Tax Cuts

Reporting from Sacramento and Los Angeles -- Millions of California shoppers and car owners are in for some rare good news from Sacramento: tax cuts. Starting Friday, the statewide sales tax rate drops by one percentage point — a penny on the dollar — and the annual vehicle license charge that drivers pay tumbles by 43%. The expiring increases, which were placed on the books in 2009 as California teetered toward insolvency, will provide significant savings for many people.

A Los Angeles City Council committee came up with a plan Tuesday to avoid laying off more than 200 city workers at least until Jan. 1, thanks in part to a last-minute discovery of new tax revenues. By realizing an additional $5.8 million in higher than expected property taxes and trimming money from city departments and contracts with outside consultants, the council's Budget and Finance Committee was able to put on hold a plan by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to eliminate 669 positions, 209 of which are currently filled.

President Obama officially launched his re-election campaign with public rallies in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday.With that launch came a re-tooled stump speech which both defended his record in office and laid out the contrast with Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The speeches in both cities were largely the same. Here's a full transcript of his remarks in Columbus, following the acknowledgement of local leaders. OBAMA: "I want to thank so many of our Neighborhood Team Leaders for being here today.  You guys will be the backbone of this campaign.  And I want the rest of you to join a team or become a leader yourself, because we are going to win this thing the old-fashioned way -- door by door, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.

President Obama officially launched his re-election campaign with public rallies in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday.With that launch came a re-tooled stump speech which both defended his record in office and laid out the contrast with Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The speeches in both cities were largely the same. Here's a full transcript of his remarks in Columbus, following the acknowledgement of local leaders. OBAMA: "I want to thank so many of our Neighborhood Team Leaders for being here today.  You guys will be the backbone of this campaign.  And I want the rest of you to join a team or become a leader yourself, because we are going to win this thing the old-fashioned way -- door by door, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Republicans intensified their confrontation with the White House on Thursday as the party's Senate leader defended his controversial assertion that a top GOP priority is to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the Republicans' steadfast resistance to Obama contributed to Tuesday's electoral romp and that defeating the president in 2012 remained a leading priority. McConnell's comments, before a conservative Washington think tank, came as congressional leaders and the White House continued adjusting to historic shifts in political power in the Capitol.

Over the first 18 months of his presidency, Barack Obama cut taxes ? 25 different taxes, in fact ? for 95% of taxpayers. Yet when queried by pollsters on whether the president had "increased taxes for most Americans, decreased taxes for most Americans, or ? kept taxes the same," 44% of respondents said taxes went up, while 46% said taxes did not change. Now the president is making the same mistake again: cutting taxes in a way almost no one will notice and some may remember as a tax increase.

Republicans and Democrats have kicked up so much rhetorical dust as they tussle over the economy, it's often hard to discern exactly they're fighting over. Such is the case with the soon-to-expire tax cuts enacted during President George W. Bush's first term. Some of the news coverage has implied that President Obama's plan would force some small businesses to pay half of their income in federal and state taxes. Meanwhile, the Democrats have made it sound as if ending the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans is vital to closing the $1.3 trillion federal budget deficit.

Kansas is considering raising taxes on its poor and cutting them for everybody else. State Republicans have been campaigning to overhaul the tax code in Kansas to spur growth. The idea is that, by eliminating income taxes for residents and small businesses, lowering the sales tax and ditching a host of tax credits, Kansans will have more money and thus stimulate the economy. But for the state's poorest, the devil is in the details. A Kansas House tax committee passed a bill in which anyone making less than $25,000 a year - roughly half a million of the state's 2.9 million residents - will pay an average of $72 more in taxes, while those making more than $250,000 - about 21,000 people - will see a $1,500 cut, according to Kansas Department of Revenue estimates cited by the Kansas City Star.

Facing dire political consequences for both sides, Republican and Democratic leaders on Sunday appeared to be coalescing around a compromise that would not only continue George W. Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpayers but also extend benefits to unemployed workers. "I'm optimistic we'll be able to come together," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told NBC's "Meet the Press" a day after Republicans blocked a Democratic effort in the Senate to extend the tax cuts for the middle class but not the very wealthy.

Republican leaders in Congress on Monday backed away from a possible compromise with the Obama administration over expiring George W. Bush-era tax cuts, committing both sides to an election-year battle with significant stakes for the economy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the party's conservative activists distanced themselves from comments by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R- Ohio) on Sunday that he may agree to let tax relief for wealthy Americans expire if that was politically necessary to save middle-class tax cuts.

Republicans and Democrats agree that the federal tax system is broken, but they couldn't disagree more strongly about how to fix it. That's true largely because each side clings to a different set of theories about how taxes affect the country, only some of which bear much relationship to reality. Hoping to dispel a few of the myths pervading the debate, a Washington think tank offered a report this week laying out a dozen facts about tax reform. The bottom line: Good fiscal policy comes at a steep political cost.

Republicans are the party of business and the rich. Democrats are for the working man. That's what my dad always said.   Dad, I think you were on to something. The Times reported Thursday that the Republican-led House approved a 20% business tax break for companies with fewer than 500 employees. Republicans say it will boost the economy, but Democrats say it will add $46 billion to the deficit and that it favors wealthier business owners, celebrities and sports teams.

WASHINGTON - Despite a veto threat from President Obama, the Republican-led House approved a 20% election-year tax cut for most companies intended to entice them to pick up the pace of hiring and, thus, boost the economy. Critics said the tax cuts for companies with fewer than 500 employees would add $46 billion to the deficit and do little to create jobs. Obama and Democrats attacked the legislation as unfairly favoring wealthier small-business owners, celebrities and sports teams.

Our one shared national moment of fiscal soul-searching is behind us for another year — of course I refer to the filing of tax returns — but tax reform theater in Washington, like the melody in the old Irving Berlin song, lingers on. So while individual and business taxpayers watch to see whether any tax reform plan has any chance of passage, the Obama administration's "Buffett rule" proposal succumbed Monday to the threat of filibuster by...

WASHINGTON —During a week when voters are acutely aware of how much they owe Uncle Sam, Congress is conducting a series of votes that crystallize the sharply different approaches the two parties take toward taxes and the economy. Democrats support President Obama's "Buffett rule," a proposed new tax rate on individuals making more than $1 million a year, as a way to boost federal revenue and ensure that wealthy Americans pay their fair share of taxes. Republicans are pushing a new tax break for smaller businesses, a reflection of their supply-side philosophy that maintains that tax cuts will spur companies to create jobs.

Joe Biden, who's been the Obama campaign's lead attack dog for weeks now, sharpened his rhetoric Thursday to label Mitt Romney as out of touch, and accuse him of supporting a tax structure that was "out of step with American values. " The vice president went to Exeter, N.H., where Romney had delivered a major speech on the economy before the state's leadoff primary, to continue the administration's push for a so-called Buffett rule to ensure the wealthiest Americans were paying at least as much in taxes as the middle class.

WASHINGTON - Despite a veto threat from President Obama, the Republican-led House approved a 20% election-year tax cut for most companies intended to entice them to pick up the pace of hiring and, thus, boost the economy. Critics said the tax cuts for companies with fewer than 500 employees would add $46 billion to the deficit and do little to create jobs. Obama and Democrats attacked the legislation as unfairly favoring wealthier small-business owners, celebrities and sports teams.

President Obama was in a holiday mood on Tuesday, urging members of Congress not to "be a Grinch" by refusing to continue tax cuts that mean $1,000 a year for the average family. The payroll tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, but Democrats plan to bring the president's proposal for another vote next week. "In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are going to give them another chance," Obama told a crowd in Manchester, N.H. Lawmakers are heading home this week for the Thanksgiving break but Obama hit the campaign trail Tuesday, portraying the GOP refusal to extend the payroll tax cuts as the same as actively voting to raise taxes.

George W. Bush, the man behind the tax breaks now sparking debate from President Obama and his likely challenger, Mitt Romney, just wishes that the policies didn't bear his name. “I wish they weren't called the Bush tax cuts,” he said, chuckling, during a speech at the New York Historical Society. “If they were called someone else's tax cuts, they'd be less likely to be raised.” But with Bush's moniker firmly attached, the policies are turning out to be a key election talking point.

Reporting from Washington -- Former President George W. Bush doesn't miss being in office, and he wishes the “Bush tax cuts” of the early 2000s didn't carry his name - at least that's according to a series of quips made by Bush during a rare public appearance on Tuesday. Bush, who has stayed out of the spotlight in his post-presidential years, was addressing the Tax Policies for Growth conference, an event dedicated to discussing a Bush Institute project to promote policies aimed at achieving sustainable annual growth of 4%. That goal is the topic of a new book published by the institute.