Boehner underscored the need for serious spending cuts

Speaker Boehner Spending Chart Referenced Below

Today in Washington, D.C. - Nov. 13, 2012.
Yesterday, 12-12-12 ended without the World ending as predicted by many who cited Mayan calender. Based on studies on forecasts and the accurate astronomy evidenced by the Mayans, maybe they were just saying the calendar was ending.  Maybe they ran out of stone cutters. Maybe we haven't discovered other calendars. Or maybe,  the ended their star gazing and projections because an inept big government had gained control of their calendar union.  Regardless, the sun rose again. We also noted the N. Koreans successfully launching a long range missile. Considering the billions we have invested in N. Korea and in defending South Korea evidences it would have been cheaper to have originally followed Gen. Douglas MacArthur's solution.

Today, the U.S. Senate resumed consideration of S. 3637, a bill to extend the FDIC’s Transaction Account Guarantee program for two years.   At noon, a motion to waive a Budget Act point of order against S. 3637 failed to get the 60 votes needed by a vote of 50-42.

The Senate confirmed (91-0) Lorna G. Schofield to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York and confirmed by voice vote Frank Paul Geraci, Jr to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of New York.

The Senate notified the House that it had passed S. 3677 and H.R. 3783 amended. Senate agreed to the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 2838. The Senate receded from the amendment of Dec. 4, 2012 to H.R. 4310, passed H.R. 4310 with an amendment, asked for a conference and appointed conferees.  The House addressed this conference request below.

The House completed work on the following bills:
S. 3315 — "To repeal or modify certain mandates of the Government Accountability Office."

S. 1379 — "To amend title 11, District of Columbia Official Code, to revise certain administrative authorities of the District of Columbia courts, and to authorize the District of Columbia Public Defender Service to provide professional liability insurance for officers and employees of the Service for claims relating to services furnished within the scope of employment with the Service

Democratic Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 4310 – ADOPTED 399 - 4

Motion to Permit Closed Conference Meetings on H.R. 4310 – ADOPTED 351 - 53

H.R. 4053 passed (400 - 0) — "To intensify efforts to identify, prevent, and recover payment error, waste, fraud, and abuse within Federal spending.

According to New York Times today, “The income stagnation that has hit the middle class in the last decade is complicating the Democrats’ position in the fiscal talks, making it more difficult for them to advocate across-the-board tax increases if a deal falls through. Many Democrats have derided the expiring tax cuts as irresponsible . . . Yet the party is united in pushing to make the vast majority of them permanent, even though President Obama could ensure their expiration at year’s end with a simple veto.”

It is worth noting that Democrats spent the better part of a decade blasting the tax cuts President Bush signed in 2001 and 2003 as “tax cuts for the wealthy” that lined the pockets of oil barons and plutocrats. But with the rates about to expire, Democrats are finally (though only implicitly) acknowledging that those tax laws cut rates across the board and were a benefit to middle class families. And now, after voting against creating these rates, Democrats want to extend many of them.

The NYT explains, “That decision reflects concern over the wage and income trends of the last decade, when pay stagnated for middle-class families, net worth declined and economic mobility eroded. Democrats who generally would prefer more tax revenue to help pay the growing cost of Medicare and other programs are instead negotiating with Republicans to find a combination of spending cuts and targeted tax increases for higher incomes. . . . The income and wealth trends of the last decade also create a longer-term dilemma for the party. By advocating the continuation of most of the Bush-era tax cuts, Democrats might find themselves confronting deeper-than-comfortable cuts to spending programs that aid the poor and middle class down the road.”

So while Democrats seem to have figured out that lower tax rates are good for most Americans, they noticeably don’t think they’re good for all Americans. The tax rate increases Democrats are demanding would disproportionately hurt small businesses as the economy continues to struggle.  BuzzFeed Politics actually interviewed some employers about how these tax hikes would hurt their businesses: “The heads of some of America's mid-size franchise chains talked to BuzzFeed, about why tax increases, even, and sometimes especially on the top 2% of wage earners would be bad for their franchisees.”

BuzzFeed wrote, “Donald Fox, the CEO of Firehouse Subs says he can afford to pay higher taxes himself, but some of the company's franchise owners can not. ‘For those franchisees that are trying to save with the rise in taxes some of them won’t be able to,’ Fox told BuzzFeed. The rise in taxes ‘is going to have a very real impact on those operators.’” In another example, “Darin Harris, the COO of Primrose Schools, says ‘many of our franchise have an income over $250,000 and it will have a negative impact on their ability to reinvest back into the system.’ Primrose school is a private school franchise which offers child care and preschool programs for children 6 weeks to 5 years. Primrose has more than 245 schools in 17 states, and is planning to grow to 312 schools by 2014. Harris, however, says tax increases might put a halt on the company's plan to expand. ‘We've got a lot of our business that are scared.’” BuzzFeed found that “Russ Reynolds, the President & CEO of Batteries Plus, says ‘for the first time ever we've seen franchisees deciding to not go into small business over the uncertainty in the economic future.’ . . . Reynolds says ‘about 80% aren't gonna invest in a growth if their tax changes’ citing a recent study.” In one more example, BuzzFeed writes, “Christopher Grandpre is the chairman and CEO of Outdoor Living Brands. He says the prospect of tax increase has made his company anxious. ‘We become more and more cautious and have fewer positions in the budget,’ Grandpre says. ‘We tend to be more cautious in making investments in growth.’ . . . Grandpre added that no fiscal cliff deal is a awful situation for franchise owners. ‘They will feel it through reduced sales and they will feel it through higher taxes,’ Grandpre says if Washington misses the December 31st deadline to make a deal.”

The Wall Street Journal noteds today, “Since the 1980s, when business-tax rules were eased, the majority of new U.S. firms have organized themselves as nontaxable small business entities such as limited liability companies. These businesses account for about half of U.S. business income and more than one-third of private-sector employment, by some estimates.”

These are the job creators who will be hurt if Democrats succeed in raising the tax rates they’re so focused on increasing. As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, "So if it’s an iron law of economics that you get less of what you tax, why on earth would we want to raise taxes on work? Rates matter because they affect behavior. The higher the tax rate, the higher the disincentive to work. . . . The only reason Democrats are insisting on raising rates is because raising rates on the so-called ‘rich’ is the holy grail of liberalism. Their aim isn’t job creation. They’re interested in wealth destruction

Today, at his weekly press conference today, House Speaker John Boehner underscored the need for serious spending cuts to avert the fiscal cliff, begin addressing our staggering debt, and support economic growth.  Speaker Boehner highlighted a new chart (shown above) by the House Budget Committee.  The chart shows that America has a spending problem – not a revenue problem – that can only be addressed by cutting spending, not raising tax rates on small businesses.

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