I was reading about the bills this Congress has passed benefiting small businesses when I came across this article. It talks about the New York art world and the comeback it's making. Last week a painting sold for 42.6 million dollars at Christies auction house. Christies and Sotheby's grossed more than a quarter billion dollars in two weeks of sales that broke record after record for major art works. U.S. buyers dominated the sale. According to the article, 'collectors need to have at least $50 million in the bank to bid on art of this caliber, And that’s just to get into the game. It’s the rarefied domain of America’s elite mega-rich, who profited handsomely from the financial free-for-all on Wall Street and the generous tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush years in Washington.'
As you read this post you can also refer back to what Mitch McConnell said in a previous post of mine.
"The high-end Bush-era tax cuts are contributing to our financial ruin rather than our economic success," says Margot Dorfman, chief executive of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce. "They should expire as scheduled on December 31. We don’t need more tax cuts at the top; we need more consumer spending at the middle."A number of regional chambers of commerce have also broken away from the national group on the Bush tax cuts. "Letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest is the right thing to do, and the responsible thing to do," Frank Knapp, chief executive officer of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, recently told Forbes magazine.
The Joint Committee on Taxation in Congress said in a recent report that only 3 percent of taxpayers with any business income would benefit from tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. The panel also projected that extending the tax cuts would add $36 billion to the deficit in 2011. As booming art sales in New York clearly show, the recession is over, and has been over, for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans for some time now.
The lame duck Congress also needs to extend jobless benefits for the unemployed, the single biggest and most effective economic stimulus; it needs to repeal the onerous 1099 reporting requirements for small businesses (starting in 2012); and it needs to repeal the 3 percent withholding requirement for contractor payments. It passed in 2005, when the economy was booming, and is set go into effect in January 2012.
The lame duck Congress won’t really begin until after Thanksgiving. That’s when both chambers will start the legislative process. Let’s hope they keep their eyes focused on the economy where the majority of the nation is mired, and not the booming one occupied by the wealthiest 2 percent that write the campaign checks. Then, maybe some of those dollars being spent on expensive art works can be put to more productive use rebuilding the nation.
This is a small business website. THEY know what the Bush tax cuts did to our economy. We all know what those tax cuts did to our economy, so what's the problem? Do the republicans get their wish, tax cut extension for those who do not need it? Come on November 30th, I can't stand the suspense! Will the president stand with the people or won't he? Will Nancy and Harry stand strong and fight the evil GOP, do they have the votes needed to end the tax cuts to the filthy rich? The lies from the GOP are astounding, Americans HAVE spoken and they want these cuts to expire!
