Features list of the New Year's Fiscal Cliff Bill: I know we have our principles, but this bill does a lot of good and, most importantly, it was not the harsh bit of legislation Obama was pushing. All and all, this is a rather remarkable victory for the GOP.

Final update  -  a comment:  Understand that Boehner reversed his position from earlier in the day (New Year's Day).  He had promised to honor a "majority of the majority."  We all thought he was talking about the majority opinion of his own party.  Turns out,  his party's opinion did not count for a hill of beans.  The new bill has much good in it,  it runs counter to the larger GOP.  Right thinking Republican's decried the disgraceful fact that this bill not only did not address spending at all,  it increases the national debt by 4 trillion dollars.  Understand that we are on track to hit 25 trillion before our presidential fiscal moron gets out of office.   While Obama says, "We cannot simply cut our way to prosperity,"  it would be nice if he would even try.



Update:  8 pm/pt  :  House passes Senate bill with a majority vote coming from the Democrats.  By the time the final count is completed,  less than 85 Republicans will have voted for this bill.  Of course,  tomorrow,  the Democrats will tout this fact bringing to an end,  as absolute legislative disaster never seen in my 67 years.  Time heals all wounds . . . . . . . thank gawd  

Update (3:30 p.m., pt):  House indicates  it will reject the bill passed by the Senate.  Boehner is shocked at the number of Senate Republicans supporting the bill.  Only 8 Senators rejected the bill including Ran Paul and Marco Rubio.  No serious cuts in spending will cause the bill to fail. Understand that the Senate bill adds 3.9 trillion to the national debt with spending "cuts" that total less than one percent of the bill's total spending.  Anyone calling this "balance" is speaking lies and foolishness. 

Senate fiscal bill:  (According to most reports,  the House will vote on this bill later today).

The Democrats win on this issue:  

620 billion in tax increases (over a ten year period) which does not cover half the cost of our interest payment on the annual deficit.

15 billion in spending cuts:  problem, House members say they cannot find these cuts,  but if they exist,  the bill increases taxes over cuts by a disgraceful ratio of 41:1.  In deals negotiated during the Reagan and Bush 43  administrations,  the ratio’s of tax increases to spending cuts was 1:3 and 1:2 respectably  . . . . . . .  or so they say.  While these ratio’s were part of the agreements,  the cuts never happened,  the Dems  refusing to keep their word in both cases.   

ObamaCare was cut in this negotiated agreement - a GOP victory: 

The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports,  also known as the CLASS Act, the brain child of  the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, was cut from the ObamaCare legislation.  This mandated provision was designed to create a program for long-term care for the functionally disabled.  It was cost prohibitive.  While Obama refused to allow this deletion when it was pushed by the GOP,  under the agreement voted on,  New Year’s morning, the GOP won the day in these recent negotiations.  

The GOP also wins on all of the following:    

Rather than taxing incomes above the $250,000 level,  the tax rate will be increased from 35 percent to 39.6 percent for those individuals making $400,000 per year and couples earning a combined total of $450,000.  Understand that these tax rates on levied on the upper middle class  -  not just the “rich.”   Taxes on the remaining citizenry will continue as they were under the Bush cuts.  All of this is permanent. 

A big break as to capital gains and dividends taxes is found in this agreement.  This tax would increase for those earning more than $400,000 per year.  The rate would be raised from 15% to 20%.  This is a permanent fix,  as well.

The salary increases Obama granted to congress and members of his staff just last week,   including the worthless Joe Biden,  were canceled in this deal  --  they are no more.   Another GOP victory.

The estate tax, also,  caught a huge break,  as well.    The current $5 million estate valuation barrier remains permanently in force for individual estates and $10 million for “family estates” have been extended.    The new tax rate went from 35% to 40%,  far less from the 55% tax on estates worth more than a million dollars as proposed by members of the radical Left.  The 2012 estate values will,  also,  be indexed for inflation,  allowing these estates to grow in value without penalty.  And,  again,  this is all permanent. 

The alternative minimum tax was permanently indexed for inflation.  While I have no clue as to the specifics of the AMT,  I do know it was originally intended as a tax on the rich,  but has become a tax on all upper income Americans.  This “fix” makes the AMT predictable and “non-lethal” to those who must pay this tax.  More specifically,  it indexes taxable income values for inflation,  under this [AMT] tax,  preventing more and more of the larger population from being included in this tax venue,  simply because of the passage of time.  The GOP won a permanent fix on this issue. 

The Social Security payroll tax has been reinstated,  taking the rate paid by the employee,  back to 6.2%,  as it has been for decades.  In my opinion,  this is an admission on the part of H Obama that his payroll decrease on this tax,  was a dunce move,  robbing Social Security of its annual income collections.  Since Obama lowed this tax,  Social Security has failed to collect enough money to pay its bills in 2009,  2010 and  2011.  2012 totals are not yet in,  but there is no doubt that this year will finish with a deficit, as well. Again,  call this a victory for the GOP. 

Long term unemployment benefits were extended through 2013. - Obama wins on this one. 

While modest cuts to Medicare were made,  the “doctor fix”  was revived for the 15^th consecutive year,  blocking a 27% cut to Medicare doctor.  This is a non-partisan accomplishment.  

Good news for families with children:  the child tax credit has been extended for five years. Both sides favored this solution. 

There will be no Pentagon cuts until March,  giving Congress opportunity to fix that mess  -  an opportunity which, of course, will be lost by the Legislature and Obama, in due time.

The earned income tax credit  -  a “tax” refund for those who pay no income tax at all, has been preserved.  As has the $2,500 college tuition deduction. 

Also, the business community won a one year extension on its investments as to new property and equipment.  

 The bill provides a tax credit for research and development costs and a tax credit for renewable energy such as wind-generated electricity,  a subsidy already 8 times greater for the struggle green energy concerns,  than for oil and its related industries.  

J Smithson 

Update for added features of the fiscal cliff bill:  

Additional spending goes to the following:  

$430 million for Hollywood through “special expensing rules” to encourage TV and film production in the United States.  Producers can expense up to $15 million of costs for their projects.

$331 million for railroads by allowing short-line and regional operators to claim a tax credit up to 50 percent of the cost to maintain tracks that they own or lease.

$222 million for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through returned excise taxes collected by the federal government on rum produced in the islands and imported to the mainland.

$70 million for NASCAR by extending a “7-year cost recovery period for certain motorsports racing track facilities.”

$59 million for algae growers through tax credits to encourage production of “cellulosic biofuel” at up to $1.01 per gallon.

$4 million for electric motorcycle makers by expanding an existing green-energy tax credit for buyers of plug-in vehicles to include electric motorbikes.