Money Matters
Posted by Michelle Moquin on March 10th, 2014
Readers: Obviously, I am posting this late as I did not know that this didn’t post this morning. I had scheduled a posting time of 9:00 am and I am not sure why it didn’t post. I have had a very full day and I didn’t discover this until now. So sorry!
Good morning!
A Progressive Vision
5 Important Things In The President’s Budget
President Obama released his administration’s fiscal year 2015 budget request today. It serves an important purpose in detailing the administration’s vision for investing in the future of the country and establishes an important contrast with Congressional Republicans. The latest GOP salvo in the budget wars, offered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) yesterday, was filled with what we’ve come to expect:another attack on decades of successful anti-poverty programs. President Obama’s, meanwhile, contains a number of pro-growth policies and investments that will help create an economy that works for all Americans, not just the wealthy few. Here are five of the most important:
1. Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The President’s Budget doubles the maximum credit from $500 to $1,000 for 13.5 million low-income childless adults, putting more money back in the pockets of low-income working Americans. The credit has also been extended to young workers aged 21 to 24, adding further support to those individuals at the start of their careers.
Some conservatives have countered the progressive campaign to raise the minimum wage by saying that the EITC is a better alternative to help low-income workers. While the President and the progressive community have no intention of stopping the fight for a higher minimum wage, in this budget Obama has called their bluff in his expansion of the EITC — how will Republicans respond?
2. Significantly Extends The Child Tax Credit. Childcare be often be so expensive for families with young children that it can keep a parent from working full-time. The President’s Budget would extend the Child Tax Credit, particularly for families with children under age five. According to the White House, about 1.7 million families would benefit from the expansion in 2015, receiving an average tax cut of $600.
3. Invests $302 Billion Over Four Years In Transportation Infrastructure. As America’s roads and bridges are falling apart, the President’s focus on transportation infrastructure in this budget took a critical step forward in two ways. First, it draws almost half of the budget request–$150 million–directly from new revenues earned through closing tax loopholes. Second, it prioritizes “fix-it first” investments: those highways, bridges, roads, subways, bus services, and more, that are among the most in need of repair.
4. Promotes Smart Fiscal Responsibility. The budget predicts the following savings from smart policies:
- $402 billion in additional health savings from the Affordable Care Act as well as innovations for Medicare and Medicaid;
- $650 billion over a decade by creating a smarter, more efficient tax code including closing corporate tax loopholes and implementing the “Buffett Rule” so that millionaires pay no less than 30 percent of their income;
5. Reiterates Support For Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Immigration reform is a no-brainer, estimated to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion and increase economic growth by $1.4 trillion over twenty years. It is supported by the vast majority of American interests: businesses, faith leaders, labor unions, many Republican lawmakers, and most important almost 9 in 10 voters. And it would help more than just the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country — it would have huge benefits for American workers as well.
BOTTOM LINE: The President’s budget is a bold progressive document that calls for an end to an era of austerity by investing in working Americans and strengthening the economy for everyone and not just the wealthiest few. Republicans, even while finding that many anti-poverty programs are actually very effective, continue to castigate many low-income Americans and remain opposed to commonsense polices that would spur the economy and reduce the deficit.
*****
Readers: Wha’at’s up? It’s a bit quiet out there. Blog me.
Peace out.
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March 10th, 2014 at 10:07 pm
AARP Launches Fraud Watch Network For All
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has stepped up the fight against scammers with a new campaign — the Fraud Watch Network — that goes beyond the organization’s traditional audience of people over 50 years old.
AARP has long been a powerful Scambusters ally, contributing to and featuring in many of our issues over the years.
As we’ve reported, elder fraud is one of the most common and costly forms of con-trick crime, but ultimately, every age segment of the population is vulnerable, so AARP has directed its new campaign at the entire population.
“We’re inviting anyone, of any age, to access our website and network of resources free of charge,” it says.
So you don’t have to be an AARP member or age 50-plus to benefit from AARP’s anti-scam tips and resources.
As part of the campaign, the organization has published what it calls The Con Artist’s Playbook, which aims to expose the psychology behind ID theft, fraud and scams, an insight into the criminal mind.
The idea is that by understanding how scammers think, the public can be better prepared to protect themselves.
Straight From the Scammers
The book is actually quite a brief document but it’s distilled from hundreds of fraud tapes and hours of interviews with both crooks and their victims.
The key finding is the way that scammers try to lower the guard of their victims. They call it “getting them under the ether.”
“Ether is a heightened emotional state that makes it hard to think clearly and make rational decisions,” says the book.
“Think about the first time you fell in love. Were you thinking clearly? Probably not. To induce ether, the con artist will ask you questions that trigger an emotional response.
“For instance, they might ask you about your relationship with your granddaughter or whether you have concerns about running out of money.
“Once they find something you care about that triggers emotions, they will ‘throttle up’ on that trigger and get you to focus on it until you are in a heightened emotional state.”
It makes sense therefore that you should never make a buying decision while you’re “under the ether.”
Be sure to download the full Con Artist’s Playbook, loaded with useful insights into the workings of the criminal mind and their favorite techniques.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:08 pm
http://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/money/scams_fraud/2013-10/The-Con-Artists-Playbook-AARP.pdf
March 10th, 2014 at 10:21 pm
Not FAIR tax (as that is left up to politicians and bureaucrats what is fair and what is not) but a FLAT tax. Math alone is fair!
March 10th, 2014 at 10:22 pm
I TOTALY AGREE WITH YOU
March 10th, 2014 at 10:22 pm
The Obama budget is simply a reflection of Obama’s stated goals to transform the United States into a European socialist democracy. Nothing more, nothing less. If you look at the bankrupt countries of southern Europe, they all share certain characteristics:
1) No real economic growth as measured by GDP. When a country can’t manage to increase GDP by more than 1 to 2 percent in its “good years”, then you know you have a stagnant economy.
2) They all have gutted their own military in favor of increasing the entitlement society. Obama is just following this same tract.
3) Taxes, taxes, taxes! The Europeans are taxed at every turn. There is no incentive to do anything productive, as the government will merely confiscate it through excessive taxation.
4) These same southern European countries have been running deficits for decades now and it’s finally breaking their backs. Obama is merely seeks to apply this same “economic justice” to the American people. After all, in his mind, we don’t deserve anything we’ve managed to produce through hard work and innovation.
5) ObamaCare is simply a stepping stone to ramming through the left’s romanticized single-payer system. It’s not supposed to work! It’s supposed to merely cause a lot of pain and make the American people more responsive to the single-payer “fix”.
Finally, you say it’s irrelevant, but it’s not. It is yet another tangible proof of what the Obama vision for the country really is when you strip away all the well-crafted prose and rhetoric. That most Americans still refuse to see the truth is a much larger problem.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:24 pm
Cinco cosas sobre el presupuesto de Obama – Libertad.org
[...] La versión en inglés de este artículo está en Heritage.org. [...]
March 10th, 2014 at 10:25 pm
The only thing anyone has to know about Obama’s budget is that it’s not a budget it’s nothing more than a recipe for spending, growing the government and expanding the entitlement state. Since he’s been in office its clear he has no idea of what arithmetic is and for sure no inclination to stop spending. It’s obvious that we are leaderless in Washington and until the players change, the situation will only get worse.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:26 pm
Obama and his people have an idea of how things should be, but they have no idea of how things really work. They are simply detacted from the real world. His policies are hurting the country and especially minorities and the poor, the people he says he cares about. My frustration is how do you counter the ideas of people who are living in an alternate reality?
Obama and his ilk say they care but grab the goodies for themselves and kick the little guy to the curb. And what makes matters worse, I’m hearing sounds from the Republicans that we should move towards the center, go along to get along. If they try that, they have lost me, forever.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:29 pm
Social Security has been being reduced by the same process the banksters have been using to rob 99% of us for decades. An economist has proven that the inflation rate is a gross fraud. In the 10 years prior to the 2008 financial collapse inflation was running 9.5% yearly on average while the government was claiming 2.5%. So if your income increased by 2.5% a year then you’ve actually had a 70% reduction in income over those ten years.
This is why 2 people working collectively 112 hours a week (this was the average hours worked in the mid 90s, I don’t have recent numbers) have a significantly lower standard of living then a single income family working forty hours a week 40 years ago, despite our nation actually being much wealthier.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:30 pm
Obama is a traitor to those that voted for him. – His betrayal shows he is merely a puppet for corporations. For a few to have more than they need, many will have less than they need.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:31 pm
Why does every politician think that every time they need to find money that smokers must pay. Does he not realize that low & middle income people make up a majority of smokers.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:37 pm
Ricky, do you not realize how much smokers cost the country in healthcare, lost productivity and environmental filth?
March 10th, 2014 at 10:39 pm
Smokers are also the ones sitting in subsidized housing hooked up to oxygen and taking 25 pills a day to exist in retirement and being carted
to the ER in an ambulance to have some cardio-pulmonary issue examined with several days hospital stay. And so by collecting those taxes now, it may help reduce the burden of those of us who try to live healthier lives and already pay through the nose.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:39 pm
Maybe this will be a step toward saving them from themselves. Smokers’ health care costs and reductions in quality of life and work productivity could improved.