Bill clears Congress, heads off crisis with expiration of Bush, Obama tax cuts, plus new taxes.
Congressional action late Tuesday night ended months of the nation teetering on the edge of the so-called fiscal cliff, a significant tax increase set to begin Jan. 1 with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and temporary tax cuts put through by President Barack Obama, as well as new taxes and automatic spending cuts. Many feared that had Congress failed to address the issue, the tax increases and automatic spending cuts would have pushed the nation once again headlong into recession. Politico reported that the bipartisan solution was approved in a 257-167 vote by the U.S. House. U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-14th District, was one of those voting against the measure. “The lack of spending cuts in this package is indefensible, which is why I…
Letter to the Editor: "It breaks my heart that years of executive mismanagement of the budget ... have led us to such dire choices."
- OPINION
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Saturday, May 26, 2012
Senate Bill 1313 requires state employees, both current and retired, to contribute to their healthcare insurance. Although this mandate seems practically necessary to those who are employed in private industry and to those who are unemployed, among state government workers it is controversial. Many state employees are naturally upset by my vote in favor of SB1313. I cut my own pay, as well as all members of the General Assembly, by 5 percent two years ago and have sponsored legislation toeliminate pensions for senators and representatives before we even considered asking other state employees to contribute to their healthcare insurance benefit. It's cold comfort to those employees affected that politicians are covered under this same law. …
Lou Pierce
1:17 pm on Monday, January 7, 2013
Ken, I hope you're comfortable in your bubble. The line-item veto is an interesting issue, worthy of lengthy debate. However, beware of blindly believing right-wing shibboleths such as describing the various news media as being "mostly left leaning." It doesn't take much investigating to discover that the vast majority of the news media are concentrated in the hands of just a few right wingers or… more ›