Archive for September, 2010
WASHINGTON — Here's some pressure for lawmakers: If they don't reach agreement on extending soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts, nearly all their constituents back home will get big tax increases.
A typical family of four with a household income of $50,000 a year would have to pay $2,900 more in taxes in 2011, according to a new analysis by Deloitte Tax LLP, a tax consulting firm. The same family making $100,000 a year would see its taxes rise by $4,500.
Wealthier families face even bigger tax hikes. A family of four making $500,000 a year would pay $10,800 more in taxes. The same family making $1 million a year would get a tax increase of $53,200.
The estimates are based on total household income, including wages, capital gains and qualified dividends. The estimated tax bills take into account typical deductions at each income level.
Democrats have been arguing for much of the past decade that tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 under former President George W. Bush provided a windfall for the wealthy. That's true, but they also reduced taxes for the working poor, the middle class, and just about everyone in between.
Those tax cuts expire at the end of the year, setting the stage for a high-stakes debate just before congressional elections in November. If Congress fails to act, families at every income level will see more taxes being withheld from their paychecks come January.
The tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 reduced marginal income tax rates at every level. They also provided a wide range of income tax breaks for education, families with children and married couples.
Taxes on capital gains and dividends were reduced, while the federal estate tax was gradually repealed, though only for this year.
(AP) - Two rural Kentucky sheriffs say Rand Paul's campaign has wrongly claimed they are supporting the Republican for U.S. Senate.
The sheriffs -- Kevin Johnson of Clay County and Gus Skinner of McCreary County -- are both Republicans from southeastern Kentucky.
They told The Associated Press that they haven't endorsed anyone although a Paul campaign press release issued this week says they are among 10 current or incoming sheriffs declaring public support for the tea party favorite.
The campaign touted support among sheriffs to counter attacks from Democrat Jack Conway that Paul is soft on fighting drugs and crime.
The Paul campaign said Friday it was looking into the matter but had no other immediate response.
Seriously? Scott is taking his love of Nantucket reds and polo shirts to a whole ‘nother level and is creating his own clothing collection. But who in the heck wants to dress like him?
We thought Jon Gosselin was a tool for wearing Ed Hardy, but even that’s preferable to dressing like Scott Disick! Kourtney Kardashian’s baby daddy usually looks like he stepped off the set of American Psycho – so why in the heck would anyone want to look like him?
“I’m going to start my own clothing line that will probably be out by 2011,” Kourtney’s other – but not better – half told E! He added, “It will have everything from shoes to clothing to cuff links to accessories.”
So what you’re saying Scott is this: the collection will only carry loafers, pink pants, polo shirts. Fun!
So BFFs, would you wear something that came from Scott Disick or would you avoid it as much as the Kardashian family avoids HIM on Keeping Up With The Kardashians?
Tim Gunn shot a guest spot on 'Gossip Girl' a few weeks ago (for an upcoming episode) and he had nothing nice to say about costar Taylor Momsen.
"What a diva!" he told E! News. "She was pathetic, she couldn't remember her lines, and she didn't even have that many. I thought to myself 'why are we all being held hostage by this brat?'"
Gunn said that Momsen's constant Blackberry use was the main problem and the director told him it happened "day in, day out, my life." He said that if he was a regular on the show he would give her some advice.
"I'd say, 'You know young lady, there are hundreds of thousands of girls who are just as attractive and even smarter than you. Why are you acting like this show is a huge burden on you?'" he told E! "She was on her phone during every break, I wanted to tell her, 'If you weren't on your BlackBerry, you can retain this stuff.'"
Momsen has previously said she has no friends on the 'Gossip Girl' set.
Amber belittles Gary around baby Leah every second AND she can’t stop swearing — she’s like Kate Gosselin and Tiger Woods in one.
But Amber wasn’t the only Teen Mom acting bratty on the Sept. 14 episode. Farrah was being a total brat to her parents after they gave her a place to live and went out of their way to take her and her daughter to the zoo. Maci wasn’t bratty, but she was clueless. That boyfriend of hers is NOT smart and he’s definitely not worth moving for. As for Catelynn, I don’t have words for how much she’s my favorite Teen Mom. I wrote letters to each of the moms — read them, won’t you?
Dear Amber:
Gary is not ready to marry you. Don’t keep pushing him. Also, when baby Leah was crying and you slammed the door on her so you could get more sleep I lost all respect for you. You need to stop being so whiney. You’re starting to sound like your baby. AND you called Leah’s dad a “f*****g jerk” in front of her. He tried to get you to stop swearing, so you called him a “petty little b****h” and kicked him out! That’s Kate Gosselin and Tiger Woods behavior right there.
Dear Catelynn:
Sorry your mom went out of town and left you on your daughter Carly’s first birthday. And watching you and Tyler talk to Carly over the phone and hear how much she’s growing was maybe the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever seen on this show. You’re my favorite Teen Mom couple.
Dear Farrah:
It sucks that you have to move to your mom’s renter house because you can’t afford another apartment. But she gave you a place to live, and then was really nice and invited you to the zoo. You could have been a little less of a brat when her and Michael’s car “blew a hose or something.” Then you were rude ALL DAY at the zoo.
Dear Maci:
Your new boyfriend Kyle is an idiot. After explaining how Ryan is taking you to court for custody of Bentley, Kyle responded, “It’ll be aight, dude. It’ll be aight.” You should not be moving to Nashville to live near him. He is a dumb-dumb.
ATLANTA — An apple a day? Apparently not in the United States.
Most Americans still don't eat vegetables often enough, and fruit consumption is actually dropping a little, according to a new government report released Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that last year about one-third of U.S. adults consumed fruit or fruit juice at least twice a day. That's down slightly from more than 34 percent in 2000.
Only about 26 percent ate vegetables three or more times a day, the same as in 2000. The statistics come from a national telephone survey of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
No state met federal goals of three-quarters of Americans eating enough fruit, and half eating enough vegetables. California ate the most fruit and Tennessee was best with vegetables. Oklahoma was at the bottom for fruit and South Dakota had the lowest vegetable consumption.
The report did not ask people which fruits and vegetables they ate the most. But a CDC study published last year concluded that orange juice is the top source of fruit among U.S. adults and adolescents, and potatoes are the favorite vegetable.
Health officials have been trying to promote fruits and vegetables – especially leafy greens – as healthy alternatives to salty, fatty and sugary foods. The goal is to curb the nation's obesity problem and reduce diabetes, heart disease and other maladies tied to bad diets.
The 2009 data are discouraging, said Dr. Jennifer Foltz, one of the study's authors.
"We aren't making progress, that's for sure," said Foltz, a CDC epidemiologist.
The second day of New York Fashion Week was swarming with even more celebs than yesterday! While I took in the shows, I watched Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, who was dressed in jeans and a leather BCBG jacket, giggle away with Kelly Rowland (who opted for a BCBG frock) at the BCBG show this morning. Even though Ashlee is busy working on her new album and a fashion venture, she still came out to enjoy the fun! Also in the front row was Alison Brie and Katrina Bowden clad in BCBG minis.
Rachel Bilson also popped up at Lincoln Center to announce Sunglass Hut’s ‘Full Time Fabulous’ blogger search, looking as adorable as ever in a pair of shorts.
At the Edition by Georges Chakra show Entourage hottie Dania Ramirez, who’s in town filming her latest flick, looked pretty in pink. The star accessorized with a small Cole Haan box clutch and posed for photos before taking her seat in the front row, right near Kelly Rowland and Jessica White. Kelly, in an all white Georges Chakra get-up looked gorgeous in all white, while model Jessica sported all black from head to toe.
Olivia Palermo turned up at the Ports 1961 show sporting a new short ‘do and looking more edgy than usual in tight pants, a Ports 1961 jacket, and boots.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) had sharp words today for Ohio GOP congressional candidate Jim Renacci, who recently said the federal government should get "out of the way" on civil rights issues, saying that such a position suggests he may be unfit to hold public office
On Sept. 7, Renacci, the GOP nominee in Ohio's 16th congressional district, held a public town hall event in Canton, at which an attendee noted the lack of diversity on his campaign and asked where he stands on civil rights issues. In an exchange captured by the site ThinkProgress, Renacci said the solution was "to get our federal government out of the way" and hand more control over to the local government.
"A lot of the problems you're talking about are local issues," Renacci replied. "And I'm also a firm believer that the federal government and our Constitution was based on freedom, and was based on the freedoms that our number one goal of our military is freedom. We need to get our federal government out of the way and we need to allow our local governments to become more involved in many of the issues you're talking about. I don't believe these are federal issues to come down."
When the attendee pointed out the importance of the federal government in civil rights issues throughout history and asked whether Renacci wanted to go back to a time when local governments were allowed to discriminate, Renacci replied, "What you're doing is talking about is the past, and I agree with you. I'm talking about today." The questioner then challenged him on whether, in 2010, we're beyond discrimination, and Renacci said, "In 2010, we have issues that we need to bring back to the local -- whether it's schools -- we need to bring back to the local."
Tea Party-backed Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle again fielded questions about some of her more controversial statements Wednesday, including those about "Second Amendment remedies" and "domestic enemies" in Congress, and again chose to explain them as perfectly acceptable and logical rather than walk them back.
Asked by ABC News's Jon Karl to clarify an earlier conversation regarding the role of "Second Amendment remedies" in combating a "tyrannical" government, Sharron Angle at first shied away from the answer, then claimed that the entire exchange was taken out of context. In the end, however, she maintained that she believed a "revolutionary situation" was indeed "possible."
KARL: And of course, Jefferson said the tree of liberty needs to be fed with the blood of tyrants from time to time. But do you really can you foresee us getting into a situation where there is such anger in this country that we're in a revolutionary situation again?
ANGLE: Well, I think at the conclusion of that discussion, I said I hope not.
KARL: But, but you think it's possible? I mean hoping...
ANGLE: Well, of course, anything is possible, I suppose.
Karl then pressed Angle on her comments concerning so-called "domestic enemies in Congress," to which she again replied that the original statement was removed from its intended context.
Here's how Angle expounded on the remarks:
ANGLE: In context, we were talking about the policies of the government that have really caused problems for us in the past 18 months. We have seen policies come down that have really become the enemy of the people. Story continues below
With polls and prognosticators predicting a massive Republican rout -- and the likely election of uncompromising, out-of-the-mainstream conservatives -- in the fall, the Obama administration has begun raising dire alarms in its pitch to voters. Remember the Bush administration, the argument goes. It could be worse.
"I saw that [Alaska GOP Senate candidate] Joe Miller said that he would abolish Social Security if he had the chance and he is not alone," said chief adviser David Axelrod. "This is akin to what [Nevada GOP Senate candidate] Sharron Angle has said in Nevada and also a number of these other Republicans. So, this could go one step beyond the policies of the Bush administration to something more extreme than we have seen."
In an interview with the Huffington Post from his West Wing office late last week, Axelrod's criticism of the president's Republican critics were some of the most sweeping to date. The senior adviser called the GOP strategy for scuffling Obama, "insidious" if not "clever." Republican leadership, he ventured, has "put emphasis on throttling things down... hoping that the mess that they created... would be so difficult to clean up that they could then blame us for their problems."
"I think realistically what you have is a Republican Party that is now thoroughly focused on one thing and they have been frankly from the beginning: which is to try and regain power," he said. "And their strategy is to lock everything down and not let anything happen."
The remarks suggest a White House that is frustrated at the hand it's been dealt, as well as increasingly concerned about the state of the electorate. Axelrod declined to place a marker on how November will play out. But he did note that history is not on the side of the president he serves.
By Monday, that history's repetition was crystallizing. Stu Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, released new predictions, putting the number of Republican gains in the House at 37 to 42 seats. Forty-five to 55 seats, he added, are "quite possible." A poll released by ABC News and the Washington Post the night before, meanwhile, revealed that for the first time in more the four years, the GOP is running even with Democrats in terms of the confidence it earns from registered voters. Faced with the possibility of a major, historic sweep on Election Day, however, the Democratic base isn't showing signs of turning out in November.
"In a sense, we are a victim of our own success, of the expectations that the president aroused, and the fact that we have gotten so much done," Axelrod said, in attempting to explain the enthusiasm gap between Republican and Democratic voters. "Everyone who has a particular passion says, 'Well if you got that done why couldn't you get this done? If you got health care done why couldn't you get energy reform done? If you got financial reform why couldn't you get something else done?' The successes we've had have been a double-edged sword. I hope that at the end of the day, however, people will realize that this has been a period of enormous progress. I'm not begrudging people's desire to get more done. There is a lot of pent-up energy and aspirations and all these things are important. But objectively this has been an enormously productive time and everyone who helped elect the president should feel gratified at what's been accomplished because it wouldn't have happened but for their efforts."
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