Tag Archives: Money/Economy/Taxes

S&P suffers paypack after downgrading U.S. debt

open quoteApparently, it isn’t so fun to get downgraded. Earlier this month, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the U.S., which caused a domino effect and pushed down the ratings of bonds issued by other entities implicitly guaranteed by the U.S like some municipalities. The retaliation appears to have begun.

This week, we’re learning that some of those local governments are dropping the agency from the group it pays to rate its debt. Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department is reportedly investigating S&P for its mortgage bond rating mistakes.close quote (Read more from theatlantic.com)

Stop Coddling Warren Buffet

So, the left is positively drooling over Warren Buffett’s recent NY Times column Stop Coddling the Super-Rich in which he writes open quoteMy friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.close quote.

Even if we killed everyone who earns over $250k and took all their money (something similar had been attempted in the Soviet Union), it would only pay for a few weeks of the 2011 budget. You can also apply a 100% tax on all fortune 500 companies, end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and still be no where close to affording our government. There’s a great illustration of this here.

There’s also the great reply Stop Coddling Warren Buffett from the Washington examiner:

open quoteAs most of the media goes gaga over Billionaire Obama fundraiser Warren Buffett calling for tax hikes, (like he did in 2001, and 2004, and plenty of times in between), let’s remember a few things.

Buffett Profits from Taxes He Supports

Buffett regularly lobbies for higher estate taxes. He also has repeatedly bought up family businesses forced to sell because the heirs’ death-tax bill exceeded the business’s liquid assets. He owns life insurance companies that rely on the death tax in order to sell their estate-planning businesses.

Buffett Profits from Government Spending.

Buffett made about a billion dollars off of the Wall Street bailout by investing in Goldman Sachs on the assumption Uncle Sam would bail it out. He also is planning investments in ethanol giant ADM and government-contracting leviathan General Dynamics.

If your businesses’ revenue comes from the U.S. Treasury, of course you want more wealth.
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Planet Moron: Historic Deficit Cutting Deal Q&A

open quoteGiven the historic nature of this week’s historic agreement to cut federal spending historically, we thought it would be useful to provide you with a FAQ on the deal:

. . . .

Q: Yes, but how severe?
A: So severe, you could even say they were sharp.

Q: Could you put a number on that?
A: Sure, the initial cuts amount to $917 billion!

Q: Well, that’s not too bad, but we’d still run a deficit next year.
A: That’s not $917 billion next year, that’s $917 billion over ten years.

Q: That’s barely $90 billion for 2012, then.
A: More like $22 billion next year. The really historic, sharp, severe cuts take place much later.

Q: This doesn’t sound very convincing.
A: Just take a look at this chart and you’ll understand.
Projected Spending Cap of 2011 Budget Deal

Q: I thought you said there were cuts.
A: There are! Look at them. We’re not sure how we’re supposed to run a government with cuts like these.

close quote (Read more from planetmoron.typepad.com)

Biden: Tea partiers like ‘terrorists’

open quoteVice President Joe Biden joined House Democrats in lashing tea party Republicans Monday, accusing them of having “acted like terrorists” in the fight over raising the nation’s debt limit.

Biden was agreeing with a line of argument made by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) at a two-hour, closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting.

“We have negotiated with terrorists,” an angry Doyle said, according to sources in the room. “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”

Biden, driven by his Democratic allies’ misgivings about the debt-limit deal, responded: “They have acted like terrorists,” according to several sources in the room.close quote (Read more from politico.com)