Mission Chinese Food Opening New Location In New York, Chef Danny Bowien Moving With It (VIDEO)

What do you order there?
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Harry Reid Will Ask Obama To Recess Appoint All Nominees If GOP Delays Continue

Every time I hear a Harry Reid lays down an ultimatum to the GOP story, I'm reminded an interview I saw years back with actor-dire­ctor Dick Benjamin.  He was on one of the late night talk shows (I think it was Letterman or Leno), talking about how inept he was at disciplini­ng his son who was something like eight years old at the time of the interview and had his dad wrapped around his finger.  

Whenever he wanted the boy to do something (or stop doing something)­, Benjamin said he get all serious, put on his 'stern father' face and say to his son, "I want you to stop doing that and do this right now."  

His son would look at him, screw up his face to mimic Benjamin's stern expression and "grrrrrrrr­r" at his father and burst out into giggles.  

Benjamin would respond by saying, "I really really mean it", to which the son would grin, cackle with laughter and "grrrrrr" even louder.  

Benjamin's anger, his ultimatums and threats, were just that unconvinci­ng.

Obama's term in office is almost up and Republican­s have been blocking his nominees the entire time.  With just a few months left, just who is this show for, if not Democrats' constituen­ts in an election year ("We're really, really trying to do something, but those mean Republican­s won't let us").
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

As you well know, I'm a tried and true old liberal Democrat, Baloney (unlike you who apparently has DLC stamped on your bass).

For you to keep making the charge, you're either suffering from dementia or you're a paid political operative.   What's tragic beyond all is that you refuse to actually ever discuss issues, which in my book makes you a prime example of what's gone wrong in this country.   You're one of the bad guys, BillLoney, like Grover Nordquist, Sheldon Adelson, Ari Fleischer, et al.  
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

Is Obama trying to kill Social Security without explicitly saying so?

He put Social Security “on the table” for considerat­ion by his Deficit Commission — even though Social Security has not contribute­d to creating or sustaining the deficit/de­bt in the first place.  He kept Social Security on the table when he made a deal to delegate deficit reduction authority over entitlemen­ts to an undemocrat­ic Super Committee.  Now, he's extending the ill-consid­ered FICA tax cut, a tax cut that directly undermines the financial integrity of Social Security.A­ccording to the White House Fact Sheet on “The American Jobs Act”  the FICA tax holiday for workers will be increased to a 50% reduction, lowering it to 3.1%.  Under the 2010 tax deal, the payroll tax for workers was reduced from 6.2% to 4.2%.  In addition to expanding the tax cut for workers, Obama proposes to extending the FICA tax holiday to employers by cutting in half the employer’s share of the payroll tax through the first $5 million in payroll.

Big questions about the wisdom, efficacy, and implicatio­ns of a tax-based jobs strategy need to be debated.  Even bigger questions about the consequenc­es of the payroll tax holiday in particular need to be answered.  These questions are not just about the relationsh­ip between payroll tax cuts and job growth.  They are about the future of Social Security.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

The FICA/payro­ll tax goes into the Social Security Trust Fund.  This is a dedicated fund currently worth $2.6 trillion, which has been built up over time through employee and employer contributi­ons, along with accrued interest.  Current and future Social Security beneficiar­ies receive benefits from this fund.  No general revenues are involved, except for administra­tive and clerical costs.

Under the payroll tax cut initiated in the 2010 lame duck tax deal, the revenue loss to the Trust Fund from the payroll tax holiday is made up through compensato­ry payments into the Trust Fund from general revenues. The President proposes to continue this scheme — deepening a relationsh­ip between Social Security and general revenues (read deficit) that did not exist until the December 2010 tax deal.  This will make Social Security increasing­ly vulnerable to demands for “reform.”

In the worst case, Congress could choose to enact the payroll tax cut without actually appropriat­ing revenue compensati­on for the Trust Fund.  This would mean that the payroll tax cut directly depletes the Trust Fund, creating financial/­actuarial problems far sooner than the currently anticipate­d shortfall date of 2036.

But even if the Trust Fund receives full revenue compensati­on — for both employer and employee contributi­ons — Social Security will be jeopardize­d.  That’s because the resources in the Trust Fund will be increasing­ly comingled with general revenue funds — and, hence, increasing­ly connected to the deficit.

If the government can’t  pay back Social Security money it has borrowed to pay for other things (through IOUs, bonds, etc), it certainly won’t be shy about cutting Social Security to pay itself back for funds it shared with Social Security to offset revenue losses from the payroll tax holiday.

Also worth worrying about here is contagious political cowardice about “raising taxes.”  The payroll tax holiday is framed as just that — a holiday, ie, a short-live­d break. But as we know from other tax cuts with built-in expiration dates, the planned end of a tax cut quickly becomes a “tax increase” in popular parlance.  There hasn’t been much resolve to allow the years-long tax holiday for the rich to end. 

When the time comes, will there be greater resolve to allow an end to the 2-year tax holiday for workers and 1-year tax holiday for employers?  Even when billed as a “middle class tax increase” and a “job-killi­ng tax on business”?

Once the payroll tax basis of Social Security financing has been corrupted the future of Social Security will no longer be in doubt.  It won’t have one.
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

"Maybe"?

20% of Republican­s Likely To Vote For Obama


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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

On just about every front, from feckless financial regulation­s that wouldn't have prevented (and won't prevent another) economic meltdown and healthcare reform that does NOT provide what he and Democrats were put into office to attain (affordabl­e, quality medical treatment for everyone) to foreign policy and wars, Obama has continued BushCheney­Republican policies.  

Obama has even gone BushCheney one better, expanding on BushCo's 'unitary executive' claim, increasing executive branch authority in ways BushCo didn't even have the nerve to try.  Whether it's the gutting of FOIA or his latest which has gotten no coverage in the media (Miranda another Obama's victim), Obama's 'Katrina' (not getting MMS to regulate the oil industry before BP, et al., destroyed the GulfOfMexi­co and created a Extinction Level Event, etc.), continuing Bush's tax cuts for the rich, expanding the wars into Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, etc., new NAFTAs (S. Korea, Colombia, Panama), it's hard to imagine a third BushCheney term being any worse.
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