Obama urged Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year to enable women to earn comparable wages as men. He also urged Congress to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour and tie it to the cost of living.
“We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages,” he said. “But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong. That’s why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, 19 states have chosen to bump theirs even higher. Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. We should be able to get that done.”
Obama also called for changes in gun laws to reduce gun violence as many members of Congress wore green ribbons in memory of the shooting victims of Sandy Hook, Conn.
“Overwhelming majorities of Americans—Americans who believe in the Second Amendment —have come together around common-sense reform, like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun,” he said. “Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because these police chiefs, they’re tired of seeing their guys and gals being outgunned.”
Republican Response
In the Republican response, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., objected to the tax reforms proposed by Obama.
“Mr. President, I still live in the same working class neighborhood I grew up in,” he said. “My neighbors aren’t millionaires. They’re retirees who depend on Social Security and Medicare. They’re workers who have to get up early tomorrow morning and go to work to pay the bills. They’re immigrants, who came here because they were stuck in poverty in countries where the government dominated the economy. The tax increases and the deficit spending you propose will hurt middle-class families. It will cost them their raises. It will cost them their benefits. It may even cost some of them their jobs. And it will hurt seniors because it does nothing to save Medicare and Social Security. So Mr. President, I don’t oppose your plans because I want to protect the rich. I oppose your plans because I want to protect my neighbors.”
Rubio argued that economic growth is the best way to help the middle class. “Unfortunately, our economy actually shrank during the last three months of 2012,” he pointed out. “But if we can get the economy to grow at just 4 percent a year, it would create millions of middle class jobs. And it could reduce our deficits by almost $4 trillion dollars over the next decade. Tax increases can’t do this. Raising taxes won’t create private sector jobs. And there’s no realistic tax increase that could lower our deficits by almost $4 trillion. That’s why I hope the President will abandon his obsession with raising taxes and instead work with us to achieve real growth in our economy.”
8 Comments
Accounting Today: Chris XXX--a successful Texas businessman turned "green-ie" environmentalists, has proposed a plan that just may be what Obama is looking for in his State of the Union address when he said "Those states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make that happen." Chris spent 30 years in the construction business. Having built offices for over 1,000 tenants, he has personally been associated with demolition of immeasurable volumes of gypsum board, studs, electrical, etc. This represents a shameful waste of our energy and non-renewable natural resources. Chris's plan is for each State to increase the construction & demolition (C&D waste) dumping fees. This simple but direct policy change will have direct measurable effects. 1st, Suddenly it becomes more profitable to "re-use" construction materials than to demolish them. Money flows into labor to de-construct ("creating jobs") rather than energy waste making new raw materials and transportation fuel costs. 2nd, There are new products available that make de-construction more affordable than demolition like a demountable drywall Green-Zip joint tape that avoid the need to demolish partitions. In addition these products often qualify for long standing federal income tax benefits as they change Section 1250 property to Section 1245. 3rd, It raises State Revenue, with the least negative political resistance. Our state governments thus far have avoided the grid-lock. Perhaps they can be fruitful with our resources. 2013.02.13: Obama also set a goal of cutting in half the energy wasted by homes and businesses over the next 20 years. "We'll work with the states to do it," he said. "Those states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make that happen." Frank XXX M.S. Architecture / Tax Law AIA, ASID, NCAR Bd. Certified
FrankLittle@TaxAdvantageDesign.com
Posted by: FrankLittle | February 14, 2013 10:03 AM
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Oh and it'll be great to watch my HSA get basically legislated out of existence. Can't have anyone taking responsibliity for their own heathcare now, can we?
Posted by: Jmayocpa | February 13, 2013 3:03 PM
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Wow, tax simplification? BWAHAHAHAHA! Come on! I'm on my 21st tax season and the ONLY rule is that EVERY year it gets HARDER, MORE EXPENSIVE, more geared towards the multinationals, and MORE COMPILCATED. Don't blow smoke up my chimney Obiwan. You have got to be kidding me. Simplification. Yeah. That's rich. Let's see how simple it is next year as we're policing Obamacare for the IRS. Has anybody noticed the cost of healthcare "slowing"...what even does that mean? It's going up exponentially. What a joke.
Posted by: Jmayocpa | February 13, 2013 3:00 PM
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I see both sides of the argument. Reagan made the Chicago welfare queen famous by telling a completely fabricated story about a woman on welfare who drove around in a Cadillac by defrauding the system.
I believe that a majority of those receiving public assistance would prefer to be able to support themselves. However, not everyone is honest. I support drug testing, work & job training for those on assistance. However, there is the other side of multi-national corporations hiring for a temporary position and several years later that temporary position has not been reclassified to permanent full time.
Defense is out of control. The special interest groups that would be wiped out if even 10% of defense spending were cut would be amazing. No more free rounds of golf, "charity auctions", and .....
Yes everyone is or has the right to hire an accountant (CPA) who is also a tax attorney, but I can't afford that. I take the deductions I am entitled to. Most of those deductions are in the form of AGI or happen at the time I am paid. I contribute pre-tax earnings to a HSA as well as to a qualifying retirement savings account. The amount of money that Google has in off shore (legal) accounts that it will not bring back into the USA is staggering. There should be tax reform so that any taxes paid to a foreign government would not be counted as income when brought back into the US. Increase domestic investment and production.
Posted by: sar84067 | February 13, 2013 2:30 PM
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"In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if both parties couldn't agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dollars' worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year," and you signed it Mr. President.
If it takes about a trillion dollars' worth of Federal Deficit spending to maintain our economy it really isn't a very healthy economy, is it Mr. President?
Let's take the hit, reduce Federal spending, reallocate Federal Department Budgets as necessary and see if it is really that bad a year from now.
By the way, those "high powered accountants" are available to everybody, not just the super wealthy. I'll bet you have a CPA or Tax Attorney prepare your Tax Returns, Mr. President!
Posted by: Raymond S | February 13, 2013 1:46 PM
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To cherylrein: Does you client hire High School kids because they need the work to help support their parents and siblings, of because it's a source of cheap, and easy to manipulate, labor.
For the breadwinners, they should be paid enough for honest labor in order not to need food stamps and Medicaid in order to survive for themselves and family. Why should the taxpaying public have to support private business? Seems private business wants a handout/entitlement, which they complain about when others need it.
Can't have it both ways.
Posted by: tego@verizon.net | February 13, 2013 1:18 PM
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The President, as usual, is way off base. We are already overburdened with taxes and the middle class will always pay the freight. The rich have all the resources (and Congress in their pockets) and the poor don't contribute anyway. And I don't really think we can control the climate of the earth, do you? We had to lay off one whole person just to pay one tax this year - the Illinois Unemployment Tax (almost 10%!). There goes another family without work.......I have a client who will close when the minimum wage goes up as well (she employes high school kids). Illinois wants to raise it to $10! We in business tighten our belts with real cuts and the government, of course, has a different definition of a cut. As you all know, to them a "cut" means no increase. Everything they are doing is CUTTING JOBS! We have nothing left to cut in our business, so next year any capital expenditures will have to go. We'll just try to patch up the old vans and try to keep them running.
Posted by: cherylrein | February 13, 2013 12:37 PM
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To develop the economy with these measures are not enough because time is lost for the American manufacturers. International companies have already bought the politicians, who will defend their interests in Congress. Social funds are looted. Employees will pay higher taxes so that the amnestied illegal immigrants could receive benefits. The money, collected during the amnesty of undocumented aliens, administration will be able to spend partially of paying the interest on the foreign debt ...
Posted by: nadezdamindyuk | February 13, 2013 8:18 AM
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