2. The Social Security tax rate for
employers is 6.2 percent.
3. The Medicare tax rate is 1.45 percent
for employees and employers.
Self-Employment:
The Social Security tax rate for
self-employed is 10.4 percent through the end of the year. The Medicare tax
rate is 2.9 percent for self-employed."
It is difficulty to understand why Pres. Obama would even contemplate a discussion about the chained CPI. It will hurt the poor and the middle class.
I am of a mind that Pres. Obama should not talk with people who said that compromise is doing what they tell him to do; that as a matter of core principles they are sworn never to raise taxes on anyone; and that the problem of the deficit is not revenue, but spending. The Fiscal Cliff is an artificial construct of Congress' making. It is one sleight-of-hand trick in an arsenal of politicians' bag of tricks like relabeling "the estate tax' the "death tax"; "school integration" becomes "busing"; "affirmative action" becomes "quota"; the "rich" become "job creators"; and "the poor" become "takers." This is Orwellian political doublespeak. This is a world in which a corporation is no different from a fetus, and ideology trumps science.
The political theater has devolved into a football game where winning is paramount; where political maiming of the opposition individually and collectively is the means to that end. All of this gamesmanship disregards the health of the economy when it stands in the way of unwillingness to compromise with the President. It is about wanting the President to fail--instead of the economy to win. What is going on in Congress is a parody steeped in obstruction, willful malice, distrust of government, hatred of the United Nations, and a plethora of charges of conspiracies. For conspiracies what comes to mind are Benghazi (UN Ambassador Susan Rice lied to help Obama's re-election) and Fast and Furious (Obama wants to flood Mexico with weapons to undermine the 2nd amendment). For obstruction look no farther than the record number filibusters in the Senate; for willful malice consider the disinclination to extend unemployment compensation; from the UN we are to beware of black helicopters swooping down from the night sky.
Meanwhile, there are real issues that affect real lives that a robust growing economy can fix or ameliorate. Such a growing economy can benefit from more stimulus--including tax cuts. The stalemate over the deficit and the upcoming standoff over the national debt are examples of bluster that hide what can easily be resolved--extension of the Bush tax cut for 98 percent of taxpayers. This can be accomplished without demanding the poor and the middle class bear the brunt of correcting the deficit through cuts in entitlements.
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