Obama Proposes New Taxes Yet Again In His SOTU Speech

This is Obama's seventh State Of The Union Address. As in the previous six SOTU speeches, he will propose tax increases. 

 Here are the major tax increases in the President's upcoming budget:

Via Americans for Tax Reform http://www.atr.org/obama-calls-320-billion-new-taxes

​1. Capital Gains Rate Hike: raises capital gains and dividends tax rate from 23.8% today (20% plus 3.8% Obamacare surtax) to 28% (including the Obamacare surtax).

The capital gains tax has not been that high since President Clinton signed a rate cut in 1997.  

It would represent a massive hike in the rate since Obama took office. When he was sworn in, the rate was 15%. He proposes to nearly double it to 28% in the twilight of his administration.

2. Stealth increase in the death tax rate from 40% to nearly 60%.

Under current law, when you inherit an asset your basis in the asset is the higher of the fair market value at the time of death or the decedent's original basis. Almost always, the fair market value is higher.

Under the Obama proposal, when you inherit an asset your basis will simply be the decedent's original basis.

Example: Dad buys a house for $10,000.  He dies and leaves it to you. The fair market value on the date of death is $100,000. You sell it for $120,000. Under current law, you have a capital gain of $20,000 (sales price of $120,000 less step up in basis of $100,000). Under the Obama plan, you have a capital gain of $110,000 (sales price of $120,000 less original basis of $10,000).

There are exemptions for most households, but this misses the larger point: the whole reason we have step up in basis is because we have a death tax. If you are going to hold an estate liable for tax, you can't then hold the estate liable for tax again when the inheritor sells it. This adds yet another redundant layer of tax on savings and investment. It's a huge tax hike on family farms and small businesses.  

It's like a second death tax (the first one has a top tax rate of 40% and a standard deduction of $5.3 million/$10.6 million for surviving spouses). Conceivably, an accumulated capital gain could face a 40% death tax levy and then a 28% capital gains tax on what is left. Do the math, and that's an integrated federal tax of just under 60% on inherited capital gains.

3. "Bank Tax"

A new 7 basis point (0.07%) tax on the liabilities (not assets) of the 100 or so U.S. firms with assets over $50 billion. This will obviously be passed along to these firms' customers and employees, since businesses don't pay taxes--people do.

4. Tax Increase on Families Saving for College

Under current law, 529 plans work like Roth IRAs: you put money in, and the money grows tax-free for college. Distributions are tax-free provided they are to pay for college.

Under the Obama plan, earnings growth in a 529 plan would no longer be tax-free. Instead, earnings would face taxation upon withdrawal, even if the withdrawal is to pay for college. This was the law prior to 2001.

5. Tax Increases in Retirement Plans and a New Employer Mandate

There would be a new cap in the amount one could accumulate in the aggregate in all IRA and 401(k) type accounts of $3.4 million. After that, you can't save any more new dollars. The idea is that this is enough to secure a $210,000 annual distribution in retirement, which the government apparently deems "enough" for a retiree.

In addition, all employers with more than 10 workers and who do not have a 401(k) type plan would be mandated to set up payroll deduction Traditional IRAs for their employees. Also, part-time workers would have to be covered under retirement plans if they have been working someplace long enough. These two things are a new kind of employer mandate from Obama.

Read more: http://www.atr.org/obama-calls-320-billion-new-taxes#ixzz3PPYb8SuB 
Follow us: @taxreformer on Twitter

A Look Back At The Talking Turd's 2014 SOTU Speech

OBAMA'S 7 BIG LIES IN HIS 2014 SOTU ADDRESS

Seven Big Lies Obama Told In His State Of The Union Speech

1) Income inequality is the worst it’s ever been!

Obama sayeth, “[T]oday, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by; let alone to get ahead.”

There’s all sorts of wrong going on here, but here’s one of the bigger ones – “income inequality” was worse in 2000 and in 2007. But if you adjust the rate for the massive taxation the government does and the redistribution of wealth already underway, income equality is the same as it was in 1987. It’s pretty easy to make the case that the only reason Obama pretends it’s a sudden crime that needs to be addressed right now is that Obamacare is such a disaster that needs to be ignored.

2) Raising minimum wage will help families

Obama sayeth, “[We] have a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to $10.10… This will help families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend… So join the rest of the country. Say yes. Give America a raise.”

It’s not hard to believe that Obama, who has never run a business, doesn’t understand that artificially forcing a business to pay someone more than their wage is worth will put more people out of the labor market. Making job creation more expensive leads to fewer jobs.

3) His minimum wage hike for federal workers brings immediate relief

Obama sayeth, “In the coming weeks, I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour, because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty.”

But most employees of federal contractors earn more than the minimum wage, so this will apply to only about 10% of those, or 200,000 employees. Finally, this wage hike won’t apply until 2015 at the earliest, and even then, only for new contracts, not old ones.

4) How many Americans have gained insurance under Obamacare?

Obama sayeth, “More than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage.”

But in fact, five million Americans have lost insurance, meaning that this number is not a net gain. In other words, the vast majority already had insurance before Obamacare. As few as 11% might be new enrollments to Obamacare. Finally, the payment system for the federal Obamacare website isn’t completed; who knows how many of these will experience more “glitches.”

5) Obama will cut red tape that’s holding up construction jobs!

Obama sayeth, “we’ll need Congress to protect more than 3 million jobs by finishing transportation and waterways bills this summer. But I will act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process for key projects, so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as possible.”

But what’s actually holding back these projects is lack of money, not red tape. Joshua Schank of the think tank Eno Center for Transportation explains:

“The reason most of these projects are delayed is they don’t have enough money. So it’s great that you are expediting the review process, but the review process isn’t the problem. The problem is we don’t have enough money to invest in our infrastructure in the first place.”

Perhaps if Obama hadn’t squandered what was supposed to go towards infrastructure in his stimulus bill on green energy boondoggles and other crony capitalist schemes, there might have been more money to fund these projects. Nevertheless, not only hasn’t Obama created “shovel-ready jobs,” he has actually lost 720,000 of them in the Construction field.

6) Your Medicare premium went up? You’re making that up!

Obama sayeth, “because of this (health care) law, no American can ever again be dropped or denied coverage for a preexisting condition like asthma, back pain or cancer… And we did all this while adding years to Medicare’s finances, keeping Medicare premiums flat, and lowering prescription costs for millions of seniors.”

That’s simply not true:

Although the basic premium remained the same this year at $104.90, it increased by $5 a month in 2013, up from $99.90 in 2012. Obama’s health care law also raised Medicare premiums for upper-income beneficiaries, and both the president and Republicans have proposed to expand that.

On paper, the program’s giant trust fund for inpatient care gained more than a decade of solvency because of cuts to service providers required under the health law. But in practice those savings cannot simultaneously be used to expand coverage for the uninsured and shore up Medicare.

7. Obama’s created 8 million new jobs in the last four years

This figure leaves out a lot of lost jobs early in Obama’s presidency and glosses over that this recovery has been the weakest since World War II. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only a net gain of 2.4 million job have been added on Obama’s watch (this doesn’t account for population growth, leading to the lowest labor participation rate since 1978).

You might think Obama might get into trouble for all these lies, but you’d be wrong – he’s a Democrat, remember? The media will barely mention these, or just ignore them all together. And for Americans who are too busy trying to get ahead in this terrible economy, tuning into The State of the Union address allows the president to solidify these misleading talking points in people’s minds.

State Of The Union

If The Talking Turd says something, you can usually expect the opposite to be true. If he's talking, he's lying. He would tell a lie when the truth would sound better and make a whole lot more sense. 

Comedian Jay Leno: "[Tuesday's SOTU] was a very important speech for the president ... and he gave it at a time when he's losing support from his own party. In fact, congressional Democrats were warned ... that if they didn't applaud the president's speech, he would go out and campaign for them."

SOTU Facts

OBAMA'S 7 BIG LIES LAST NIGHT IN HIS SOTU ADDRESS

Seven Big Lies The Talking Turd Told In His State Of The Union Speech

1) Income inequality is the worst it’s ever been!

The Talking Turd sayeth, “[T]oday, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by; let alone to get ahead.”

There’s all sorts of wrong going on here, but here’s one of the bigger ones – “income inequality” was worse in 2000 and in 2007. But if you adjust the rate for the massive taxation the government does and the redistribution of wealth already underway, income equality is the same as it was in 1987. It’s pretty easy to make the case that the only reason The Talking Turd pretends it’s a sudden crime that needs to be addressed right now is that Obamacare is such a disaster that needs to be ignored.

2) Raising minimum wage will help families

The Talking Turd sayeth, “[We] have a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to $10.10… This will help families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend… So join the rest of the country. Say yes. Give America a raise.”

It’s not hard to believe that The Talking Turd, who has never run a business, doesn’t understand that artificially forcing a business to pay someone more than their wage is worth will put more people out of the labor market. Making job creation more expensive leads to fewer jobs.

3) His minimum wage hike for federal workers brings immediate relief

The Talking Turd sayeth, “In the coming weeks, I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour, because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty.”

But most employees of federal contractors earn more than the minimum wage, so this will apply to only about 10% of those, or 200,000 employees. Finally, this wage hike won’t apply until 2015 at the earliest, and even then, only for new contracts, not old ones.

4) How many Americans have gained insurance under Obamacare?

The Talking Turd sayeth, “More than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage.”

But in fact, five million Americans have lost insurance, meaning that this number is not a net gain. In other words, the vast majority already had insurance before Obamacare. As few as 11% might be new enrollments to Obamacare. Finally, the payment system for the federal Obamacare website isn’t completed; who knows how many of these will experience more “glitches.”

5) The Talking Turd will cut red tape that’s holding up construction jobs!

The Talking Turd sayeth, “we’ll need Congress to protect more than 3 million jobs by finishing transportation and waterways bills this summer. But I will act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process for key projects, so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as possible.”

But what’s actually holding back these projects is lack of money, not red tape. Joshua Schank of the think tank Eno Center for Transportation explains:

“The reason most of these projects are delayed is they don’t have enough money. So it’s great that you are expediting the review process, but the review process isn’t the problem. The problem is we don’t have enough money to invest in our infrastructure in the first place.”

Perhaps if The Talking Turd hadn’t squandered what was supposed to go towards infrastructure in his stimulus bill on green energy boondoggles and other crony capitalist schemes, there might have been more money to fund these projects. Nevertheless, not only hasn’t The Talking Turd created “shovel-ready jobs,” he has actually lost 720,000 of them in the Construction field.

6) Your Medicare premium went up? You’re making that up!

The Talking Turd sayeth, “because of this (health care deform) law, no American can ever again be dropped or denied coverage for a preexisting condition like asthma, back pain or cancer… And we did all this while adding years to Medicare’s finances, keeping Medicare premiums flat, and lowering prescription costs for millions of seniors.”

That’s simply not true:

Although the basic premium remained the same this year at $104.90, it increased by $5 a month in 2013, up from $99.90 in 2012. Obama’s health care law also raised Medicare premiums for upper-income beneficiaries, and both the president and Republicans have proposed to expand that.

On paper, the program’s giant trust fund for inpatient care gained more than a decade of solvency because of cuts to service providers required under the health law. But in practice those savings cannot simultaneously be used to expand coverage for the uninsured and shore up Medicare.

7. The Talking Turd has created 8 million new jobs in the last four years

This figure leaves out a lot of lost jobs early in The Talking Turd's presidency and glosses over that this recovery has been the weakest since World War II. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only a net gain of 2.4 million job have been added on The Talking Turd's watch (this doesn’t account for population growth, leading to the lowest labor participation rate since 1978).

You might think The Talking Turd might get into trouble for all these lies, but you’d be wrong – he’s a Democrat, remember? The media will barely mention these, or just ignore them all together. And for Americans who are too busy trying to get ahead in this terrible economy, tuning into The State of the Union address allows the president to solidify these misleading talking points in people’s minds.

Translating The State Of The Union Speech

We all know Obama never says what he means. If he did, he would be thrown out of office along with the Democrats, and weak kneed Republicans who allow his destruction of our country to go unchallenged. The first graphic translates four of the phrases he uses often and used in his State Of The Union show.
The second graphic shows how he never addresses the important issues plaguing our country. His priorities are pushing for gay marriage, which gets rejected by the people the majority of the times it's allowed to be voted on, giving amnesty to criminal immigrants, and going on an unconstitutional rampage against the Second Amendment.
The last graphic is from lmaobama.com
I don't know where the others are from, so I can't give proper credit.