MORE TAXES, MORE DEBT: TAXES GO UP ON RICH NOW, CUT SPENDING LATER. USD FREEFALLING! ANOTHER US DEBT DOWNGRADE IMMINENT?

December 18th, 2012

Speaker John Boehner told House Republicans on Tuesday he will move to a “Plan B” on the fiscal cliff by having the House vote on legislation to extend tax rates on annual income under $1 million.

The bill would allow tax rates on annual income above $1 million to rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent.

Boehner announced the plan in a closed-door conference meeting after a flurry of negotiations with President Obama that showed the two sides were moving closer to a deal. Yet differences remain over spending cuts, entitlement reforms, new spending measures demanded by Obama and the president’s request for a hike to the debt limit.

Boehner, who informed the president of his plans for a Plan B in a telephone call Monday night, is not cutting off talks with Obama and told members his Plan B is less than ideal. Republican aides stressed that the talks will continue, but lawmakers said the bill could come to a vote as early as Thursday.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/273421-boehner-moves-to-plan-b

BOEHNER ADOPTS PELOSI PLAN

WASHINGTON — Speaker of the House John Boehner’s “Plan B” to avert the fiscal cliff would cut taxes for incomes under $1 million — a higher threshold than the White House demands, but one that had a powerful backer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/pelosi-backed-boehners-tax-cut-proposal

Debt has increased $18,944 per household

(CNSNews.com) – Under the leadership of House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio), the 112^thHouse of Representatives has thus far approved legislation that has increased the debt of the federal government by $2,176,949,774,695.46—or approximately $18,944 for per American household.

The 112^th House of Representatives has achieved this in a little more than 20 months time—and it may not be done yet enacting laws to approve new federal borrowing and spending.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/boehner-s-house-has-increased-debt-18944-household

2011: U.S. Loses AAA Credit Rating as S&P Slams Debt Levels, Political Process

Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S.’s AAA credit rating for the first time, slamming the nation’s political process and criticizing lawmakers for failing to cut spending or raise revenue enough to reduce record budget deficits.

S&P lowered the U.S. one level to AA+ while keeping the outlook at “negative” as it becomes less confident Congress will end Bush-era tax cuts or tackle entitlements. The rating may be cut to AA within two years if spending reductions are lower than agreed to, interest rates rise or “new fiscal pressures” result in higher general government debt, the New York-based firm said yesterday.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-06/u-s-credit-rating-cut-by-s-p-for-first-time-on-deficit-reduction-accord.html

The U.S. Credit Rating Might Get Downgraded Again, But Does Anyone Care?

One ratings agency is threatening to downgrade the U.S. if we go over the fiscal cliff. But the markets are unlikely to care one way or the other.

Once again President Obama and the congressional Republicans are in a showdown over the debt: the GOP wants to preserve low tax rates and enact large spending cuts, while the president wants less severe cuts and higher tax revenues from high earners. And just like last year’s tussle over the debt ceiling, ratings agencies like Fitch, Standard & Poor’s, and Moody’s are threatening to ding America’s sovereign credit rating if a long-term deficit deal isn’t reached. The only problem is that it’s unclear who, if anyone, cares about what the major ratings agencies have to say.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/14/the-u-s-credit-rating-might-get-downgraded-again-but-does-anyone-care.html

Top Credit Agencies All Warn of Imminent US Debt Downgrade

Amidst all the coverage of the efforts by the USA’s top leaders to avoid going over the so-called “fiscal cliff” if a US federal budget deal is not completed by the end of this year, one extremely important aspect of this negotiation is almost never discussed in the media. It was covered by the Washington Times (see link). The politicians are not negotiating in a political vacuum. There are huge background financial/monetary considerations which the establishment media does not seem to want to discuss in its coverage.

The article reports that all three of the USA’s top credit-rating agencies, Standard and Poors, Moody’s and Fitch, have all warned the USA’s politicians that unless a serious deal is reached between President Obama, the Democratic Senate and the GOP House of Representatives, all three agencies may downgrade US Treasury debt instruments. Their definition of a “serious deal” is one with a total of “$4 trillion or more in savings to stabilize the debt.” I am unaware of any potential deal among the seemingly-clueless politicians that reaches that level of savings. As the article notes, failure to reach this large a deal is likely to “add to the turmoil in financial markets at the end of the year by further downgrading of the credit ratings.”

http://stevenmcollins.com/WordPress/?p=5915

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/14/credit-ratings-agencies-warn-against-political-pos/

USD FREEFALLING

http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=DX&p=m5