The President holds the cards on the Bush tax cuts as the Republicans return to their obstructionist ways. Bernie Sanders joins Ed to discuss it. Watch it.
Harold is correct on taxes, I'm in, and Bob is correct about "entitlements" and I have 2500 paychecks with FICA deductions to prove it. In addition, the capital gains tax rate should be same as the tax rate for wages, the corporate rate should be the statuatory rate and not the effective rate by dumping all loopholes (pay up GE and Exxon), and the FICA cap should be flat out eliminated. When the debt has been reduced to reasonable levels we can consider lowering all rates. It's not complicated - it's fair and it's the right thing to do.
Pat, Grand Lake Co
11/10/2012 9:11:04 AM
I love your rant, Harold, and I totally agree. Letting the bush cuts expire for EVERYONE should make the whiners STFU, and probably won't hit the poor anyway. Those tax cuts lowered my taxes by a couple of hundred a year.. but my rich brother in law kept over $30,000, cause, what the hell, to him it was just a bigger flat screen to watch fox on and more $ to the church for that seat in heaven. No sense earning it when you can buy it, and he can spend his own money better than the government.. ha, as he collects social security.
TAX THE RICH, especially my whiney brother in law.
Bob Bobonde, Minto ND.
11/9/2012 6:24:52 PM
Hey Boner, Social Security and Medicare are not entitlements or welfare, we paid into them and earned them!
Harold3225
11/9/2012 12:39:35 PM
What is wrong with Chis Matthews? He just said Obama should give Mitty an appointment in his administration. If he keeps talking about Mitt like he's a great guy, I am going to come there and slap him.
Chris, Mitt is NOT a great guy. He is EVIL. If he was a great guy, he would now be president. He is a mean, selfish, lying, manipulative, egomaniac, slacker. Why in HELL would we want that guy infecting our government. He lost because he is someone who cannot be trusted.
He lost because he thinks half the country is lazy irresponsible idiots, YOU PEOPLE, I like your trees, no you can't see my swiss bank accounts, yes I support Lilly Led, no I don't, I don't know maybe.
You need to get some sleep. Shut up and don't talk anymore.
Linda S Houston
11/9/2012 11:37:01 AM
Boehner is already talking about cutting entitlements again. Hello? Tan man, did you just check out what happened?? The American people overwhelmingly rejected your party AND it's ideas. Get a clue!
Rob, Oregon
11/9/2012 11:25:39 AM
Fiscal cliff is the word of the moment with the righties now. You cant listen to a right leaning news station without hearing it adinfinitum. Barack won the Presidency convincingly, but the right still sounds like they want the economy to tank with a Democratic President. Fox and fools, and the rest still don't understand the loss. The people want action, and if the right adopts the same obstructionist tactics, and racist tone, they will lose even more seats in the mid-terms. Besides the House, 33 Senate seats will be up for grabs. So far, they still dont get it with the 'minorities have taken over' talk by their paranoid talking heads
The majority of the country who the right is loath to listen to, wants the top to pay up. We simply cant move forward on spending cuts alone while the top pays 1950's tax rates going into 2013. It wont work, period. The greed culture has to turn around. As Harold says, end the damn Bush tax cuts, now. Grownups can accept this fact. There may be hope for Boehner in compromising, but McConnell is hopelessly brain dead on the issue. If the Republicans cant change their tone, and quit acting like it's Obama who refuses to compromise, adios amigo's. Time to take off the KKK hat, accept a little reality, and realize, you lost. You lost big. Keep up the hate, stick with the same old tired wedge issues, and kiss 2014 goodbye.
Harold3225
11/9/2012 5:08:36 AM
I WANT MY TAXES RAISED TODAY. I WANT RICH TAXES RAISED. I WANT EVERYBODY'S TAXES RAISED TO CLINTON ERA LEVELS NOW. The Bush tax cuts were never paid for, never asked for (by decent people), and never needed. Lets get this done. We have to start paying down this trillion dollar debt and it can't come at the expense of our seniors, future seniors, healthcare, or vets. It's got to come from working age adults of all social classes. The cuts only amounted to an AVERAGE of about $600 a year. No one important is going to feel that increase significantly (and by important I mean those who struggle). Even the poorest wage earners who make enough to register on the tax scale would maybe see an increase of about .60 cents per pay period on their check detail. That is a small amount to pay to get this country back in the black ink. Let's kick the republicans in the nuts and tell Obama to RAISE OUR TAXES NOW.
Bush spent us into bankruptcy and the only way out of this hole is to realize we've got to pay more taxes to get even again. I don't think it will cause much suffering. We were doing fine under Clinton and if we go back there, get our bills caught up, the economy will get strong again, people will be working and for higher wages, it will be fine. That is what you do when you've gone on a spending spree. You start making double payments on your debt and you cut back on EXTRAS. Healthcare and social security are not extras. LEAVE MY AND MY MOMS SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE ALONE.
I don't think Obama wants to raise everybody's taxes. WE HAVE TO TELL HIM WE WANT HIM TO RAISE OUR TAXES. He has said he won't rasie everybody's taxes. His plan is to tax ONLY income over $250K so a person earning 1M a year would only pay a slight increase on the $750K over the first $250K. That is not a huge increase in revenue. A person making 250K wouldn't pay any increase. A person making 251K would pay the increase on only $1000 which would amout to about 1.75 cents. Anyway you look at it, no one really loses.
The problem is going to come when Obama tries to sell this idea again to some of the same republicans. Their going to do the same old crap they did last time, no tax increases. If we, the people, say RAISE OUR DAMN TAXES and say it loud and over and over, we will prevail.
If Bush had listen to Clinton when he said "I think we ought to save it the surplus for a rainy day" we would not be discussing this. But the little immature moran that George is, went and took all the children to the candy store and bought them all treats on the hard earned savings accounts he was give the access code to and then what happened? What always happens when you spend everything you have without regard for emergencies. We get attacked and have to spend $30 billion on two wars and our financial markets collapse. Should have listened to the adult in the room and next time we clean up this mess, when we get the next surplus from these tax increase we are about to raise, the surplus is going in a NATIONAL EMERGENCY FUND.
When I said kick the republicans in the nuts, I meant that they love to run up debt so they can say things like "social security, medicare, and mcaid are bankrupting our country. Look how much we have to pay out when we are so broke." SS and Medicare didn't do anything to our economy. You did. You republicans are the reason we are broke. SS and Medicare are paid for by our own taxes. The debt we are in was caused by your tax cuts. Tax cuts that were not asked for or needed or paid for. A few wealthy greedy people may have asked for them, but who cares what they want. They are all going straight to hell. The important people are the hard working Americans who are paying into the system every week in hopes of one day retiring for a few years before they die and having a little annuity set aside to supplement their lousy 401K that Wall Street has left them.
Let's stop arguing about our national safety net. It's here to stay and it's not bothering anybody important. What is bothering the important people is that we are working harder to pay taxes for a bunch of wealthy freeloaders who want to continuously suck at the teets of our government and claim that we, the people, are the freeloaders. PAY YOUR DAMN TAXES AND SHUT THE F**K UP. PLEASE OBAMA SELL THIS QUESTION TO YOUR PEOPLE THEN POLL US AND ASK, "WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO HAVE ALL TAXES RAISED TO GET THIS DEBT SITUATION LOWERED TO A MANAGABLE LEVEL."
My answer is YES. Sign me up.
Harold3225
11/9/2012 3:51:44 AM
EJ Dionne may have the solution to Citizens United. He said "let's tax the Super Pac's" to pay for fairer, cleaner elections. I love it. That will either kill super pacts or it will improve our voting process. Either way, it's a brilliant idea. Write the bill up and sign it.
donnajoy
11/8/2012 11:17:44 PM
Here's hoping that the President and his fellow Democrats are up to the fight of their lives. They need to protect the middle class and poor against the nasty, greedy, selfish, egotistical conservatives who demand more from the rest of us. If we blink, all will be lost and it may take more than a decade to return to a fair and balanced society. To remain a democracy, we must make sure that Boehner and Mitch along with their fellow Republicans do not push us in the direction of a "capitalist dictatorship." They along with Bush and Cheney, destroyed our country and now they are trying to lay the blame on us instead of taking responsibility. This is a true sign of weakness and one that people acknowledged was wrong as reflected in the fact that President Obama won the election and we added Democratic Senators. I believe that if we continue to fight against the GOP, that we will win because we have truth and justice on our side.
