemployed.”

    Kabateck said that the average small business owner spends countless hours doing paperwork costing at least $48.72 per hour, $400.00 per day and $2,000.00 per week, thanks to taxing agencies like the BOE.

    And, the POLS wonder why many businesses, especially small ones, have closed up shop and moved to other states. California Legislators ponder why there are more than two million unemployed Californians.

    Me thinks they should look at themselves.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 27th on 01:02

    These are my links for July 27th from 01:02 to 08:17:

  • American Debt Linit,  Barack Obama,  Day By Day

    Day By Day July 27, 2011 – The View



    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Chris, the best approach is probably to swallow hard, bend over and accept the Boehner Plan. It certainly is NOT perfect, but the GOP and people have won and should now consolidate the gains by beating Obama in the race for 2012.

    Then, it will be over to Harry Reid and Obama to decide whether they want to push America into default or not.

    I bet they cave.

    with Obama’s poor polling in key battleground states, the GOP can afford to sit back and wait while they select a nominee. The next four years are too important to be squandered over cuts that won’t be seen in 10 years.

    Declare victory and call it a day —> over to Obama.

    Previous:

    The Day By Day Archive

  • Barack Obama,  Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Has the Key Battleground State Blues

    Electoral College vote map of Larry Sabato

    As I have been writing about for many weeks now, President Obama is NOT polling well in the key battleground states that the Republicans desperately need to beat him in the 2012 Presidential race.

    President Obama’s job approval rating in the latest national polls has been in the danger zone, ranging from 42 percent (Gallup) to 47 percent (ABC News/Washington Post), with every survey showing him with higher unfavorables than favorables.  Needless to say, it’s not a good place for a president to be, especially since his numbers have worsened over the past two months.

    The race for president isn’t a national contest. It’s a state-by-state battle to cobble an electoral vote majority. So while the national polls are useful in gauging the president’s popularity, the more instructive numbers are those from the battlegrounds.

    Those polls are even more ominous for the president: In every reputable battleground state poll conducted over the past month, Obama’s support is weak. In most of them, he trails Republican front-runner Mitt Romney.  For all the talk of a closely fought 2012 election, if Obama can’t turn around his fortunes in states such as Michigan and New Hampshire, next year’s presidential election could end up being a GOP landslide.

    Take Ohio, a perennial battleground in which Obama has campaigned more than in any other state (outside of the D.C. metropolitan region). Fifty percent of Ohio voters now disapprove of his job performance, compared with 46 percent who approve, according to a Quinnipiac poll conducted from July 12-18. 

    Among Buckeye State independents, only 40 percent believe that Obama should be reelected, and 42 percent approve of his job performance. Against Romney, Obama leads 45 percent to 41 percent—well below the 50 percent comfort zone for an incumbent.

    Read the rest of the piece.

    Ohio, for now, is the BEST state for President Obama. In every other key battleground state, he is either behind Mitt Romney or tied with him. With the glow of the Osama Bin Laden death now fully expired, watch the polls after Labor Day. If Obama sinks further say in Virginia and/or Florida and Ohio swings for the GOP, the Republicans may be looking for quite a victory.

    And, this is why the House GOP needs to clear the debt-limit debate out of the way as soon as today.