New plan. We just won’t collect the taxes
posted at 12:31 pm on December 9, 2012 by Jazz Shaw
There’s a new bit of creative thinking making the rounds in DC this weekend, proving yet again that not all ideas wind up being good ones. According to this line of thought, assuming no deal is reached to prevent tax rates from going up on the middle class, Timothy Geithner has certain, hidden superpowers which will save the day. If the tax rates go up, people won’t need to worry about it because we just won’t withhold the extra money from their paychecks.
The White House has the power to temporarily protect taxpayers from middle-class tax hikes even as upper income rates rise if Congress does nothing and all of the Bush-era tax rates expire in January.
Experts and lawmakers alike agree that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has the power to adjust how much is withheld from paychecks for tax purposes — for all taxpayers or just for some.
By doing so, Geithner could ensure paychecks reflect the White House position that wealthier taxpayers with annual income higher than $250,000 see their taxes rise. Geithner at the same time could leave withholding tables where they are for the middle class, ensuring those workers don’t see a higher cut from their paychecks.
I’ve noticed a bit of confusion out there, particularly given some of the comments popping up on Twitter, so we should first identify what this doesn’t mean. The White House can not simply ignore the tax laws put in place by Congress and collect a different amount of tax than what is due, and this proposal isn’t suggesting that. If the tax rate goes up, you’re still going to owe more money.
But what they’re talking about is the fact that Treasury is responsible for publishing the withholding tables which employers use to determine how much to deduct from workers’ paychecks for their taxes. In theory, Geithner could leave the withholding tables the same for lower income workers, effectively making it seem as if their taxes haven’t gone up. But this is a pretty dangerous game to play unless you’re very sure you know what the eventual tax rate is going to be and when it will go into effect. If you guess wrong and fail to withhold the correct amount, tens of millions of people will find themselves owing a big ole’ check to the IRS when tax day rolls around and you’ll find yourself about as popular as a skunk at a garden party.
So what does this plan actually “solve” in terms of the ongoing tax debate? In reality… nothing.
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I smell the stench of single payer wafting through the air.
Philly on May 2, 2013 at 3:00 PM
It depends on the meaning of ‘benefits’.
My health care insurance has doubled in price, higher deductables, less coverage. Car insurance also went up primarily do to medical. Wonderful benefits.
TerryW on May 2, 2013 at 3:08 PM
nobar on May 2, 2013 at 3:59 PM
What train is about to wreck?
Why, the Party Train.
All aboard
Every all aboard
Anybody wanna take this ride
Anybody wanna ride
All it takes is a nickel or a dime
Be sure to get your ticket
Hurry, don’t miss it
Everybody’s got to stand in line
So make sure that you too will be right on time
Everybody all aboard
Everybody all aboard
Mmm
Mmm
All aboard
Don’t you miss it, baby
If you miss that train
Don’t miss the party train
Oh…don’t you miss it, baby
If you miss that train
Don’t miss the party train
Everybody all aboard………….
BobMbx on May 2, 2013 at 4:33 PM
Worth repeating…
de rigueur on May 2, 2013 at 4:39 PM
“…unless we implement this properly…”
Weasel words for higher taxes.
sadatoni on May 2, 2013 at 4:43 PM
What kind of mind would could conceive of doing that?
Quite possibly the greatest video ever.
BobMbx on May 2, 2013 at 4:46 PM
“We’re gonna need a shltload of dimes.”
fogw on May 2, 2013 at 4:58 PM
I wholeheartedly disagree with the statement above in bold (emphasis mine). To many, many people who are denied access to health care services because they can no longer afford them, because of some death panel or whatever, it is a life or death situation.
Theophile on May 2, 2013 at 5:24 PM
although i am not an Obamacare enthusiast-it is here. and the people who get penalized for government incompetence are the buyers of the insurance who have no choice.More money should be given to implement it if just to save the nation from major frustration rage.
i was a pharmacist when medicare part d started and it was a disaster for at least 3 months.
gerrym51 on May 2, 2013 at 5:28 PM
That’s the last reason more money should be dumped into Obamacare. A little national frustration rage and next thing you know, Obamacare won’t be there. And neither will the clowns who foisted this redistributionist fraud on the nation.
de rigueur on May 2, 2013 at 5:34 PM
I’m shocked, absolutely shocked that Obamacare is going to need even more money. It’s a good thing I was sitting down when I read it.
Minnfidel on May 2, 2013 at 5:45 PM
Easy to get the money, all YES votes to this atrocity gives theirs up first.
Then enact it only for the house and senate. after 10 years, then peasants are allowed to opt in, only if they want to.
RealMc on May 2, 2013 at 5:46 PM
you jest,
Obama is there for 3 more years.even if republicans take control of senate in 2014 it could not be repealed for at least 4 years.
its going to be implemented. the choice is easy(er) or hard.
putting your head in the sand and ignoring that fact iz crazy
gerrym51 on May 2, 2013 at 5:56 PM
Medicare Part D affected only a very small niche.
ACA is a bigger shock to the system and will probably be a disaster for the first year. It’s even harder to pull off when a large block of legislation had a dead-ender attitude and is incapable of saying anything other than ‘no’.
You can’t move forward without the change, and you can’t start to change the underlying and old school healthcare cost model without disrupting the status quo.
bayam on May 2, 2013 at 6:19 PM
Simple solution to raise the money to implement Obamacare… start seizing the assets of politicians who supported it. This includes the Kennedy fortune.
malclave on May 2, 2013 at 6:34 PM
Well, since they lack the votes or the power to actually provide a legislative alternative, they’re left with either saying “no” to this disaster or acquiesce in implementing this p.o.s.
There’s the old saw about what to do when one is in a hole, but it looks like your prescription is indeed to keep digging and in fact, encourage everyone to grab a shovel.
No thanks.
PackerBronco on May 2, 2013 at 7:20 PM
So the lying salesman lied abut the cost, and is now going to charge more, due to his lying.
I can’t wait for Justice Roberts to opine “caveat emptor”
Odie1941 on May 2, 2013 at 8:04 PM
Opting for “hard” is hardly putting one’s head in the sand. 4 years of misery should just about finish off the party that forced this on the nation. Completely ignoring the laws of economics and of human nature, either Obamacare was designed to fail, or it will fail in any case. Either way, it doesn’t need another dime from my pocket to pay for that.
Just feeding this monstrosity in hopes that it becomes less monstrous is the head-planting strategy.
de rigueur on May 2, 2013 at 8:09 PM
I predicted to my husband that this train wreck wasn’t going to get off the ground when it was supposed to. Years ago. They’d have some excuse or other. I also couldn’t understand why the health insurance companies backed this mess. For what? Short term gains, then eventual extinction? Talk about cutting off your own nose to spite your face.
“Oh, your premiums are too high for you to afford? Well, we have this nice single payer thingie that we couldn’t get passed before….”
Repeal, repeal, repeal. This thing is just plain stupid, and everyone knows it. Except the stupid sheep in this country. And there are way too damn many of them. Look who’s still president.
sage0925 on May 2, 2013 at 8:15 PM
Lucky for Us, That Ain’t Gonna Be A Happening! 2014 should be painful and Funny as Hell as the Lame Stream Media tries to hide this Trojan Horse in Obumbler’s azz. I’m sure they’ll say they thought he Vetoed it and it was the Republican’s were the ones that passed it. ROTFLMMFBO!! It’s going to be fun to watch!
Tbone McGraw on May 2, 2013 at 8:29 PM
Kind of like acquiescing on taxes, the 2nd amendment, amnesty or any social issue RethugliKKKcans don’t want to get hit with in the media. Let’s just keep ceding ground because it’s just easier to let the government/progressives destroy our nation than fighting them.
This is also the left setting the stage for the future failure of obamacare. When it does fail, they will point back and say “See, we told you what was going to happen because of those dastardly Republicans not giving us more money in addition to the trillions we are already spending…” Lowering expectations. Something obama has learned to deal with since his lowering the tides, heal the earth inauguration.
JAGonzo on May 2, 2013 at 8:40 PM
If you think this nation is turning into a welfare state now, just wait until next year. USSA.
Philly on May 2, 2013 at 8:47 PM
This is looking more and more like an Ayn Rand novel.
Sharke on May 2, 2013 at 8:50 PM
Here comes the tax on your retirement accounts.
Philly on May 2, 2013 at 8:58 PM
He keeps using that word “benefit” … I don’t think it means what he thinks it means….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk
ProfShadow on May 2, 2013 at 10:02 PM
Where is Sandra Fluke on ObamaCare, gun control, immigration, gay marriage, Benghazi and Boston, ‘n other stuff?
Get to work, girl!
We do miss your cute mustache so!
Sherman1864 on May 2, 2013 at 10:04 PM
If something isn’t in the best interest of one’s health or finances, “no” is all you have to say.
Or are you suggesting you want rapists to negotiate with their victims?
How about negotiable domestic abuse?
Is that really what you support? Because that’s what you’re saying.
(We know you’ve already abandoned the thread (again) after not saying anything, but the point is there for the readers to see.)
rogerb on May 2, 2013 at 10:07 PM
If only we had a Lemon Law for lemon laws.
malclave on May 2, 2013 at 10:19 PM
There is no reasoning with someone who wants to take everything you have (and will have in the future) so they can bestow it upon others, and if you cede ground to these people you will never be any better off.
rightmind on May 2, 2013 at 10:19 PM
The GOP message on this is simple and should be repeated often:
“You Democrats built this. You own it. You forced it on the American people. We will not help you fix it. It is not fixable. We will not help you spend more money on its implementation. You lied about what it will cost. We will help you do only one thing for Obamacare and that is REPEAL IT root and branch. The end.”
And Obama’s signature is NOT needed for a full repeal. It can be done with 2/3 majorities in both houses. Long shot? Yes. Impossible? No.
Doug Piranha on May 2, 2013 at 10:38 PM
+ 100..Awesome..Spot on post..:)
Dire Straits on May 2, 2013 at 11:04 PM
Full steam ahead for yet another D.C. scam to bilk the American people and accrue more power for the pols and their buddies.
I doubt most Americans will ever catch on, or want to. All they hear is “free health care” and they’re on board.
Dr. ZhivBlago on May 2, 2013 at 11:38 PM
Really? And you expect the House to pass more spending for this sh!t sandwich?
John the Libertarian on May 3, 2013 at 1:31 AM
I’ve been thinking about this every since I read the 15-year-olds getting morning after pills story. I think we need a new term for those people the government thinks are fully adult enough for sex and abortion but so childish they still need covered on Mommy and Daddy’s health care.
My suggestion is hedonagers.
CJ on May 3, 2013 at 4:48 AM
Same answer to Obamacare as to the rest of the federal government:
Start in the House… fund by agency… don’t fund some agencies fully or use funding towards other programs and leave Obamacare high and dry.
There are a ton of programs you can kill by not funding them.
Just because a prior Congress wants it doesn’t mean a current Congress is obliged to fund it. There is no law against not funding these things, none at all. This requires a wholesale change of the R party in the House, particularly the sclerotic leadership. Obama can’t stop the House from not funding items, only keep on sending the bills back TO fund parts of agencies. If he wants to kill off some government agencies by killing their funding: LET HIM DO IT VIA THE VETO.
And then THANK HIM to rub salt in the wounds.
Would he really not want to sign off on a downsized IRS? And to put the IRS FIRST to set the tone. Then HHS. Then FDA.
You want this to happen? Then the House Republican ‘we have to fund everything other Congresses started’ contingent MUST GO. There is no law that says they MUST DO THAT. One Congress cannot bind another Congress via legislation and since the House holds the purse strings, it is there that fiscal rectitude must start. Not the Senate. Not the POTUS. Not the SCOTUS. You want to get a smaller government? Start at the US House of Representatives. Want to blame someone for the deficit? Also the US House. And the Debt as well. Surely for $3.2 trillion you can run a minimal government… if the debt service payments don’t EAT IT ALL UP, of course.
That is the Obama goal to collapsing the Nation: create a debt so vast that even current revenue can’t support minimal payments.
Your Nation goes under, your currency becomes worthless, your savings disappear and no amount of POWER from DC can make that better because it CAN’T BE FUNDED ANYMORE. If we are very lucky there are two elections left before that happens. If we are unlucky there is only one. If our luck has run out, you have seen our last election as a free people.
Change doesn’t start in DC: it starts with you, holding DC accountable and telling them to ‘stop the spending’. Yes they aren’t listening there or on the compliant and submissive Left… they want a tyrant, a dictator, a despot… their freedom isn’t in question. Yours is. Act like a free man who expects government to be beholden to the people, live like a free man who expects to be held accountable for his misdeeds, and praise virtue whenever and wherever it appears and support it. You carry through the actions and you just might be able to protect your liberty and join with those who think like you to ensure them.
There is a cost to this, of course.
Your money: gone.
Your savings: gone.
Your property: ravaged and destroyed.
You: free to start over or die trying.
Remember I’m the guy in poor health who won’t survive for long if the system goes south. Yet I’m preparing for those losses as best as I can. Because my freedom is priceless beyond any value, and I am more than prepared to be impoverished to remove this system of petty tyranny of rules above law and those who think they are above any law making the rules for themselves. You can start now by pestering your Congresscritters. It won’t change them, but it will change you.
ajacksonian on May 3, 2013 at 7:11 AM
This whole thing is going to get a 2014 exemption from our Supreme Leader (legal or not, he cares not). Just long enough to hide everything before the November election. After that the significant loss of health care and the increased taxes will be enacted upon the people.
Carnac on May 3, 2013 at 8:47 AM
Repeal We Much?
Barnestormer on May 3, 2013 at 9:17 AM
If I were dependent on medications for survival, I’d be having a conversation with my doctor about laying in a supply of those prescriptions….enough to keep you alive through the “growing pains” of Obamacare, however long you think that might be.
Are you willing to trust the Real Men Of Genius to ensure continued supplies of your stuff?
I’m not.
BobMbx on May 3, 2013 at 10:41 AM
You mean its going to cost a lot of money to give free health care to the 49% of the people in this country that are Dead Beats, Illegals, Drug Users, and No job seeking bottom feeders?
Really? You mean that is going to cost a lot of money?
Well I’m just shocked that “Free” would cost any money at all.
Dino V on May 3, 2013 at 10:43 AM
Obamacare…Anything Democrats propose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbWg-mozGsU
Marco on May 3, 2013 at 11:09 AM
It’s all a big lie, they CAN’T implement it before the 2014 elections, it still has to be the big unknown.
Fleuries on May 3, 2013 at 7:36 PM
Well, now that we passed it and got to see what is in it, we can probably get rid of it (and all of the fools who supported it or decided to go along to get along).
virgo on May 5, 2013 at 9:34 PM
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