Grateful Dead

The triple-whammy is about to hit and there is noting you can do about it. *** FICA has gone back up to 7.65% (SS & Meidicare holiday) *** Health care costs have gone up modestly, if you're lucky (Companies are cost-shifting to the less healthy in group plans) *** Debt ceiling fights are likely to significantly delay Fed.tax returns Feeling poorer? You should be... you just lost about %5 of your take home pay and that Fed tax refund looks pretty iffy. Cheer up,you're credit card companies keep that minimum payment nice and low! Obviously I'm being satirical. The middle-class just got screwed!

With the weather cold (-15) and snow (a foot deep) it's time to go somewhere and watch the football playoffs. Go New England! It would be nice to hear the three shows from Furthur too!

One hundred fifty-one Republicans joined 16 Democrats to vote against the deal, while 172 Democrats carried the vote along with 85 Republicans. Obama is expected to sign the deal asap. This bill allows tax rates to remain the same for 97-98% of Americans and the rich will get taxed more, but hardly enough to run away to Switzerland, Luxembourg or the Bahamas. What didn't get voted on is the sequester: all those bread and guns issues due to be voted on as the real "cliff". In essence, Congress, in it's usual fashion, kicked that can down the road two more months. Cantor will now kick Boehner's butt down the hill and reign as the new House Speaker. The House was not due to vote on this till the opening of business on 1/3/13 tomorrow. As stock markets are rallying hugely all over the globe it is safe to say that Congress did a lot of insider trading on this one. The average American investor, whether it be pensions, 401ks or investments, are likely to get pulled into the optimistic outlook. That would be a mistake. There is a financial bloodbath coming on the debt ceiling. When that dust clears with a bloody correction of as much as 15%, it may be time to make a move. I guess the thing we could always count on with this Congress was to vote in it's own favor and be counted on to say the hell with the rest of us.

By a vote of 89-8 the Senate overwhelmingly voted for a version of the Fiscal Cliff. The House stands in adjournment till Thursday when it will reconvene to take up the bill. They are not expected to amend it. In any case the bill kicks the sequester down the street another two months until the debt ceiling forces even harder choices down the the throats of already wretching republicans. The recap: *** Income earners above 400k single or 450k combined will pay pre-Bush era tax rates *** All Americans will pay 2% more on the SS and Medicare taxes on each check (the so-called tax holiday) *** 97% of Americans will stay in the same tax brackets *** Capital gains and dividend tax rates will go from 15 to 20%, hardly earth-shattering. Assuming the Republicans in the House vote for this (along with the far-left Demo. reps. like Peter Welch of VT) vote to pass this gutless wonder they still have multiple skirmishes on the sequester coming for the next two months. This is likely to cause the stock markets to roil. The real questions remaining is how much defense will be cut as opposed to how much entitlements and discretionary spending. As More Democratic Senators and representatives flowed in on Obama's coat-tails we can look forward to more wins (the social safety net) as opposed to losses (wasteful defense weapon programs and other outright shocking waste.) My editorial comment is that Obama ran on the class war and any going backward is unacceptable. White collar criminals such as those at AIG and Goldman and plenty of others should rot the rest of their lives in medium security federal pens. And that is just the start. It's time to turn this country upside down and watch the cash flow from the lined pockets of the rich. Er, excuse me, "job creators.". Any backsliding will rob Obama of his legacy and that is as it should be.

I don't think a deal is possible today, especially with these two. Some ugly comments: It's not about what is healthy for the country; It is about what is healthy for the politicians. They wait for the intense spotlight to pass them by Then they make their deals in the dark. Some predictions: The country's credit rating will be decreased; Between now and March a deal will be cut -- Obama won the election and will get more than half of what he wants. Entitlements will take it on the chin, Defense not so much The stock market will correct between 10-20% -- Hang on for the ride! If you have no skin in the game, it doesn't matter. But more than 50% of us do.

Nothing happened today on the Fiscal Cliff. "What? Us responsible?" Seems to be the attitude of Mitch McConnell and Jim Boehner. Obama seems to be the Cheshire Cat here, according to the polls. Americans are seeing just how nasty and hateful the rich are in confronting the middle-class's attitude in let-and-let-live. This is coming down to the last day in which both sides will kick that can as far as they can while protecting all those making less than 400k. Then the devil comes in the details till the debt ceiling deal is done, probably in March. Some details if we go over the cliff: On a salary of 30k the tax forgiveness of 2% goes away of SS and Medicare. An additional $28 in taxes will be deducted per week. That is the harshest impact, percentage wise. It will be less the more you make, proportion wise. It's those other things that government provides that people are going to start screaming about. I'm glad I've already protected my hard-earned dollars.

They're all at the White House right now, Obama and the House & Senate Wrecking crew and they are shredding. I'm watching the markets sell off dramatically for the first time since it took a post-election dip based on those Republican-drubbing blues. Obama has stiffened his backbone and refused to blink -- good for him! It is heartening to note that the President's core constituency, the AARP and those who are going to lose biggest with the loss of the safety net (the weak & infirm) as well as the liberals and the radicals, have put tremendous pressure on the President to toe the line on entitlements. Let's face it, you can't run an election on a class war, win it, and then throw it back in the closet like toys in the attic. The middle-class and the working class are basically supporting in sympathy the Obama plan. As well, they know that if they are regular Americans with combined incomes of less than 250k a year and need the mortgage tax breaks and kid tax breaks they are voting/supporting in their own best interests. People haven't forgotten the images of Romney and his blunder after blunder of the rich man talking down to the poor. It was nauseating and not easily forgotten. People are extremely angry at the rich. Nobody has forgotten that it was the same set of investment bankers who sunk the entire planet with junk mortgage bonds and then hedged their own bets. Not one of them was held accountable. That led to the massive stimulus spending and running the treasury presses so hot the bearings burn out on a regular basis. Pain is coming in the form of triple-digit inflation (probably 100% a year for three years starting in 2014) followed by massive interest rate hikes to tame it. Can anybody doubt or deny it? Well, when you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose. But the 20% of additional mortgage-holders who are sure to go upside down on their home worth and start walking away in droves again? Those people should be highly pissed-off and considering unorthodox ways to put pressure on the next republican president who gets elected in 2016. It will be a Republican. Republicans like Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman-Sachs, are wholly to blame for this shameless mess. Taking your boss's parking space is the the least of it... Who is to blame? The rich,the Republicans, the military contractors,the insurance companies, the medical contractors, the hospitals, the "health care" corporations, the medical code billers, the investment banks. Nationalize them all. Seize their assets. We are the judge jury and prosecutioner and they are Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!

I've always wanted to... Maybe Rosarita Beach? Anybody got any ideas where the hippies hang out? I'm thinking like Rosarita Beach but wonder what is safe these days.

have a great time!

Tiempo de vacacion?? Vamos al Mexico la proxima semana! Voy a pescar cerca de La Isla de Mujeres con Antonio y mis hijos. >>> Keep me posted on how that fiscal cliff business goes. Too bad Boehner, McConnell and Reid can't git 'er done, so far.