Obama originally proposed a 'grand bargain' to deal with all the remaining
issues in the hope that he would avoid these regular and debilitating stand-offs
with Congress.Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, within
minutes of Tuesday's vote, flagged up the coming battles ahead over spending and
the debt ceiling. So too did the Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who
said: "Now the focus turns to spending. The American people re-elected a
Republican majority in the House, and we will use it in 2013 to hold the
president accountable." But Obama insisted he had enough of such confrontation.
If Congress decides to make an issue of raising the debt ceiling, it would be
responsible for the "catastrophic" consequences. The fiscal cliff crisis has
been runnning since Obama won the election in early November. Attempts by Obama
and the Republican House Speaker John Boehner to do a deal before Christmas
collapsed. So too did negotations between the Democratic Senate leader Harry
Reid and his Republican counterpart McConnell. In the end, the deal was brokered
over the weekend by McConnell and vice-president Joe Biden. The bill was passed
by the Senate, with 89 senators in favour and eight against, at 2am on Tuesday,
too late to prevent the country breaching the midnight fiscal cliff deadline.
The bill restricts tax rises to individuals earning $400,000 or more a year and
households earning $450,000 or more. Estate tax also rises, to 40% from 35%, but
inheritances below $5m are exempted from the increase. Benefits for the
unemployed are extended for another year.
Access Investments-Building Awareness - European Union-ROMANIA
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Obama originally proposed a 'grand bargain' to deal with all the remaining
issues in the hope that he would avoid these regular and debilitating stand-offs
with Congress.Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, within
minutes of Tuesday's vote, flagged up the coming battles ahead over spending and
the debt ceiling. So too did the Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who
said: "Now the focus turns to spending. The American people re-elected a
Republican majority in the House, and we will use it in 2013 to hold the
president accountable." But Obama insisted he had enough of such confrontation.
If Congress decides to make an issue of raising the debt ceiling, it would be
responsible for the "catastrophic" consequences. The fiscal cliff crisis has
been runnning since Obama won the election in early November. Attempts by Obama
and the Republican House Speaker John Boehner to do a deal before Christmas
collapsed. So too did negotations between the Democratic Senate leader Harry
Reid and his Republican counterpart McConnell. In the end, the deal was brokered
over the weekend by McConnell and vice-president Joe Biden. The bill was passed
by the Senate, with 89 senators in favour and eight against, at 2am on Tuesday,
too late to prevent the country breaching the midnight fiscal cliff deadline.
The bill restricts tax rises to individuals earning $400,000 or more a year and
households earning $450,000 or more. Estate tax also rises, to 40% from 35%, but
inheritances below $5m are exempted from the increase. Benefits for the
unemployed are extended for another year.
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The House voted 257-167, with 172 Democrats joining 85 Republicans in supporting the measure. Voting against the bill were 151 Republicans, and the GOP leadership split over the issue: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) voted against it, while House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) voted for it. Also supporting the bill was Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) the GOP vice presidential nominee who has been an ardent opponent of increasing taxes.
They were lent money on the condition that they lend it to small businesses. They then failed to lend it to anyone. This shows us that Bankers are more powerful than politicians.
Given that they have already broken one promise, what would be the point in encouraging them further to do a thing that no one seems able to force them to do?
Start putting them in prison for corruption, theft etc, and my bet is that they'd suddenly begin to find all kinds of people to lend to.
Speaking before returning to Hawaii for his interrupted Christmas holiday, Mr Obama said that in signing the law he was fulfilling a campaign pledge.
"I will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans... while preventing a middle-class tax hike," he told a White House press conference.
The US deficit was still too high, he said: While open to compromise on budgetary issues, he would not offer Congress spending cuts in return for lifting the government's borrowing limit, known as the debt ceiling.
"There is a path forward, if we focus not on politics, but on what's right for the country," added Mr Obama.
The "fiscal cliff" measures - cutting spending and increasing taxes dramatically - came into effect automatically at midnight on Monday when George W Bush-era tax cuts expired.
The compromise deal extends the tax cuts for Americans earning under $400,000 (£246,000) - up from the $250,000 level Democrats had originally sought.
In addition to the income tax rates and spending cuts, the package includes:
Rises in inheritance taxes from 35% to 40% after the first $5m for an individual and $10m for a couple
Rises in capital taxes - affecting some investment income - of up to 20%, but less than the 39.6% that would prevail without a deal
One-year extension for unemployment benefits, affecting two million people
Five-year extension for tax credits that help poorer and middle-class families
French President François Hollande pledged to reverse the country’s surging unemployment rate as he gave his first New Year’s televised address at the Elysée Palace on Monday.
Speaking of the “serious and legitimate” concerns of the public, Hollande acknowledged the “fits and starts” of his first six months in office, but said France would emerge from the financial crisis “sooner and stronger” than expected because of the course he and his government had taken. “We’ve set the course – jobs, competitiveness and growth – and I will not deviate. It’s the future of France.”
With the number of jobless breaking the three-million barrier for the first time this year, Hollande said “all our efforts will be aimed at a single objective: reversing the unemployment trend within a year, whatever the cost”.
He also promised to tackle what he described as “useless spending” in government. “The French public’s money is hard earned and must be put to the service of a thrifty and exemplary state”.
“Those with more will have to contribute more”
But speaking of his controversial 75% income tax levy, which was overturned by France’s highest legal body on Saturday, the Socialist president said that while the law would be “redesigned” its objective would remain the same. “Those with more will have to contribute more,” he said.
Hollande also stressed the increase in teacher numbers he promised during his election manifesto and touted his delivery of promises to allow 60-year-olds the right to retire if they began working early, along with the return of French combat troops from Afghanistan.
Briefly mentioning the controversial issues of same-sex marriage and euthanasia, Hollande stressed the importance of civil rights. “We have all it takes to succeed,” he said, adding that France is most successful “when it moves forward on equal rights”.
Ending his address with a thought for the “sick, lonely, disabled and unassisted” people in France, the French president said social security was as important as a competitive economy and called for a “collective effort” to make that balance possible.
Well I hope that 2013 is the year that the Euro Disappears forever and the Europhiles sit sobbing in the ashes of what was their careers..................
What has largely gone unremarked amidst the _opera bouffe_ "showdown" in Washington, DC over the fiscal cliff resolution is that said resolution actually resolves very little.
Consider that in each of the last three fiscal years, the US federal government has run a well over $1T deficit.
The "resolution" arrived at by Obama, Reid and Boehner does two things:
-- It provides $60B per year in new tax revenue
-- It further increases spending by as much as $300B per year
In other words, in terms of averting America's lethal plunge into unrepayable levels of debt, this quick fix turns out to be worse than useless.
And that's if it does what it says on the tin!
Anyone conversant with economic history can quote many examples of cases where tax hikes on "the rich" produced far less revenue than the proponents of those increases claimed. Most recently in France, where Hollande's new tax measures are producing only evasion and exile by high income individuals. There is no reason to believe that anything like $60B will actually be harvested in tax receipts by this new American tax law. Perhaps two-thirds of it, at best.
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