Obama calls for $1.6 trillion in taxes

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
11/14/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Both sides want ot avert fiscal cliff, but none willing to sacrifice too much.

Get ready to pay. President Obama has proposed $1.6 trillion in new taxes, falling mostly on the wealthy and small businesses. The taxes are part of a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan. Most of the revenues will come from households earning in excess of $200,000 and $250,000 if married.

It's time to pay again. Obama wants $1.6 trillion in taxes.

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The plan is to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, which will increase tax rates on the wealthiest Americans from 33 and 35 percent to 36 and 39.6 percent, respectively.

Investment taxes on the rich would also increase to 20 percent for capital gains and at the top marginal rate for dividends. Currently, the tax on dividends is 15 percent.

These increases would generate over a trillion dollars in new revenues for the government.

Obama has also suggested limiting the exclusions that high-income households could take, which would generate another 500 billion.

There are a variety of other smaller tax hikes which could apply more broadly and generate tens of billions of dollars over the next decade.

The overall plan is unchanged from a proposal the president made in February for the 2013 budget.

Obama is scheduled to sit down with congressional leaders on Friday to begin work on averting the looming "fiscal cliff" that now presents a significant risk to the economy. The fiscal cliff is the blend of tax hikes and cuts that will bring federal spending down, and revenues up, but may also harm the economy.

Economists widely expect a recession for the first quarter of 2013 should the country go over the fiscal cliff on January 1.

Both sides want to avoid the fiscal cliff and ensuing recession, especially because recessions are expensive. During a recession, the government must sustain larger populations of unemployed people and food aid recipients.

Despite the urgency however, Republicans have vowed to resists the $1.6 trillion tax hikes. Meanwhile, Democrats are wary of deep cuts to social services that many still rely upon to make ends meet.

Both sides have signaled a willingness to compromise, but it is unlikely either will be satisfied with the outcome.

� 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Fiscal cliff, Obama, tax hikes, wealthy, cuts, spending, deficit

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1 - 1 of 1 Comments

mike robertson
6 months ago
I have been praying for God to give strength to the conservative men and women in Congress to resist the administration (and their Catholic democrat "Social justice" allies) in this area. I am on the lower half of the economic ladder and am about to join the growing numbers of unemployed-which is far higher than the false number put out by pro-administration people in the media.

For me to have a buyer's market for job-seekers, where I would have a large number of jobs with growing wages to choose from, I need lower taxes across the board. I need for there to be more wealthy people than now and for those who are wealthy to be doing better, not worse. I need for businesses, large and small, to be doing better, not worse.

Sadly the kindergarten-level knowledge of so many leads them to believe that a massive tax increase on the job providers of X% will lead to a reduction in the deficit of X%. If Catholic democrat economic theory was true, Greece and Spain would be begging for workers.

The administration is ausing great pain to the ranks of lower income people like me and ruining our chances of working our way up. Their Catholic democrat "compassionate" policies are naive and tragically dangerous. Of course the man in the White House is downright evil, not when it comes to the economy, but when it comes to: favoring infanticide, even after the baby girl survives the attempt to murder her in her mom's womb; declaring sexual perversion the equivalent of Holy Matrimony, which is a Sacrament from God and not a man-made institution; and for his war on the Church and her institutions under the guise of "health care".

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