Octopus Overlords

Social media users are blasting Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on Twitter after he boasted about the GOP tax bill by sharing a story of a Pennsylvania teacher seeing a pay increase of a little over a dollar a week.

“A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year,” Ryan tweeted.

Trump's fiscal 2019 budget proposes $1.7 trillion in entitlement cuts over a decade, including $237 billion to Medicare, according to a summary we obtained.

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:25 pm And there it is...right on cue.

Trump's fiscal 2019 budget proposes $1.7 trillion in entitlement cuts over a decade, including $237 billion to Medicare, according to a summary we obtained.

If I pay into the safety net my entire life then actually have to use it, that doesn't really make it an "entitlement", now does it?

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:25 pm 2. God forbid we take one goddamn cent from our absurdly bloated military to pay for any of this bullshit tax plan.

Zarathud wrote: Mon Feb 12, 2018 5:31 pm Trump is proposing to cut the IRS budget by 6% while they face the enormous task of implementing and interpreting the 2017 Tax Act. There are vast new tax cuts which are poorly defined, and other sections that are ambiguous or flat-out wrong from the last-minute effort. The Trump Administration missed the deadline to identify the priorities of the IRS -- other than requiring the Social Security numbers for earned income tax credits and child tax credits.

Even our tax system's only priority seems to be auditing minorities. So sad.

Max Peck wrote: Mon Feb 12, 2018 8:18 pm
With that budget cut, the IRS will probably never have the resources to finish Trump's audit.

Moliere wrote: Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:42 pm

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:25 pm 2. God forbid we take one goddamn cent from our absurdly bloated military to pay for any of this bullshit tax plan.

As long as we're honest that this is a bipartisan problem. It's not accidental that companies like Lockheed, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman spread their offices and jobs across as many Congressional districts as possible. To the point that even Bernie Sanders doesn't want to report back to his constituents that he voted away their jobs.

U.S. corporations have announced more than $218 billion in share buybacks since Congress enacted the Republican tax overhaul in December, an investment research firm said on Wednesday.

The California-based firm TrimTabs, which tracks corporate buybacks, said the value of buyback programs announced in February alone surged to $153.7 billion from $59.9 billion in January, smashing a previous monthly record of $133 billion in April 2015.

Jeff V wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:16 pm My company just announced 4th quarter results. They are taking a $110 million charge relating to costs associated with the "tax cuts." Bonuses and 401(k) matching continue to be abolished and for the umpteenth consecutive year pay increases are expected to be capped at 1%.

Kraken wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:22 pm

Jeff V wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:16 pm My company just announced 4th quarter results. They are taking a $110 million charge relating to costs associated with the "tax cuts." Bonuses and 401(k) matching continue to be abolished and for the umpteenth consecutive year pay increases are expected to be capped at 1%.

That's not how any of this is supposed to work. Maybe your company should go into coal mining instead.

malchior wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 5:50 pm The IRS changed the max contribution for HSAs for 2018. In March. Down $50. It is a 0.7% change. What the hell. Perhaps just don't increase it next year? My employer just sent us a notice that we will be given an exemption to change our election since we do it in Open Enrollment normally. What a waste of time and money for an insignificant adjustment.

Edit: How is this related to tax reform you ask? The IRS is claiming this is due to a change in the inflation calculation in the tax reform bill. Our country is truly governed by total idiots.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 5:56 pmBut you never know. Maybe clawing back $5-10 from everyone that maxed out their HSA will save the country.

A CNBC poll this week stated that just 32 percent of working adults reported having more take-home pay due to the new law, a problem for Republicans hoping to run on the measure and the health of the economy in November.


The GOP has made the tax-cut law the centerpiece of its campaign message, arguing that Republican control of Congress and the White House led to legislation that is putting more money in people’s pockets and stimulating an economy with low unemployment.

Yet the CNBC poll suggested that many people aren’t noticing much of a change from the law, a sentiment that could feed into Democratic arguments that it is helping the rich while doing little for the middle class.

Conservatives say their problem is about messaging. They say they simply have to do more to deliver the news about the tax bill and its benefits.

“If it ends up costing what has been laid out here, it could well be one of the worst votes I’ve made,” he said at a Senate Budget Committee hearing on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate that produced the figure.


“I hope that is not the case, I hope there’s other data to assist, whether it’s jobs or growth or whatever,” Corker added.

About a year ago, President Trump pledged to eliminate the national debt "over a period of eight years." But for the first time in history, the national debt surpassed $21 trillion this week, according to the U.S. Treasury.

...

Republicans railed against the national debt level under the Obama administration, when it jumped from $10.6 trillion to $19.9 trillion, nearly doubling, but few have been as outspoken about the situation with Republicans controlling Capitol Hill and the White House.

The federal government recorded a $74.9 billion deficit in June, a month when the government often runs a surplus, as corporate taxes dropped sharply compared to a year ago.

The June deficit pushed the imbalance so far this year to $607.1 billion, 16.1 percent higher than the same period a year ago, the Treasury Department said in its monthly report. The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that the deficit for the entire budget year will total $793 billion, up 19.1 percent from the prior year, reflecting in part the impact of the $1.5 trillion tax cut that Congress approved in December plus increases in government spending lawmakers approved earlier this year.

Revenue from corporate tax payments totaled $41 billion in June, down $20 billion from a year ago. The new report showed that corporate tax payments fell by 33 percent from a year ago and so far this budget year, which began on Oct. 1, are running 20 percent below the same period a year ago.

malchior wrote: Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:41 pm Somewhere out there Arthur Laffer and Grover Norquist are waiting for that sweet, sweet growth to kick in and make those tax cuts revenue positive!

malchior wrote: Sat Jul 14, 2018 8:00 am And almost on cue here they come after the safety net - Administration declares victory in War on Poverty.

More Americans will be writing a check to the IRS in April because their employers are not withholding enough from their paychecks following the new tax law, the Government Accountability Office says in a new report.

Based on simulations run by the Treasury Department, the GAO says taxes for 30 million Americans — 21 percent of taxpayers — are being underwithheld by their employers, meaning they are getting a larger check this year, but will owe at tax time in April. According to the simulations, 73 percent of taxpayers will be overwithheld and receive a refund from the Internal Revenue Service.

Who should be concerned? According to the GAO, a hypothetical taxpayer who is married with two children, earning $180,000 annually, $20,000 of which comes from non-wage income and who itemizes deductions.

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 12:57 pm

Who should be concerned? According to the GAO, a hypothetical taxpayer who is married with two children, earning $180,000 annually, $20,000 of which comes from non-wage income and who itemizes deductions.