[TNgqZhLR]

Just like my 401K, and nonexistant American Property, so too does the colossal loser Imperialarms like to post bullshit

But lets face it, such stupid Morons like Imperialarms make our day

He'e becoming the butt of our jokes in the office......

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...GItZwD96O097O0

FACT CHECK: Obama 'tax hikes' are a Myth

By JIM KUHNHENN – 2 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he would lower taxes on 95 percent of Americans now and raise them on the rich in 2011. Republicans say he will increase taxes for all and in the midst of a recession to boot.

Obama would not raise taxes in the midst of a recession, as long as his economic assumptions bear out.

The president's budget lowers taxes immediately for middle- and low-income Americans — about 95 percent of working families. It also raises taxes starting in 2011 on households that earn more than $250,000 a year.

But Obama also would impose a tariff on industries that pollute. Obama's top budget and economic advisers say those costs will get passed along to consumers.

Republicans also have asserted that Obama's tax increases would occur in the midst of a recession, a bad idea when the economy needs consumers to spend more.

But the tax increases won't occur for two years. The tariff on greenhouse emissions won't generate revenue until 2012, according to the president's budget. Obama's economists are counting on being out of the recession by then, and the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank has said "there is a reasonable prospect" that 2010 could be a year of economic recovery.

But Obama is ANNOUNCING tax hikes and fee increases in the midst of a recession. And that, Republicans say, is bad enough. However its necessary.

"People may read it as a tax increase, even if, effectively, it's not for 18 months, let's say," said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

THE CLAIM: "The president's budget increases taxes on every American, and does so during a recession," said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

"Let's just be honest and call it a carbon tax that will increase taxes on all Americans who drive a car, who have a job, who turn on a light switch, pure and simple," House Minority leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said of Obama's plan to impose a tariff on polluters.

THE FACTS: Under Obama's plan, tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush for families making more than $250,000 would be allowed to expire in 2011, increasing the top income tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. The top capital gains tax rate would jump from 15 percent to 20 percent.

Middle- and low-income taxpayers — 95 percent of Americans, by the president's calculations — would receive a new tax credit that provides up to $400 a year for individuals and $800 for couples. They also would receive an expanded $2,500 tax credit for college expenses.

Obama also would impose fees on greenhouse gas producers, including power plants that burn fossil fuels, by auctioning off carbon pollution permits. The goal is to reduce the emissions blamed for global warming. The fees would raise a projected $646 billion over 10 years.

Obama aides don't dispute that consumers will get the passed-along costs. In testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee in September, White House budget chief Peter Orszag, then the director of the Congressional Budget Office, said companies that have to pay the emissions fees "would not ultimately bear most of the costs of the allowances. Instead, they would pass them along to their customers (and their customers' customers) in the form of higher prices."

The added cost to consumers is meant as an incentive to reduce energy consumption.

"If people don't change how they use energy, then they will face higher costs for energy," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Orszag told the House Ways and Means Committee that he could not provide a specific cost to consumers under Obama's plan — which aims to reduce greenhouse emissions 14 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. CBO projections last year — based on 1998 pollution levels — estimated that a 15 percent reduction in emissions by 2018 would increase costs to low and moderate income families by about 3 percent of their total income. Obama's tax cuts would mitigate some of that increase.

Arguments that the mere expectation of direct or indirect taxes or fees is damaging in a recession are based on a 19th century economic theory that taxpayers will anticipate higher taxes when a government operates at a deficit and will hoard, not spend, their money. The theory, called the Ricardian equivalent, is central to the Republicans' claims.

"The reason is employers and job creators make decisions based on the future," Camp said in an interview. "They will start acting accordingly now."

The bottom line is only thr top 5% of Americans would see any tax increases.