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Home Front: Politix
Deficit 'fiscal cliff' bill actually spends $330 billion more
2013-01-02
[Washington Times] The "fiscal cliff" deal that was designed to save money actually includes $330.3 billion in new spending over the next decade, according to the official estimate the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday afternoon.

CBO said the bill contains about $25.1 billion in new cuts, but those are swamped by the new spending on extended unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and other new refundable tax credits that President B.O. fought for.

Of those cuts, only $2 billion are scheduled to take effect in 2013.

And CBO also warned that some of the cuts Congress is counting are from programs on which CBO never expected the money to be spent anyway -- such as cuts to the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan, which was part of Mr. Obama's health care law.

All told, the bill deepens the deficit by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade, when the new tax cuts and spending are combined.
Update: It appears the House passed it 257 to 157.
Posted by:Fred

#19  I suspect you will change your mind long before the income tax goes to 50%.

Nope. I'll just stop working and go on the dole. Or move. Or revolt.

Haven't decided which yet.
Posted by: DarthVader   2013-01-02 23:20  

#18  I will never vote for, or donate to a Republican again unless they keep their damn work and principles and don't buckle for the democrats at the first sign of a hard fight. So pretty much I'm not voting for any Republican again.

I suspect you will change your mind long before the income tax goes to 50%.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2013-01-02 23:18  

#17  All I know is that watching 20 years of Republican stupidity, and doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, even with the Tea Party involved, I am finished with the Republicans.

I will never vote for, or donate to a Republican again unless they keep their damn work and principles and don't buckle for the democrats at the first sign of a hard fight. So pretty much I'm not voting for any Republican again.
Posted by: DarthVader   2013-01-02 16:00  

#16  Hollywood, Newspapers, Newschannels. All critical components of the OPM (Obama/Socialist/Marxist Propaganda Machine).
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692   2013-01-02 15:46  

#15  Another thing farm subsidies do is drive up the price of land. Absentee landlords don't have to sell, they're sitting on a cash cow that they've been milking for decades. Good crop year or bad crop year, it makes little difference either way as the gov't provides crop insurance as well. If you own enough to lease it out for private hunting.... good pocket change as well.
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-01-02 15:42  

#14  Well now I live in a republican county in a republican state and two thirds of this rural county is owned by absentee landlords who collect most of the subsidies. There is a lot wrong with the farm bill, but it is not a republican pork barrel.
Posted by: bman   2013-01-02 15:36  

#13  The rum tax expenditure works about like this:

Rum produced in PR and the Virgin Islands (VI).
Rum sent to US. Excise tax paid.
Excise tax rebated to govts of PR and VI.
Govt of PR and VI use money to: support distillery construction and infrastructure around distilleries (about 40%), rebate some corporate and property taxes to the distillers (about 10%) and the rest for general revenue (much of which is used for the govt to hire no-work cronies).

The price of PR and VI Rum in the US is probably about 5-10% or so below what it would be without this program. Also, distillery employment in the PR and VI is probably about 200 to 500 greater than it would be without the program. Finally, the corporate profits for the two or three large companies (e.g. Bacardi) that benefit are probably $10 to $20M/yr better than otherwise.

For perspective, the subsidies (typically direct payments) to domestic ag producers are somewhere near $8B/yr and these mostly go to Republican leaning States and to Republican leaning counties within those States.
Posted by: lord garth   2013-01-02 12:44  

#12  Bummer will get free rum for his Mai Tais in Waikiki.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2013-01-02 12:41  

#11  so ... do citizens now get 500 million in free rum?
Posted by: 3dc   2013-01-02 12:26  

#10  All of these stories should go under WOT Operations. No, really, because when the crunch finally hits and the credit is all gone there will be terror. I'm afraid this cliff is a mere incline compared to what is coming.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2013-01-02 11:57  

#9  "I'd gladly pay you Tuesday in March for a hamburger tax hike today!" - Sen. Whimpy
Posted by: CrazyFool   2013-01-02 11:23  

#8  yes

Hollywood gets about $250M (over 10years) in tax expenditures

but that's minimal compared to $12B that wind energy producers get or the $500M for Puerto Rico rum producers or the $9B for 'active financing' (a subsidy for Wall Street and some multinationals) or the $30B for the unemployment extention

Posted by: lord garth   2013-01-02 10:49  

#7  $1 in cuts for each $41 in spending? This turkey will cost $4 trillion over the next decade? Hollywood get big bucks for making movies. This is a payoff for Hollywood big money election donations and support. This has to be the worst deal ever agreed to by the Pubs.
Posted by: JohnQC   2013-01-02 10:20  

#6  1. Thanks to TW for quoting me despite a typo

when the sequesters kick in certain

should be

when the sequesters kick in and certain

2. The CBO's estimate of $330B in new spending is based on their long standing practice of classifying certain tax subsidies and tax loopholes as 'tax expenditures'. The ATRA 2012 has oodles of these.
Posted by: lord garth   2013-01-02 09:32  

#5  Correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe the "increased" spending is an artifact of the CBO scoring current law after the expiration of the tax laws that were largely renewed by this legislation. I believe that, had the law been scored prior the the expiration of the old tax law on 31 Dec, its cost would have been roughly flat with the status quo.
Posted by: AzCat   2013-01-02 07:02  

#4  D *** NG, I thought it was US$367.0Bilyuhn!?

You knew it would.

I say it again - YEAR 2014, aka the Yarn when US STATE-LOCAL GOVTS, NOT JUST CITIZENS, DEMAND FORMAL SECESSION FROM THE US.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2013-01-02 01:51  

#3  Might as well Darth. I really don't enjoy the drama or listening to the uppity little man's dis and jive.
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-01-02 01:20  

#2  Seriously, why do we even have a Republican Party? Why not just rubber stamp everything Obumble wants and fucking go home for the day?

Posted by: DarthVader   2013-01-02 00:37  

#1  As lord garth commented yesterday,

assuming HR8, aka the American Tax Relief Act of 2012, passes the house and is signed, the spending battle will be fought two months from now when the sequesters kick in certain Treasury measures that are being used to manage the national debt run out.

this isn't over, not by a long shot

A useful perspective.
Posted by: trailing wife   2013-01-02 00:13  

00:01