As we now know the reelection of president Obama created some interesting fallout none more so than conservative meltdowns, political posturing and an uncanny amount of shock. But while most of the county’s public was overjoyed by the election outcome, some clearly where not; those in the not category can be defined in one of 2 ways, higher income people who don’t want to see their taxes raised one red cent, as the saying goes, and business owners now panicking about the implementation of Obama care, the supposed impact on their business.  Not surprisingly the ones creating the biggest stink are not the small businesses who literally don’t have enough profits to think about providing the mandated health insurance but large corporations, franchises and retail chains who could do it, arguably should already be doing it, and simply don’t want to. Neither are citizens below nail-biting, scene making about what they may be asked to pay in taxes, some going so far as to flee the country to avoid getting on the wrong side of the IRS.  This is what is transpiring on Maine Street while Washington is arguing over the fiscal cliff, republicans trying to put everything from Obama care to raising the Medicare eligibility age on the negotiating table; this is what’s going on while analysts attempt to explain to the public how the republicans got it so wrong in predicting election outcomes, make the correlation between religious conservatives who believe the earth is only 9,000 years old and sound environmental policies to stave off global warming based on rudimentary foundations of science, just one area where experts point to conservative’s ideology making it harder to better our country.  Welcome to another installment of what your government should be paying attention to instead of the issues they try to beat like a dead horse.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/49862781#49911256

Hear one political commentator talk about the lengths people will go to, to avoid taxes     

Overreaction to a potential tax hike on the wealthiest of citizens is nothing new in American history or in the Obama presidency; after he was sworn in, in 2009, vowing to make the top 2% pay just a little more ABC News did a piece chronicling public reaction, including one business owner who was determined to get her taxable income to just under that all-important 250,000 even if it meant contriving to make only 249,000 by going on vacation for a few days at the end of the tax year leaving her business closed, thus making no money. And again right after the election the Wall Street Journal did a similar story showcasing people’s anxiety regarding a potential tax rise. Problem, neither news outlet, neither media format injected their story with either facts about the proposed tax rate changes or common sense pointing out it a silly thing to do to set out to make less money than you can, especially if you are a business, just to save a few dollars. Because while going over the fiscal cliff, virtually returning to the Clinton era tax rates may cost the average person around 2,000; raising the tax rate on people making over 250,000 is a drop in a much larger bucket for millionaires and billionaires who might see their taxes go up that much. Obviously if you make 251,000 you’re going to pay far less than someone making 10 million; bringing us to another point as to exactly how silly it is to think making 249,000 will absolve you of any greater tax liability; your first 250,000 is taxed like so now, will continue to be taxed at the same rate. It is only everything after that first 250,000 that gets taxed at a slightly, not grossly, gratuitously, higher rate, meaning the woman in the ABC news piece, all these business owners, individuals trying to manipulate their income by a dollar had nothing to worry about in the first place because they didn’t make enough for the change to affect them, period.      

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/#49848115

Click here to find out just how workers were intimidated in their vote

 The day after president Obama was reelected bizarre headlines started popping up like the CBS Los Vegas article heading that read: president Obama was reelected so I fired 22 people or one CEO with a history of intimidating workers as to their vote, then upon the outcome of the election fired upwards of 150 people. But that was nothing compared to the blatant comments made by some CEO’s including mangers of Papa Johns and Denny’s; one saying he would fire people, refuse to hire new workers in order to compensate for the looming cost of Obama care. The other planning to cut front of the house staff to 30 hours or less sidestepping the need to provide benefits and charge a 5 % addition to customer’s bills for payment of waitresses or quality of service openly saying if I charge a 5% tax because of Obama care people have a choice they can either pay it and continue to tip as normal or pay it and decide to tip the waitress less, seeing as they are the true beneficiary of Obama care to begin with. Franchise owners were quick to say this was not the position of the head of either company, expressing disappointment in these individuals however noting that as store managers they had control over both employee hire and employee hours for that store.  It was a quick about face for both business men as, particularly Denny’s, saw huge drops in business when the opinions were made public; Papa John’s perhaps being the worst offender when they have an ad out talking about giving away 2 million free pizzas yet can’t provide worker health insurance, that manager lives in a multi thousand dollar mansion yet squawks at giving workers health benefits, last year proclaimed Obama care would raise the price of pizza only 12-14 cents  still complaining about the healthcare mandate.  But Ed Shultz makes the point these are the “job creators” heralded by the republican party and here is what they are doing. Contrasting all the nervous hype are businesses who say Obama care will help them give benefits to their employees not make it harder; further if you are a micro business with 1, 5, 15, 20, anything under 50 employees the mandate does not affect you.  Here are the situations we have to stop, businesses, individuals purposely manipulating their incomes, willing to manipulate employee hours, willing not to hire workers    to avoid compliance with the law, not who sleeps with whom, who marries whom, where and how women get their birth control, what is defined as legitimate rape to, average age, 55 year old white guys who have no concept of what pregnancy does to a woman’s body, not how people register to vote or the numbers of a certain ethnicity who seemingly crawled out of the woodwork in a community in order to vote,  or speaking out against removing the word lunatic from laws, as if including the word actually helped a congress person actually do their job.  

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Click to watch franchise CEO’s suddenly walk back their stance on Obama

 Another thing we must combat wealthy and well to do persons willing to renounce their US citizenship to circumvent the IRS and the taxes they owe, or would owe had they remained citizens; that’s right, people so determined to forgo paying taxes they will deny their birthright to their own country. What makes it more of a slap in the face is repeatedly it’s people who are business tycoons, millionaires, people who used the opportunities offered in this country to create their fortunes and they’re saying now I don’t want to be a part of it anymore, I don’t want to participate anymore. The latest to do this is Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin; if only Mr. Saverin had had a crystal ball perhaps he would have seen how bad Facebook’s IPO was going to be and forestalled his plans. At least his move to become a Singaporean citizen also came from his plans to live there for a time doing something and not just for the “better tax rate.” However nearly 2,000 people have done this since 2008 and decided uptick from the former 235; as if it wasn’t bad enough American businesses are getting tax right offs to move their operations overseas, as if it wasn’t bad enough businesses are buying foreign commodities only for the tax deduction, we now have some of the most successful Americans jumping ship because they are being asked to pay their proportionate fair share relative to the wealth they earned. Frankly the law should read as follows, you want to renounce your citizenship, ok; we won’t keep you if you don’t want to be here, but you will pay the taxes for the tax year you were in the United States and prorated tax for the months of the current calendar year you resided in the United States before moving, before the completed processing of your paper work. If not you face extradition under federal law, prosecution under federal law in addition to paying back the money you owe with penalties. This brings common sense and practicality to lawmaking in order to discourage people fleeing the country just because they suddenly don’t like the tax code.   

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#50124300

Brian Williams announces big lotto winner and their reason for claiming it now

 Relatedly there are the fiscal cliff negotiations while understandably there is apprehension as to what will happen should we go over it in terms of our economy, the potential for another recession, federal government cuts that not only cost services but jobs, the uncertainty in business when it comes to making plans for the next year, but there is a whole other side of apprehension embodied by the already wealthy Arizona lotto winner who wanted to claim their prize before the fiscal cliff was decided, before taxes went up on the wealthy. Now to some that might make sense lotto winnings being a prize are subject to more taxes than simply moving income brackets; then again it showcases an overall mentality held by the well to do absolutely panicked the new tax rate is going to suddenly take half their income, suddenly make it hard for them to make ends meet, suddenly swallow all of their should be savings found in making more money. Wrong, just like the people described in paragraph 2 thinking changing their income by a dollar will make a difference, completely misunderstanding what a marginal tax rate is, how it works, these people need to perhaps Google that along with the phrase Clinton era tax rates, because that’s where they are slated to return to not some new gargantuan level engineered by Obama to take money from you just because you are wealthy. Where there should be nerves is if the fiscal cliff is reached and we do hit a second recession, a serious dive in the stock market mare acutely felt by the well to do because they typically have more investments, derive more of their income from means outside basic employment.




 What citizens should be watching regardless of their income level, their financial status are the fiscal cliff negotiations themselves where house speaker John Boehner put Paul Ryan in charge of the team put forth to hammer out a deal, the guy whom Americans, by majority, rejected not only as a vice president but nearly stoned him for his plans on Medicare, who tried to privatize social security by linking it to Wall Street. They should be paying attention when republicans are finally ready to possibly give up the ridiculous fight to keep tax cuts for the wealthy and Harry Reid goes from initially saying no to the vote to looking around him, checking his votes saying yes only to have senate minority Mitch McConnell filibuster his own bill, realizing democrats had the votes to give the president what he wanted regarding raising the tax rates. What people should be paying attention to is things republicans want to put on the table including ensconcing debt ceiling talks into the negotiations, raising the Medicare eligibility age, cutting cost of living raises to those on social security, listen when speaker Boehner calls the president’s proposal not serious, when he says it carries no specifics, then complains about them still trying to sell the Romney plan talking about loopholes. Switching gears Mr. Boehner next shouted to the American press the democrat’s plan does not tackle entitlement reform when truthfully there are $600 billion worth of cuts to Medicare. They’re just not the cuts to Medicare cuts tea party and other republicans want; it is savings to the Medicare program found by no longer over paying providers, by discouraging repeated hospital readmissions, because patients were not kept in the hospital for proper observations, testing and so forth, by charging higher premiums to wealthier Medicare recipients, means testing to determine actual wealth of income and assets held by individuals receiving Medicare i.e. not paying for someone like Warren Buffet’s prescription drugs instead of turning Medicare into a voucher program, cutting legitimate payments to doctors, cutting benefits to seniors, raising the retirement age.  The latter action making no common sense based on how the system has always worked and functioned best, primarily because raising the Medicare eligibility age removes the healthiest, least expensive persons from the program.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/ns/msnbc-the_ed_show/#49894021

Paul Ryan head of fiscal cliff talks go to link to find out just why that could be bad for you

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/#50033918

Mitch McConnell on Medicare, why raising the eligibility age doesn’t work

If the wealthy citizens of this country want something constructive to do they should be bombarding speaker Boehner’s office with messages to get his caucus in line, get this deal done avoiding recession, avoiding a drastic plunge in the stock market that could take comfortable, lower end wealthy Americans from what they thought they would have to eking out an existence on social security alone. If business owners, concerned about their profit margin, earnings over where taxes were going to be raised, Obama care anything of that nature want something constructive they can do now, before debt ceiling measures are finalized; A they can push to have the payroll tax cut extended allowing them to keep their current employees B, they can support democrat’s initiative giving power to the president to raise the debt ceiling or not without approval from the house of representatives, which controls budgets, requiring a two thirds vote to overturn any such presidential decision while maintaining the balance of power, but concurrently limiting an obstructionist congress. Oh and if we want to talk about wording in laws, forget whether or not the word lunatic is used anywhere and focus on finding a better name for programs like social security and Medicare besides entitlements, something that doesn’t promote the misnomer people are trying to get things for nothing when in actuality they paid into that system all their working life.

 Bonus video    

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/ns/msnbc-the_ed_show/#50111583

Click here to find out why one congress member believes he needs the word lunatic in legislation to do his job

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