If you happen to be one of the lucky folks still gainfully employed, the news just got better.
You’re getting a pay hike.
And if you’re still beating the bushes looking for work, and fretting the possibility that your unemployment benefits might run out any day, your lifeline just got extended.
That’s the upshoot of the compromised announced last night in which Senate Republicans and President Obama hammered out a deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans.
Yes, the president caved on the idea of keeping those tax cuts for the rich. It was still the right thing to do. That’s because in the process not only will the tax rate remain the same for middle-class Americans, all income earners will be getting more money in their pocket due to a proposed cut in the Social Security payroll tax. Starting Jan. 1, instead of paying 6.2 percent, the rate will drop to 4.2 percent. If you make $40,000 a year, that means another $800 bucks in your pocket.
Here are the other key elements of the deal:
— Extends all tax rates approved under President Bush for two more years for all taxpayers.
— Applies a 35 percent tax for two years on estates worth more than $5 million.
— Extends unemployment insurance for 13 months, providing benefits to two million long-term unemployed workers in December and seven million over the next year.
— Extends increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit, the child credit and tuition credits adopted in the 2009 economic stimulus package that were set to expire.
— Allows businesses to write off 100 percent of their capital investments for tax purposes during 2011. The current write-off is 50 percent.
President Obama is under fire from some in his own party, in part because of his deal with Republicans to keep the tax cuts for even the wealthiest Americans, and also because of the so-called “death tax”
deal. Some Dems are outraged that the president also gave Republicans what they wanted on the estate tax, which they again consider a windfall for the rich. They wanted a 45 percent rate with a threshold of $3.5 million.
They need to get over it. Congress should quickly approve this package.
It’s the right thing to do at a time when a shaky economy is struggling mightily to climb out of the abyss.
And it proves that both sides are willing to make good on a pledge toward getting things done, instead of merely more partisan bickering.
The president made clear last night he is not thrilled with everything in this deal. He still stands behind it.
Congress should waste no time doing the same.
You’re getting a pay hike.
And if you’re still beating the bushes looking for work, and fretting the possibility that your unemployment benefits might run out any day, your lifeline just got extended.
That’s the upshoot of the compromised announced last night in which Senate Republicans and President Obama hammered out a deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans.
Yes, the president caved on the idea of keeping those tax cuts for the rich. It was still the right thing to do. That’s because in the process not only will the tax rate remain the same for middle-class Americans, all income earners will be getting more money in their pocket due to a proposed cut in the Social Security payroll tax. Starting Jan. 1, instead of paying 6.2 percent, the rate will drop to 4.2 percent. If you make $40,000 a year, that means another $800 bucks in your pocket.
Here are the other key elements of the deal:
— Extends all tax rates approved under President Bush for two more years for all taxpayers.
— Applies a 35 percent tax for two years on estates worth more than $5 million.
— Extends unemployment insurance for 13 months, providing benefits to two million long-term unemployed workers in December and seven million over the next year.
— Extends increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit, the child credit and tuition credits adopted in the 2009 economic stimulus package that were set to expire.
— Allows businesses to write off 100 percent of their capital investments for tax purposes during 2011. The current write-off is 50 percent.
President Obama is under fire from some in his own party, in part because of his deal with Republicans to keep the tax cuts for even the wealthiest Americans, and also because of the so-called “death tax”
deal. Some Dems are outraged that the president also gave Republicans what they wanted on the estate tax, which they again consider a windfall for the rich. They wanted a 45 percent rate with a threshold of $3.5 million.
They need to get over it. Congress should quickly approve this package.
It’s the right thing to do at a time when a shaky economy is struggling mightily to climb out of the abyss.
And it proves that both sides are willing to make good on a pledge toward getting things done, instead of merely more partisan bickering.
The president made clear last night he is not thrilled with everything in this deal. He still stands behind it.
Congress should waste no time doing the same.
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