House Republicans Vote to Let Tax Cuts Expire

by: RDemocrat

Thu Dec 10, 2009 at 02:19:39 AM EST

The House voted Wednesday to extend $31 billion in popular tax breaks, including an income tax deduction for sales and property taxes, to be financed with a tax increase on investment fund managers and a crackdown on international tax cheats.

The 45 tax deductions and credits for businesses and individuals are scheduled to expire at year's end. The House voted 241-181 to extend them for a year, with only two Republicans voting in favor. The bill now goes to the Senate, which has rejected the tax increase on investment managers in the past.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...

And what was the sticking point for those hypocrites who preach cutting taxes like gospel?? Because they wanted to protect investment fund, hedge fund and private equity managers:

The House bill would raise $24.6 billion over the next decade from the tax increase on investment fund managers. It would affect hedge fund and private equity managers, as well as the more than 1.2 million real estate investment partnerships, according to the Real Estate Roundtable.

Investment managers typically get a fee to manage funds or assets. They also get a share of the profits earned for investors above a certain level. Under current law, the profit-sharing fees, called carried interest, are taxed as capital gains, with a top rate of 15 percent. The House bill would tax the fees as regular income, with a top tax rate of 35 percent, scheduled to rise to 39.6 percent in 2011.

I mean, it would be a crime if these folks were taxed at the same rate that honest, working Americans are taxed at:

Democrats argued in favor of the tax increase, saying Wall Street financiers shouldn't be taxed at a lower rate than workers making less money.

"Those who invest their own money will continue to receive capital gains tax treatment," said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. "Those who manage other people's money will have to pay ordinary income tax, like everybody else who performs services."

And of course in typical Republican behavior they simply must protect their heros and kindred spirits, international tax cheats:

President Barack Obama supports the tax package, including the tax increase on investment managers and the crackdown on international tax havens.

The crackdown on tax havens would impose new reporting requirements on foreign financial institutions doing business in the United States and on American advisers who help U.S. residents make investments overseas. Foreign firms that don't comply would be hit with a 30 percent withholding tax on income from their U.S. assets.

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said tax cheats have a patriotic duty to come clean.

"I think that asking tax evaders to pay their fair share for the national defense is not an unreasonable request," said Neal, a top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee.

How dare the House to expect the very people who voted for the leaders who began the policies of endless war to be expected to help pay for all those endless wars!! How very un-American!! Hell, the fat and sassy American worker should pay for that with those huge wage increases they have seen in the last couple of decades!!

Here is a list of the House members who voted against tax cuts for working Americans and voted for hedge fund managers and tax cheats to continue business as usual, the business that crashed our economy:

http://www.kentucky.com/676/st...