• Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: January 3, 2013

    John Boehner and Eric Cantor

    These are my links for January 2nd through January 3rd:

    • Does Eric Cantor’s no vote on the fiscal cliff bill spell trouble for John Boehner? – It’s rare for the top two members of the House leadership to split on an important vote. Bob Michel, the hapless leader of the House Republicans during a long period in the minority, and Newt Gingrich voted differently on the 1990 “read my lips” tax increase. They split again over the 1994 assault weapons ban.Even less common is a House speaker and majority leader going their separate ways on big-ticket legislation. The last major example is when the Democratic-controlled House debated funding President George W Bush’s surge in Iraq. House speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed the measure to proceed to the floor and voted no. House majority leader Steny Hoyer voted yes.House speakers typically don’t even vote at all unless it is necessary to break a tie. So it may have been a clarifying moment when speaker of the House John Boehner and House majority leader Eric Cantor parted ways on the deal that ended the long national nightmare known as the fiscal cliff. Boehner voted for the bipartisan agreement negotiated between Vice-President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell; Cantor breathed the final moments of life into the opposition.
    • Fiscal Cliff Deal Only Whetted Obama’s Appetite for More Taxes – Taxes: Anyone who thinks the fiscal cliff deal will end President Obama’s soak-the-rich campaign isn’t paying attention. Even before the ink had dried on his $620 billion tax hike, Obama was talking up his desire for more.Obama hinted at this on Sunday on “Meet the Press,” when he told David Gregory that “you are not only going to cut your way to prosperity” and that “one of the fallacies” was that “deficit reduction is only a matter of cutting programs.”But as the fiscal cliff agreement looked increasingly likely, Obama started talking more specifically about additional tax hikes. On Monday, he told a White House rally that “revenues have to be part of the equation in turning off the sequester.”

      Translation: If Republicans want to prevent devastating defense cuts from automatically kicking in two months from now, they’ll have to choke down another round of tax hikes.

      And he made it clear any future deficit cuts will have to include still more new taxes. “If Republicans think that I will finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone,” he said, “then they’ve got another thing coming.”

    • Nothing Is Certain Except More Debt and Taxes – Whatever ultimately emerges from the fiscal-cliff negotiations over the past 48 hours, the country will survive. But the damage can’t be undone. Taxes are going up for all working Americans. And so is the size of government.Businesses have been waiting to see whether a second Obama administration will encourage the economy. During the fiscal-cliff negotiations, however, the president made clear that his goal isn’t to get business going again but instead to expand government and redistribute income. He offered no real spending cuts and instead used the year-end deadline to divide America into classes—to the point of campaigning on New Year’s Eve against higher earners. Though the president talks about fairness, his policies penalize profit and investment. This hurts aspiring Americans more than it hurts those who have already made it.The deal that emerged from the Senate early Tuesday morning is being sold as a tax cut for the middle class, but the expiration of the two-percentage-point payroll tax holiday means that working Americans’ take-home pay will drop. The bill reduces the value of tax deductions for upper incomes and, with the new open-ended 3.8% Medicare tax that was enacted under ObamaCare, income-tax rates on families and small business owners earning over $450,000 have been pushed above 44%.
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2013-01-02 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2013-01-02 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2013-01-02 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2013-01-02
    • Dems will need new game plan to score tax revenue – The fiscal cliff deal handed Democrats a tax victory years in the making, but it also means the party will need a new playbook for the budget battles that lie ahead.That’s because many Democrats readily acknowledge that they’ve exhausted their ability to raise taxes on the richest Americans by jacking up their rates.The historic tax agreement passed by Congress this week raises rates on top earners from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. Meanwhile, provisions from the 2010 health care law kicked in Jan. 1, increasing rates on investment income from 15 percent to almost 24 percent for the most affluent taxpayers.

      Winning these levies was hard enough. With Republicans licking their wounds in the wake of the fiscal cliff deal, Democrats know that politically speaking, there’s virtually no way to keep increasing marginal tax rates.

      “This does settle the issue of rates for individuals,” Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) told POLITICO. “That’s good. That certainty and predictability is one of the gains” of the fiscal cliff legislation.

      Michigan Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, agreed. When asked whether more rate increases are in the offing, he responded, “I don’t foresee that.”

    • Al Jazeera acquires Current TV, will rebrand channel – LA Observed – Al Jazeera acquires Current TV, will rebrand channel – LA Observed #tcot
    • Capitol Alert: California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cable TV show going off air – Capitol Alert: California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cable TV show going off air #tcot
    • Capitol Alert: California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cable TV show going off air – Capitol Alert: California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cable TV show going off air #tcot
    • Phillip Klein: Past the ‘cliff,’ debt ceiling promises a more brutal fight | WashingtonExaminer.com – Phillip Klein: Past the ‘cliff,’ debt ceiling promises a more brutal fight | #tcot
    • Al Jazeera acquires Current TV, will rebrand channel – LA Observed – Al Jazeera acquires Current TV, will rebrand channel – LA Observed #tcot
    • Capitol Alert: California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cable TV show going off air – Capitol Alert: California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cable TV show going off air #tcot
    • Al Jazeera acquires Current TV, will rebrand channel – LA Observed – Al Jazeera acquires Current TV, will rebrand channel – LA Observed #tcot
    • Phillip Klein: Past the ‘cliff,’ debt ceiling promises a more brutal fight | WashingtonExaminer.com – Phillip Klein: Past the ‘cliff,’ debt ceiling promises a more brutal fight | #tcot
    • Capitol Alert: California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cable TV show going off air – RT @CapitolAlert: California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cable TV show going off air
    • Al Jazeera acquires Current TV, will rebrand channel – LA Observed – Al Jazeera acquires Current TV, will rebrand channel #tcot
    • Phillip Klein: Past the ‘cliff,’ debt ceiling promises a more brutal fight | WashingtonExaminer.com – Past the ‘cliff,’ debt ceiling promises a more brutal fight #tcot
    • Tim Carney: How corporate tax credits got in the ‘cliff’ deal | WashingtonExaminer.com – Tim Carney: How corporate tax credits got in the ‘cliff’ deal | #tcot
    • Past the ‘cliff,’ debt ceiling promises a more brutal fight – As a weary Washington assesses the “fiscal cliff” deal, a debt-ceiling showdown looms on the horizon. There are a number of reasons to believe that the standoff — expected sometime in February or March — will be even more difficult to resolve than the last debt-ceiling impasse in the summer of 2011.In the 2011 showdown, House Speaker John Boehner established the principle that every dollar increase in the debt limit would have to be accompanied by a dollar cut in government spending. The final deal allowed for at least $2.1 trillion in debt-limit increases offset by promised spending cuts and did not raise taxes.
    • McConnell: Fiscal cliff deal not great, but it shields Americans from tax hike – The first day of a new Congress always represents a fresh start. This year, it also presents a perfect opportunity to tackle the single-greatest challenge facing our nation: reining in the out-of-control federal spending that threatens to permanently alter our economy and dim the prospects and opportunities of future generations of Americans.Earlier this week, I helped negotiate an imperfect solution aimed at avoiding the so-called “fiscal cliff.” If I had my way taxes would not have gone up on anyone, but the unavoidable fact was this if we had sat back and done nothing taxes would have gone up dramatically on every single American, and I simply couldn’t allow that to happen.By acting, we’ve shielded more than 99% of taxpayers from a massive tax hike that President Obama was all-too willing to impose. American families and small businesses that would have seen painfully smaller paychecks and profits this month have been spared. Retirement accounts for seniors won’t be whittled down by a dramatic increase in taxes on investment income. And many who’ve spent a lifetime paying taxes on income and savings won’t be slammed with a dramatically higher tax on estates.

      Was it a great deal? No. As I said, taxes shouldn’t be going up at all. Just as importantly, the transcendent issue of our time, the spiraling debt, remains completely unaddressed. Yet now that the President has gotten his long-sought tax hike on the “rich,” we can finally turn squarely toward the real problem, which is spending.

      Predictably, the President is already claiming that his tax hike on the “rich” isn’t enough. I have news for him: the moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes. That debate is over. Now the conversation turns to cutting spending on the government programs that are the real source of the nation’s fiscal imbalance. And the upcoming debate on the debt limit is the perfect time to have that discussion.

      We simply cannot increase the nation’s borrowing limit without committing to long overdue reforms to spending programs that are the very cause of our debt.

    • Tim Carney: How corporate tax credits got in the ‘cliff’ deal | WashingtonExaminer.com – Tim Carney: How corporate tax credits got in the ‘cliff’ deal | #tcot
    • Caps on class sizes could be eliminated in Jerry Brown’s budget – latimes.com – Caps on class sizes could be eliminated in Jerry Brown’s budget #tcot
    • Weintraub: California’s quality of life is a mixed bag | percent – News – The Orange County Register – California’s quality of life is a mixed bag #tcot
    • How corporate tax credits got in the ‘cliff’ deal – The “fiscal cliff” legislation passed this week included $76 billion in special-interest tax credits for the likes of General Electric, Hollywood and even Captain Morgan. But these subsidies weren’t the fruit of eleventh-hour lobbying conducted on the cliff’s edge — they were crafted back in August in a Senate committee, and they sat dormant until the White House reportedly insisted on them this week.The Family and Business Tax Cut Certainty Act of 2012, which passed through the Senate Finance Committee in August, was copied and pasted into the fiscal cliff legislation, yielding a victory for biotech companies, wind-turbine-makers, biodiesel producers, film studios — and their lobbyists. So, if you’re wondering how algae subsidies became part of a must-pass package to avert the dreaded fiscal cliff, credit the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s lobbying last summer.
    • White House eases path to residency for some illegal immigrants – The Obama administration eased the way Wednesday for illegal immigrants who are immediate relatives of American citizens to apply for permanent residency, a change that could affect as many as 1 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants unlawfully in the U.S.A new rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security aims to reduce the time illegal immigrants are separated from their American families while seeking legal status, immigration officials said.Beginning March 4, when the changes go into effect, illegal immigrants who can demonstrate that time apart from an American spouse, child or parent would create “extreme hardship,” can start the application process for a legal visa without leaving the U.S.

      Once approved, applicants would be required to leave the U.S. briefly in order to return to their native country and pick up their visa.

    • Clinton discharged from hospital after treatment for blood clot – The Washington Post – RT @washingtonpost: Clinton discharged from hospital
    • Christie Craving Pork-Filled Sandy Bill | The Weekly Standard – RT @DRUDGE_REPORT: STORM BILL STUFFED WITH PORK…
    • Video: Chris Christie Melts Down Over Pork-Laden Sandy Relief Bill – Video: Chris Christie Melts Down Over Pork-Laden Sandy Relief Bill #tcot
    • Boehner tells GOP he’s through with one-on-one Obama talks – The Hill – RT @philipaklein: RT @thehill: Boehner tells GOP he’s through with one-on-one negotiations with Obama
    • The Obesity Paradox: Weigh More and Live Longer – Flap’s Blog – The Obesity Paradox: Weigh More and Live Longer #tcot
    • Capitol Alert: Unlicensed California drivers have high fatality rates – Capitol Alert: Unlicensed California drivers have high fatality rates #tcot
    • Patti Page R.I.P – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Patti Page R.I.P. #tcot
    • Capitol Alert: Unlicensed California drivers have high fatality rates – Unlicensed California drivers have high fatality rates #tcot
    • Untitled (http://mashable.com/2013/01/02/fiscal-cliff-calculator/) – RT @mashable: This Calculator Shows How Much Fiscal Cliff Deal Will Cost You
    • Why the Obama tax hikes have only just begun – But what leverage will Obama have to make good on his tax-hike threats? As The Wall Street Journal editorial page notes today, “The President has had unusual leverage over Republicans because he just won re-election and because taxes were going to go up even if they did nothing.”One potential Obama bargaining chip is the sequester, particularly the $500 billion in defense cuts that many GOPers loathe. So perhaps Obama can offer to turn off the defense cuts in exchange for $500 billion from limiting tax breaks for the rich. And then maybe another $300 billion in corporate tax hikes for agreeing to change how Social Security benefits are calculated. Many scenarios are possible. What’s for sure is that the Obama desires vastly higher taxes to pay for his expanded welfare state. Desires and needs them. And it’s now Democrat economic theology that tax rates could return to pre-Reagan levels without hurting growth.Tax hikes? Obama is only just getting started.
    • Hillary Angst – The Daily Beast – RT @kausmickey: Something very off (Mooniesh) about this tone. Tina Brown is an adult, right? #arthurschlesingerblu …
    • Top Blogger Andrew Sullivan Wants Your Cash – Maybe he will find Trig’s mother? RT @mashable: Top Blogger Andrew Sullivan Wants Your Cash #tcot
    • Grimm may oppose Speaker Boehner – POLITICO.com – RT @politico: Rep. Michael Grimm may oppose Speaker Boehner:
    • Day By Day January 2, 2013 – The Party Line – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day January 2, 2013 – The Party Line #tcot
    • Study: Smoking Does NOT Relieve Stress – Study: Smoking Does NOT Relieve Stress
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: January 2, 2013 – The Morning Drill: January 2, 2013
    • Primary care doctors growing scarce – SFGate – California Primary Care Doctors Growing Scarce #tcot
    • Capitol Alert: California gets federal approval to close Healthy Families – California gets federal approval to close Healthy Families #tcot
    • 10 stories to watch in California politics for 2013 | news10.net – 10 stories to watch in California politics for 2013 #tcot
    • The California Flap: January 2, 2013 – Flap’s California Blog – The California Flap: January 2, 2013
  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for August 26th through August 29th

    These are my links for August 26th through August 29th:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for August 2nd through August 4th

    These are my links for August 2nd through August 4th:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 28th on 20:53

    These are my links for July 28th from 20:53 to 20:57:

    • Ron Paul: "Default Is Coming" – Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) explains why default by inflation is worse than default by not raising the debt ceiling.

      Rep. Paul also talks about how the devaluing of the U.S. has led to record prices in gold bullion.

      "Default is coming. The only argument that's going on now is how to default, not send the checks out or just print the money. In all countries our size, they always print the money," Paul said.

      "They're going to raise the debt limit, and then they're going to print the money, and then they'll default by inflation, and that's much more dangerous than facing up to the facts of what's happening today."

      ======

      Go and watch the video.

    • We’ve Been Played for Saps, Folks: Boehner Bill Will Become Reid Bill – So Dingy Harry can take the Boehner bill and tweak it and rewrite it, make additions to it, take some things out of it, play with it however he wants, and get enough votes from Democrats since it becomes the Reid bill, and then it gets sent back to Boehner in the House looking nothing like his bill, but the rationale for passing the Boehner bill in the House is we've got to do this, the time is up, we're not going to get blamed. So if Reid monkeys around with the bill that he gets from Boehner, and it passes in the Senate, with whatever changes that are not favorable to us, of course, they throw it back in Boehner's lap, and then the pressure is going to be back on Boehner. Okay, do you sign the Reid bill? Do you pass it? Do you get your guys to vote for it and send it to Obama, basically a Democrat bill. That is what a lot of people — and I sign on to the theory, too — this is one of the traps that's being set. The Boehner bill is essentially being used to be a foundation for a nonexistent as of yet Reid bill. And thereby the Boehner bill becomes the Reid bill, therefore Democrat bill all in the absence of an Obama plan. No Obama plan at all in this.
      There's no Obama bill. There's nothing set down on paper. So the Reid bill will become the Obama bill.

      ======

      Rush is correct.

      Read it all

    • Debt ceiling vote postponed by Boehner, who will try again Friday – Speaker John Boehner postponed the planned House vote on a debt-limit increase late Thursday night, casting new doubt on Congress’ ability to avert a default and further exposing a deep philosophical divide in the Republican Conference.

      Four-and-a-half hours after the vote was supposed to begin on the House floor, Republicans announced they would start again in the morning, but the end game remains unclear on this trillion-dollar package. The House Rules Committee was expected to meet later Thursday night to issue a rule that would allow the GOP to bring a new bill to the floor quickly on Friday if the final votes can be secured.

      ======

      I understand there will be a sweetener added tomorrow, the Balance Budget Amendment in some form.

      It might be best to just let the Boehner Plan die, so that Reid will not be able to gut it and return it to the House.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 26th on 13:45

    These are my links for July 26th from 13:45 to 14:54:

    • Is US Debt Downgrade Inevitable? – Democrats and Republicans will present their own version of budget cuts later in the day on Monday, but is the estimated $2.7 trillion in cuts being proposed enough to avoid a credit rating downgrade?

      Credit watchdogs at Standard & Poor’s have warned that unless $4 trillion in cuts are made, with long term sustainable fiscal policies to balance the budget, the US will lose its coveted AAA status within 90 days. Moody’s said the same thing this month, only gave the US 12 to 18 months to get its financial house in order before getting dropped from the triple-A list.

      US government debt is considered the safest in the world. A lose to triple A status would cause every money market and Treasury bond fund to change its covenants that, until now, require holding AAA rated debt only.

      “You’ll want to buy stock in a printing press company because if the US loses its triple A status, funds will be printing millions of notices to shareholders explaining the sudden and extraordinary change in its investment profile away from triple A debt and allowing for double A in their portfolios,” says Ron Weiner, president and CEO of RDM Financial Group in Westport, Conn, a $600 million asset manager.

      While the market is not pricing in a default on US debt obligations, it is definitely pricing in the likelihood of a downgrade.

      ======

      Looks like it….

    • Great news: Downgrade could come as soon as Friday – Barack Obama has spent the last several weeks warning that a failure to raise the debt ceiling by the “drop-dead date” of August 2nd would cause a ruinous downgrade of Treasury bonds and an economic disaster for the US.  However, the downgrade may come sooner than that, because the debt ceiling is actually a secondary condition to the ratings agencies.  The problem, as they see it, is not that America can’t pay its debts next month, but that America has grown its debt to such a degree that we can’t pay them in the long run without serious restructuring of the federal government — and this administration refuses to consider it:

      ======

      Read it all

    • Debt-Ceiling Chicken by Thomas Sowell – The big news, as far as the media are concerned, is the political game of debt-ceiling chicken that is being played by Democrats and Republicans in Washington. But, however much the media are focused on what is happening inside the Beltway, there is a whole country outside the Beltway — and the time is long overdue to start thinking about what is best for the rest of the country, not just for right now but for the long haul.

      However the current debt-ceiling crisis turns out, the current economic turmoil in financial markets around the world should cause some serious thoughts about the long run, and about the whole idea of a national-debt ceiling.

      ======

      Read it all

    • Leadership by Default – They used to say that Richard Nixon had a “secret plan” in the 1968 presidential campaign to end the Vietnam War. Pres. Barack Obama outdid Nixon with a secret plan to control the deficit.

      He kept telling us of all the virtues of his plan. It was balanced, responsible, courageous, and fair. It was just very, very secret.

      Obama favored a $4 trillion “grand bargain” that now looks dead. It allegedly contained $3 trillion in cuts and $1 trillion in new revenues over ten years. But no one could learn with any certainty what the specific new cuts were, or the specific new revenues. They were the great mystery at the heart of the debt-limit debate.
      How extraordinary is the spectacle of the president of a country beset with a debt crisis who claims to have a big, game-changing plan to alleviate it — that he keeps all to himself. He’d whisper it in the ear of House Speaker John Boehner behind closed doors in the White House, but the erstwhile champion of transparency didn’t dare make it public.

      Why was the president who rode into the White House on a wave of overexposure, who wrote two memoirs and is constantly on TV, so shy and retiring about this one matter? Few things would be more galvanizing in the nation’s budgetary politics than a liberal Democrat breaking ranks on entitlements. It would make possible changes heretofore unthinkable, and partly redeem Obama’s promise of post-partisan government.

      =====

      Yeah, pretty ridiculous for the transparency President

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 23rd on 18:59

    These are my links for July 23rd from 18:59 to 19:25:

    • How the White House killed the deal – In an aggressive move, the House speaker’s office has put out a blow-by-blow on how the debt talks collapsed:

      The White House is misleading reporters tonight by claiming that new revenue in the framework that was discussed would have been generated by letting the current tax rates expire. That is simply false. Under the framework, a CEILING was offered by the White House that would generate $800 billion in new revenue over ten years. This would be done through comprehensive tax reform that would clear out deductions, credits, and loopholes in the system – and spur economic growth.
      After the gang of six plan came out, the White House moved the goal posts and insisted on $400 billion more in higher taxes – a 50% increase in revenue – and wanted that to be the FLOOR instead of the ceiling. The President acknowledged this in his remarks tonight. “Letting tax cuts expire” was never part of the tax reform agreed to. Please let me know if you have any questions. – steel
      Summary of the White House ‘walk backs’ during discussions of the ‘framework.’:

      =====

      Read it all.

      I agree with Jennifer Rubin, it looks like Obama wants a default.

    • Sources: Young woman accuses Oregon Rep. David Wu of aggressive, unwanted sexual encounter – A distraught young woman called U.S. Rep. David Wu's Portland office this spring, accusing him of an unwanted sexual encounter, according to multiple sources.

      When confronted, the Oregon Democrat acknowledged a sexual encounter to his senior aides but insisted it was consensual, the sources said.

      The woman is the daughter of a longtime friend and campaign donor. She apparently did not contact police at the time.

      One person who heard the voice mail described the woman as upset, breathing heavily and "distraught."

      In the voice mail, the young woman accused Wu of aggressive and unwanted sexual behavior, according to sources with direct knowledge of the message and its contents.

      Reporters could not verify the young woman's age. Notes on Facebook over the past 18 months indicate she graduated from high school in 2010. California records show she registered to vote in August.

      Wu, 56,  did not respond to repeated questions from The Oregonian over the past four days.

      Late Friday, Wu issued a one-sentence response: "This is very serious, and I have absolutely no desire to bring unwanted publicity, attention, or stress to a young woman and her family."

      =======

      Read it all.

      This is not the first time that Wu has been accused os something like this.

      My bet is that he woill not make it past Monday and will resign.

    • Pressure mounts for Oregon Rep. David Wu to resign – U.S. Rep. David Wu spoke briefly to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi by telephone Saturday after Pelosi's meeting at the White House to discuss the federal debt ceiling.

      The substance of the conversation was not disclosed but it came one day after reports that Wu was involved in unwanted sexual contact with a young woman last Thanksgiving.

      The report has triggered concerns among some Democrats that Wu's behavior could cause political difficulties in the 2012 campaign.

      Other Democratic leaders are expressing the same desire, according to those familiar with the deliberation, including some in Oregon.

      In June, Pelosi released a statement calling on former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., to step down after a similar Saturday conversation. In that case, however, Pelosi acted weeks after the incident broke into the public and after Weiner lied about the source of lewd photographs linked to his twitter account.

      Even so, Weiner's offense was far less severe than the one Wu is alleged to have committed.

      =====

      Put a fork in Rep. Wu – He is Done!

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 20th on 18:05

    These are my links for July 20th from 18:05 to 19:23:

    • Dilbert July 20, 2011 – Shame | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Dilbert July 20, 2011 – Shame #tcot #catcot
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Video: Dentistry of the Mujahideen – Video: Dentistry of the Mujahideen
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Fighting a Parking Ticket Like Doing Your Own Dentistry? – Fighting a Parking Ticket Like Doing Your Own Dentistry?
    • Just Say No to the Gang of Six Proposal/Fraud/Sell Out – The new Gang of Six proposal brewing in the Senate is a total sellout which promises to usher in a vast new round of new taxes. Not just closing of loopholes, but real live taxes we will all have to pay.

      The proposal is based on the recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson Deficit Reduction Commission as modified by the "Gang of Six" US Senators. It plans to raise $1 trillion in new tax revenues. While the gang is vague on the details of the new taxes, the Bowles-Simpson Commission was quite clear – it proposes the virtual elimination of all tax deductions, certainly for taxpayers with joint incomes of over $200,000 and possibly for everyone. The revenues it would generate from eliminating or sharply curtailing the mortgage interest, charitable, and state and local tax deductions are set to generate $1 trillion of new revenues over ten years and to finance a vague and unspecified hoped for cut in the top tax bracket.

      The elimination or significant curtailment of these deductions would have a ruinous economic impact.

      Cutting out the mortgage interest deduction would cost American taxpayers almost $100 billion a year. It would decimate the already moribund real estate sector and would make their current homes unaffordable for millions of homeowners by changing the financial rules in the middle of the game.

      Restricting or eliminating the state and local tax deduction is, in effect, to levy a 25-35 percent surcharge on state and local taxes – income and property – hammering people who live in high tax states. The cost in jobs and state revenues are likely to be staggering.

      ======

      Read it all

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 20th on 13:30

    These are my links for July 20th from 13:30 to 17:39:

    • Economic Recovery Stalled After Obamacare Passed – Private-sector job creation initially recovered from the recession at a normal rate, leading to predictions last year of a “Recovery Summer.” Since April 2010, however, net private-sector job creation has stalled. Within two months of the passage of Obamacare, the job market stopped improving. This suggests that businesses are not exaggerating when they tell pollsters that the new health care law is holding back hiring. The law significantly raises business costs and creates considerable uncertainty about the future. To encourage hiring, Congress should repeal Obamacare.

      n March 2010, Congress passed President Obama’s health care reform legislation. The bill had appeared in serious jeopardy, and after the upset special election victory of Senator Scott Brown (R–MA), many analysts expected the bill to fail. Instead, it became law.

      The law discourages employers from hiring in several ways:

      Businesses with fewer than 50 workers have a strong incentive to maintain this size, which allows them to avoid the mandate to provide government-approved health coverage or face a penalty;
      Businesses with more than 50 workers will see their costs for health coverage rise—they must purchase more expensive government-approved insurance or pay a penalty; and
      Employers face considerable uncertainty about what constitutes qualifying health coverage and what it will cost. They also do not know what the health care market or their health care costs will look like in four years. This makes planning for the future difficult.

      ======

      Read it all

    • The Gang of Six Disaster: The Worst Plan So Far – Confusion among congressional Republicans about their objectives in the debt-limit endgame has increased the possibility that they will stumble into a policy and political disaster over the next two weeks.

      Only ten days ago, Republicans appeared to regain their footing when House Speaker John Boehner torpedoed the disastrous “grand bargain” that President Obama was offering. That deal would have forced Republicans to accept a massive $1 trillion tax hike and left Obamacare in place. In return, the president offered more centrally planned cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and other minor entitlement adjustments. Some deal.

      But now, along comes the Gang of Six plan, and some Republicans are apparently intrigued by it. They shouldn’t be. It’s a terrible, terrible plan. It will hand the president a huge strategic victory and deliver nothing that the GOP should be seeking in this fight. It’s far, far worse than anything we have seen thus far, and certainly much worse than the McConnell plan.

      In a nutshell, the Gang of Six plan would have three parts. Let’s look at each part in turn.

      ======

      Read it all

    • Flap’s Links and Comments for July 20th on 13:25 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for July 20th on 13:25 #tcot #catcot
  • Barack Obama,  Day By Day

    Day By Day July 15, 2011 – Real Estate

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    The whole idea of the President of the United States having to walk out of a debt ceiling meeting leaves everyone suspecting that their judgment of Obama is correct. He is an ego-centric, immature POL who will FLEE when the going gets tough. Remember when the McCain campaign nicknamed Obama “The One.”

    Not a good character trait for someone who is the leader of the “free world.”

    Now, a President who has not lead on deficit reducation and not produced a budget in the last two years, is giving the Congress and Republican Leaders a 36 hour deadline.

    How quaint.

    Obama has been AWOL and now expects immediate action – HIS WAY.

    What will POTUS do next = leave for Europe and declare he won’t be back until the Republicans do THEIR job?

    Previous:

    The Day by Day Archive

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 14th on 10:37

    These are my links for July 14th from 10:37 to 10:39:

    • Rasmussen Poll: ‘55% Oppose Tax Hike In Debt Ceiling Deal’ – The latest Rasmussen poll finds that "Just 34% think a tax hike should be included in any legislation to raise the debt ceiling. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 55% disagree and say it should not." In the debt ceiling debate, President Obama and the Democrats have insisted that raising taxes must be part of any deal to cut spending, while Republicans want only to cut spending.

      The report that accompanies the release of the poll notes a heavily partisan divide. "There is a huge partisan divide on the question," Rasmussen writes. "Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Democrats want a tax hike in the deal while 82% of Republicans do not."

      But among independents, who will be essential to winning the next presidential election, most disapprove of hiking taxes: "35% favor a tax hike and 51% are opposed."

    • President 2012: Romney Still Way Ahead in New Hampshire – A new American Research Group poll in New Hampshire finds Mitt Romney leading the GOP presidential field with the support of 29% of likely primary voters, followed by Michele Bachmann at 12%, Rudy Giuliani at 9%, Sarah Palin at 8% and Newt Gingrich at 7%.
    • The polling is right: Why PPP deserves props – Here's a look at how PPP has done; the numbers speak for themselves:

      *5/14: West Virginia GOV Primary (D)

      Final PPP Poll (5/11-5/12): Tomblin 33% Thompson 20% Tennant 17% Perdue 11% (13 points)

      Actual Outcome: Tomblin 40% Thompson 24% Tennant 17% Perdue 13% (16 points)

      *5/14: West Virginia GOV Primary (R)

      Final PPP Poll (5/11-5/12): Maloney 32% Ireland 31% (1 point)

      Actual Outcome: Maloney 45% Ireland 31% (14 points)

      *5/24: New York 26 Special

      Final PPP (5/21-5/22): Hochul 42% Corwin 36% (6 points)

      Actual Outcome: Hochul 47% Corwin 43% (4 points)

      *7/12 California 36 Special

      Final PPP (7/8-7/10): Hahn 52% Huey 44% (8 points)

      Actual Outcome: Hahn 54% Huey 45% (9 points) 

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      I use their polls and ave found them reasoned and accurate. Just because they are Dems, doesn't necessarily mean they are massaging the data.

      Because if they do and they are off, they lose their credibility and are out of business.

      Candidates and pundits need accurate data, not spin.