Fox News is reporting that $787 billion has somehow turned out to be an underestimate of the costs associated with President Obama's stimulus bill:
The $787 billion federal stimulus package that Congress passed last year has gotten even bigger -- now expected to cost $862 billion, over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. ...
About $21 billion of the added costs stem from higher unemployment compensation payments, while the remainder of the increase comes from food assistance payments and interest payments from states on taxable government bonds, the Washington Times reported.
In its report on the country's dire financial straights, the CBO also cites huge budget deficits, noting that the 2010 fiscal year budget is likely to reach $1.3 trillion.
This report also serves as a continued reminder of the legislation's failure to "save or create" three million new jobs:
The nonpartisan CBO report, published Tuesday, attributes the $75 billion increase to added unemployment-related costs. More Americans are receiving unemployment benefits for lost jobs that the stimulus bill was meant to save, the report says.
A new poll out today shows continued erosion of public support for President Obama's signature economic policy:
A majority of Americans oppose the economic stimulus program, according to a new national poll.
Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday say they oppose the stimulus package, with 42 percent supporting it.
Last March, just weeks after the stimulus bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama, a CNN poll indicated that 54 percent of the public supported the program, with 44 percent opposed.
While this isn't the first poll showing more than 50% opposed to the measure, it does represents the largest favorability gap to date: -14%.
In "we'll believe it when we hear it" news, Bloomberg is reporting that there is a "fighting chance" President Obama will propose a freeze on discretionary spending in next week's State of the Union Address:
There is a “fighting chance” President Barack Obama will propose a freeze in most discretionary spending by the federal government in his State of the Union speech next week, Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, said
“The president can say in this State of the Union address, ‘I’m going to include in my budget a freeze on discretionary spending, I’m drawing a line in the sand, and I’m going to use my veto pen to enforce that,’” Bayh said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.
Bayh, 54, said that while he wasn’t certain the president would make such a call, “I think that there’s a fighting chance that he will.”
The senator also said he expects Obama to use the Jan. 27 nationally televised address before Congress to embrace creation of a commission that would suggest spending cuts and tax increases that Congress would be forced to vote on. Bayh met this week with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag to discuss such a commission.
Bayh said he doubts Congress would approve establishment of such an independent panel, and that Obama would have to set it up by executive fiat.
Getting the 60 votes likely needed for Senate passage of a bill to create the commission “will be very hard,” said Bayh, a second-term Democrat who will face voters in this fall’s midterm elections. He said that as a result, he expects Obama to “then come forward with an executive commission which is not as good, but is at least there’s a step in the right direction.”
Following Scott Brown’s amazing victory in Massachusetts on Tuesday, pundits have broadened their focus to the few dozen other Senate races taking place across the country in 2010, including here in New Hampshire.
As GOP Chairman Former Governor John Sununu said yesterday, our primary process is going to be key in selecting the best candidates to represent the party in November’s contests as we work to continue spreading the fiscal conservative message that was so effective in the Bay State.
STEWARD knows that Granite State voters are experts at asking tough questions of the men and women who seek their votes and this is why we have organized the first question and answer forum with each of the declared Republican Senate Candidates. The forum will be take place at our Grassroots Communications Conference on January 30 and will be moderated by Governor Sununu himself.
We understand that not everyone will be able to attend the conference but wanted to give all STEWARD members an opportunity to ask questions of the candidates.
As you know, today is Election Day in Massachusetts. While Granite Staters don't have a vote in this race, we certainly do have a stake.
As such, STEWARD encourages you to contact any and all family, friends, and colleagues you may have south of the border and urge them to get to the polls in support of Scott Brown.
In State, the NH GOP and others have come together to assist those who want to aid in the effort. Anyone with some free time today should contact BJ Perry for details (bj@nhgop.org) Also, the State Party is encouraging anyone interested to join them at a Victory Party tonight at The Draft in Concord starting at 7pm.
Scott has run a great race and could use your help to put him over the top!
Registration for STEWARD's free "Grassroots Communication in the 21st Century" conference is set to close today - Friday, January 15. If you haven't already let us know you'll attend, please click here to register now.
As you may have heard, we've arranged for a series of high-profile presenters - including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich - to share new media expertise at our day-long January 30 conference in Manchester. We promise: "Grassroots Communication in the 21st Century" will be the pre-eminent New Hampshire organizing event of 2010.
Speaker Gingrich, a conservative who needs no introduction, will be joined by presenters Andrew Breitbart (publisher of the news portals Breitbart.com and Breitbart.tv) and Stephen Gillett (a Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer and General Manager of Digital Ventures at Starbucks).
STEWARD has also arranged to host the very first GOP Senate candidates' forum of the 2010 election cycle. Governor John H. Sununu, the Republican Party Chairman, will facilitate questions for a panel featuring Kelly Ayotte, Bill Binnie, Jim Bender and Ovide Lamontagne.
Space for this free conference is limited. Because we're now in the process of making final arrangements, we're closing registration tonight, Friday, January 15.
We look forward to seeing you in Manchester on January 30!
EVENT INFORMATION
WHAT: NH Steward's "Grassroots Communication in the 21st Century" conference
WHEN: Saturday, January 30, 2010 - daylong event kicks-off at 8:30 a.m.
David Health, of the Nashua Chamber of Commerce which has been pushing back hard against the new LLC tax, has an informative write up detailing the tax's impact on small business in today's Union Leader:
Until recently, I have been confident in recommending New Hampshire as the lowest-tax state for small businesses because these businesses pay only the business enterprise tax (BET) at 0.75 percent on compensation paid to owners and employees, and the owners pay no personal income tax. Compare this result to Massachusetts, where the unincorporated business pays no business tax, but the owner pays 5.3 percent personal income tax on his compensation income. New Hampshire wins!
In recent years, however, this winning status has been eroded by increasingly frequent DRA audits challenging deductions of "reasonable compensation." In these audits, DRA asserts that small business owner compensation is actually "profit" subject to the 8.5 percent business profits tax (BPT). When DRA audits convert "compensation" into "profit," the small business owner's aggregate tax burden dramatically increases from the .75 percent BET rate to the 8.5 percent BPT rate.
Add the 2009 tax law and small businesses face a "tax double whammy" that will kill small business growth. Prior to the 2009 tax law, when DRA audits of partnerships and LLCs converted deductible "compensation" into taxable "profit," the tax rate increased from .75 percent to 8.5 percent. But now, the amount recharacterized as "profit" will also be treated as a "dividend" subject to the 5 percent income and dividends tax. Taxing the audited "profit" at the 8.5 percent BPT rate and again as a "dividend" at the 5 percent income and dividends tax rate means a combined tax rate of 13.5 percent.
So, after the 2009 tax law, tax advisers can no longer recommend New Hampshire as a good tax home for small business because the new law imposes burdensome record-keeping and an unprecedented "debt tax." Moreover, due to vague standards and increasingly frequent DRA audits of "reasonable compensation," no one can provide precise guidance on the "combined" New Hampshire tax rate on small business income. One can only say that the combined rate would be somewhere between .75 percent (the BET rate) and 13.5 percent (the combined tax on compensation converted to "profit"). Rightfully, entrepreneurs must reject such uncertainty.
Thankfully, it is starting to appear as though elected officials in Concord are picking up on the outrage:
In passing a law expanding the state's interest and dividends tax to all partnerships and limited liability companies, mistakes were made, Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan, D-Exeter, told the Exeter Rotary Club on Monday. Because mistakes were made, changes might be necessary, she hinted.
"Our biggest mistake is not communicating what we did. We had a July 1 deadline, we had $11 million bearing down on us," Seacoastonline.com reported her saying. "If we need to change it, we can."
That is the first hint we have seen from Democratic leadership in Concord that this burdensome tax could be revisited. That's a good sign.
