Obamacare OUR new taxes

In just six months, on January 1, 2011, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect.

They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves.

On January 1, 2011, here’s what happens... (read it to the end, so you see all three waves)...




First Wave:


Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families.

These will all expire on January 1, 2011.



Personal income tax rates will rise.

The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed).

The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent.

All the rates in between will also rise.


Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates.


The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:
• The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
•
• The 25% bracket rises to 28%
•
• The 28% bracket rises to 31%
•
• The 33% bracket rises to 36%
•
• The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%



Higher taxes on marriage and family.

The "marriage penalty" (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income.


The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.


The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.


The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.


The return of the Death Tax.

This year only, there is no death tax. (It’s a quirk!) For those dying on or after January 1, 2011, there is a 55 percent
top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes, a business, a retirement account, could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones. Think of the farmers who don’t make much money, but their land, which they purchased years ago with after-tax dollars, is now worth a lot of money. Their children will have to sell the farm, which may be their livelihood, just to pay the estate tax if they don’t have the cash sitting around to pay the tax. Think about your own family’s assets. Maybe your family owns real estate, or a business that doesn’t make much money, but the building and equipment are worth $1 million. Upon their death, you can inherit the $1 million business tax free, but if they own a home, stock, cash worth $500K on top of the $1 million business, then you will owe the government $275,000 cash! That’s 55% of the value of the assets over $1 million! Do you have that kind of cash sitting around waiting to pay the estate tax?



Higher tax rates on savers and investors.

The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011.

The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011.

These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.



Second Wave:

Obamacare


There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:



The "Medicine Cabinet Tax"

Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).


The "Special Needs Kids Tax"

This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children.

There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.

Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington , D.C. ( National Child Research Center ) can easily exceed $14,000 per year.

Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for this type of special needs education.


The HSA (Health Savings Account) Withdrawal Tax Hike.

This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.




Third Wave:

The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they'll be in for a nasty surprise-the AMT won't be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.

The major items include:


The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year.

According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress' failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families-rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.


Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.

Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or "depreciate") equipment purchases up to $250,000.

This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can currently expense half of their purchases of equipment.

In January of 2011, all of it will have to be "depreciated."


Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.

There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the "research and experimentation tax credit," but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.


Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.

The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available.

Tax credits for education will be limited.

Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut.

Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed.

The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.


Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed.

Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA.

This contribution also counts toward an annual "required minimum distribution." This ability will no longer be there.





And worse yet?


Now, your insurance will be INCOME on your W2's!

One of the surprises we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a little "surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the "new and improved" healthcare legislation . . . the dupes, er, dopes, who backed this administration will be astonished!

Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort.

If you're retired? So what... your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.

You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year.

For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even worse.



This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that don't have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.

Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001,
as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income."



- Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters.
- Go to Kiplingers and read about 13 tax changes that could affect you. Number 3 is what is above.

Outrage

As usual I am a little pissed off. Wanna know why? If not, then get the frak out of here.

A mosque. At ground zero. Really? That's...like...not...a...joke? Jokebama forcefully supports this?

1st I have to say this to ANYONE who still supports this moron: You are as out of touch with reality as he is. This is as un-patriotic as anything I can think of in recent history.

There are not too many things that I agree with that people do, usually their actions frost my balls. However I have matured changed to the point that I don't let it get my dander up as much as it used to. I have grown accustomed to people acting like morons so I just sit back and laugh as much as I can. That being said, I am outraged to say the least.

Islam is touted by it's proponents as "The religion of peace." Allllllright...sure. And, of course, most people (read Americans) accept this (those would be the liberals). Maybe I shouldn't say most, I should say the loudest. Whatever. The point is that there are almost no Americans who have actually READ the koran (I spelled it that way on purpose).

The koran says that ANYONE who does not follow Islam MUST be killed! This is not propaganda. This is not something that someone told me. I read this. Out of their book. And of course every idiot who wants to promote Utopian ideals refuses to believe it. It's better to weaken ourselves so we don't appear to be threatening to anyone else.

We let a midget megalomaniac have access to nuclear weaponry. It's ok, let him. Then he will feel safer and leave us alone. Leben und leben lassen (live and let live). Of course if the rest of the country realizes that we are rolling over like a hooker in front of a $100 bill, they'll freak. Hmmm...I've got it. Sanctions. We'll get the United Abominations (Thanks Dave Mustaine) to SANCTION Iran. That'll work. Then the people will see that we're doing our best and get what we want. And we let it happen.

We go to a war that we cannot win. Again. And we let it happen. And let's not bring up the whole Arizona thing again. When is enough going to be enough?

When gas prices doubled a few years back, there were all these chain emails going out. And they all said "Let's boycott such and such gas stations all across the country on the same day. That'll send the message that we're not gonna take this crap." And of course it didn't work. Why? Actually there are a number of reasons that it didn't work, but there is one thing that didn't help. Us. You, me,...them (Blues Brothers reference there). We didn't think it would work. Honestly, when the DAY came, how many of you remembered to do it? How many of you said "Fuck it, this station is more convenient. Besides, everyone else is going there, so why shouldn't I?" How many of you just laughed it off? I'm pretty sure I did. Because it's our nature isn't it? Screw it, as long as I'm happy. Of course, when things don't go right and I get pissed it's not my fault. It's someone else's fault. I didn't do anything. And you were right. You did absolutely nothing.

Nothing at all.

Why bother? Why waste my time fighting the "system"? What's in it for me? What do I get out of it?

When are we going to learn? The system doesn't work. If this was a car, we would have traded it in a long time ago, but why bother? I mean really, what's in it for me?

So we get attacked? Do they attack a military target? No, cause they would not win. Instead they attack civilians. People who could not fight back. They use airplanes. They commit suicide. And then everyone remembers. Remembers that we are America. Remembers that we are the strongest country the world has ever known. We stood together, proud, strong, united. And we were pissed. We didn't attack them. But our memories are short, because we DID indeed attack them. Don't you remember that?

Ahhh, you thought I meant Desert Shield/Desert Storm didn't you? When I first heard about us attacking them, I thought the same thing. And I was wrong too. These "people" are still pissed about the fucking Crusades. No joke. They really are pissed about it. Still. IT WAS 700 YEARS AGO, GET OVER IT! But they can't and won't. They will do as they are told. The koran tells them that they must kill us because we do not believe in their God. And what happens now? We're going to give them a great victory. There is going to be a mosque at Ground Zero! And WE are going to pay for it too. Aren't you glad you elected Jokebama?


What's next? Sarah Palin for president? Or even worse...

Paris Hilton.

Uh-oh, I've been thinking

Let me start by saying that this is NOT whining, or feeling sorry for myself, or bemoaning my situation or anything like that, so please don't feel the need to call/text/email/write/fax/page/im/post to me trying to make me feel better. Not that any of those things is unwelcome, because they are not, I just don't want anyone to do it simply because of what I wrote on here today. I am NOT writing this to "validate my existence" or any other happy horseshit like that, nor am I "fishing" for compliments, just calling it like I see it.

Some of you may have noticed yesterday when I posted a new status that something something to the effect of "Wanted to get home to an empty house, got here and wondered why I was so anxious to be here?" or something like that. I used to say, and believe, that on the whole I preferred my own company to that of others. Now I find myself in an interesting, for me, situation.

I am 40 years old (still can't believe I lived this long AND stayed out of prison. So far.) and I live in a 3 bedroom house that I rent. I originally got this house because my ex-girlfriend (Claudia) had kids and we needed the room. After I broke up with her, I did a friend a favor and let her stay here until she deployed. All told she had a room here for about 2 months, but we rarely saw each other, mostly because we lead very different lifestyles and have only 3 friends in common. She deployed about a month ago.

So here I am in this house all by my lonesome. Sometimes it's cool, because if I feel the need to walk around the house with my shlong (or in my case shlort) hanging out...I can. (Of course I have to stay away from the kitchen because the curtains in there are sheer so if the lights are on, free show for the neighborhood, and I don't want the local kids to scarred that badly). If I feel the need to play Guitar Hero XXXVIII-Barry Manilow Edition, I can. So all in all, it's not too bad. Except...

In my 40 years of life, I have never really lived alone before, at least not like this. I've lived in the barracks with no roommates, which rocks! And I've lived in various houses and apartments in my life, but never without someone there. Yes, it has historically been a girlfriend, but even having Jenny (my roomie) around was ok for the most part.

My best friend lives about 1/2 a mile form me, but we don't spend as much time together as we would like between work, kids, etc, we are always on the go. I don't have people over, because I don't really hang out with a lot of people. I can't have a pet because I travel so much that the little bugger would spend most of it's time being boarded somewhere.


Realizing now what I used to say about preferring to be alone, I see that once again I had my head in my ass. Because I don't really like being alone. I like having a someone around (as long as it's not Ed).

Carl (my BFF) is married to a (usually) wonderful woman. I say usually, but she's always been a great friend to me unless we disagree. When we disagree, it's almost always about women. They have been married for somewhere right around 25 years, and I have known them for 21 of those.

In the beginning, she was receptive to the 2 g/f's of mine that she met (Kim and Kelly). She did get a little pissed at me when I married my 1st wife (Michelle) without telling her, and she was less than pleased that I married Kris too.

Granted, both of those marriages were mistakes. Obviously, since I've divorced one and am almost done (finally) divorcing the 2nd. But they really were mistakes. The 1st time I was TOO young and immature, and we had only known each other a few months (Michelle I hope this doesn't offend). The 2nd time (Kris) we had only known each other a few months. Anyone seeing a pattern?

After Kris and I split I started seeing someone then Kris and I split. Yes, I'm a douche, but the situation wasn't what you'd think, I'll explain it sometime. ANYWAY, the person i was seeing was named Dawn. For some reason that breakup really messed me up. I mean the relationship was pretty short, but it was also pretty intense.

After that was over, it was decided that I needed some time away, so I called Carl and Shawn (that's his "blushing bride" as he loves to say). And what did my BFF's do? How did they have MY back? They paid for a plane ticket for me to come spend a week with them. (YOU thought I was gonna say something else, din'cha) Anyway, they brought me to them, and helped me pick up the pieces. Again.

After Dawn was Claudia. Shawn knew it was a bad idea, but did I listen? Ahhh...you know me. I can hear you all saying "NOOOOOOO! Dumbass!" And dumbass I was. I loved Claudia and still care about her quite a bit, and I know that she loved me as well, but that wasn't enough. So I broke her heart and broke up with her after almost 2 years.

Which puts me where I am today. Shawn and I disagreeing a little bit again. (It really is just a little bit). She tells me that I don't need anyone. And in way she is correct. I don't NEED someone, I CAN survive alone...

heehee). I don't drink too much, nor do I use drugs. I have a good job, a great retirement package, and insurance. I am reasonably intelligent, and have a wide-ranging set of skills and experience. I will never be voted Sexiest Man Alive (unless there's some kind of uber-catastrophe) but I am not fugly (yes I spelled it right). I can be overbearing and obnoxious, loud, rude and crass but I can also sit down at a black-tie dinner and carry myself accordingly. And yet I am alone and not really enjoying my life as much as I should be.

I like being able to come home to someone. I like sharing things with someone. I like the thought of watching a movie or TV show with someone. Is that so wrong? Most of you that I know read this have that, so why can't I? If I was overseas or something like that, then that would be a different situation, but it's not and I'm not. So what's the problem? I know that right now, most of this is my fault, it usually is, but knowing that doesn't make it any easier to deal with or accept. And here's the part that will make many of you think I'm full of shit. It has nothing to do with sex. At all. Period. End of story. No horseshit, Wang. Obviously, like Fez, I have needs, but those needs are not driving me for the most part anymore. They're more of a benefit than a necessity. Thank Someone for internet porn (even for me thanking God in that instance sounded like a bad idea).

And I don't want ANYONE thinking that I am dogging Shawn, because I'm not. She has always been there to pick up the pieces when I need her, and even though she has threatened me that she will not do it next time, I know she will. That's what family does. And they are my family. Carl and Shawn are a much better brother and sister to me then my real sibs ever were. So if you got the idea that it was a love/hate relationship...well you might be right there. I love to screw my life up, and she hates seeing me do it. Carl, Shawn I love you both and thank you.

Okay, that's pretty much all I have for now. I know it'll all be okay, but sometimes it's nice to have a one-sided conversation with people.

Many of you out there know me very well. Some of you have commented to me that I am acting more mature than I used to, and I'm fairly confident that at least one of you will think that upon reading this. Thank you. Now I'm going to go watch some Beavis and Butthead re-runs.

Good day today

For those of you who are not aware, I turned 40 about a month ago. No big deal really, although I enjoy making something of it on occasion, which tends to garner humorous derision by my elders. On the whole I don't feel any different at all. I'm the same asshole I always was, but I pay lower insurance premiums.

One thing that I have noticed lately (over the past 3-5 years) is that younger women are taking less and less interest in me. Not too surprising, but it hit me that while I used to joke about things like that when I was in my 20's and early 30's, it is something of a kick in your ego's nuts when you realize your the joke, not the joker.Until today...

I was out working here in sunny (hot as f**k) Gulfport, Mississippi when a nice thing happened that made me smile for most of the evening. A girl 2 weeks shy of her 21st birthday was actually hitting on me. Not hard, so subtley that I actually had to ask someone else that was working with us if I was imagining it, as is my wont. But no, i wasn't wrong this time, she actually hit on me. I walked away form work this afternoon with a big old smile on my face that didn't leave until an hour or two ago, and I am smiling a little now as I write this. And for the record, I didn't go home with her, nor she with me, but it was still petty nice.

I know I was never all that hot to begin with, except to those few girls/women who must have had eye problems, but I did okay for the most part (better than some worse than most). But to have a girl hit on me who wasn't even alive when I finished high school was a welcome addition to my day.

Maybe those girls/women form before didn't ALL have bad eyesight or beer goggles on...

Or maybe the gray in my beard just makes me look distinguished.

SB 1070

For those of you not aware, Arizona passed SB-1070. In basic terms it is a law designed to combat illegal immigration.

The law was written specifically to stand up to the scrutiny of the Obamanation administration and AZ lawmakers were careful to ensure that it doesn't violate the Constitution. Of course none of that matters, because our gutless fearless leader has decided that it's not in the best interest of the people to make laws that help the states battle with ongoing problems.

I have a buddy/co-worker who is British. He came over here to work for the government a number of years ago. In so doing he was required to go through the migration process. He carries a green card, etc. We discussed SB-1070 and he got a little pissed about the whole thing.

His problem was that he went and did everything that was required of him to be able to stay in this country. Spent the money needed for visas, took the time to fill out the paperwork because it was required of him. Now he looks at what we're allowing to happen in this country and wonders why he even bothered.

I don't particularly care where anyone comes from. "Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to be free..." That's all well and good, just come here the right way.

Today I read that there was a memo drafted by the White House expressing an interest in awarding blanket amnesty to ALL illegals. WTF???? Does the your president not remember that he works for us not the other way around?

2 stories further down the page there was the case of the illegal with multiple DUI's who got another one the other day. After he killed a nun and put 2 others in critical condition that is. And he was supposed to be in custody, but ICE released him early. If I remember correctly, they threatened to do that if SB-1070 wasn't repealed (I may be mis-remembering that part, but I am pretty sure I read that, or at least something to that effect).

The bottom line is simple. Illegal is illegal. Having amnesty cities is a joke. Having a government ignoring the will of people is a joke. Having the people keeping these idiots in power is a joke. November is coming, it's time that you start standing up for your rights. Let the government know that they are not listening to you.

And away we go

Well, after absolutely no consideration I decided that I was going to blog. Why? Simply put, if you know me, you know I always have something to say about almost everything. I decided that it was rude of me to not share my thoughts with the rest of the world, so here I am.

Some of my ideas about life and the world may differ from yours and that's fine, you are entitled to your own opinion, even if it's is wrong. :)