Who’s the Enemy Results of Survey/ Fiscal Cliff

We hear all the time how dysfunctional Congress is and that they don’t represent the American people. That may be true to some degree but there is a counter argument that they are doing exactly what the people in their district want.




Gallop recently did a survey and asked people if they thought Government was too big. Overwhelmingly people said yes.

They then asked what programs should be cut. With the exception of foreign aid, which makes up about 1% of the budget, people responded that social security, Medicaid, the military, and other program should not be cut.



If you were in an elected official your primary job is to get elected. If you vote to eliminate everything but foreign aid there is a good chance you would not get elected. Maybe as Pogo said “we have met the enemy and he is us”

What do you think?



Yesterday I asked the question should the President and Congress be the same party making that party accountable. The overwhelming majority of you said no as it would be the tyranny of the majority. It will be interesting to see what happens in California with the Democrats having a super majority in both the Assembly and the Senate.



I received a number of emails from people asking how the fiscal cliff legislation effects small business. Please see below this great analysis by the National Small Business Association.




Scott Hauge

President

Small Business California

2311 Taraval Street

San Francisco, CA 94116

shauge@cal-insure.com

415-680-2188



Please click here for a detailed outline of what the legislation means for your small business.



http://www.nsba.biz/?p=4852



Take NSBA's Economic Survey

NSBA needs just a few minutes of your time to take our Year-End Economic Survey. Please click here today to take the survey. What the Fiscal Cliff Deal Means

The Senate and House yesterday passed legislation to try and stem the damage from the so-called fiscal cliff, however they missed a key opportunity to forward a meaningful solution to our unsustainable fiscal future. Although supportive of several tax provisions included, NSBA is calling for a long-term solution to address the massive national debt through broad tax and entitlement reform and pragmatic spending cuts.

Despite the failure of Congress to work together on a more responsible, long-term solution, there were a handful of tax provisions included that will impact many small businesses, including:

• A permanent estate tax exemption of $5 million, indexed for inflation, with a maximum rate of 40 percent;

• A permanent fix to the alternative minimum tax increasing the exemption to $78,750 for couples filing jointly, indexed for inflation;

• A temporary extension through 2013 for the increased Section 179 expensing limit of $500,000, the R&E (or R&D credit), 50 percent bonus depreciation, various energy efficiency tax credits and more.

The bill also will permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for families earning less than $450,000, as well as the 15 percent capital gains tax for earners under that threshold.