Election 2012

[PP Mguire]

I obviously don't know your personal situation, but the only ways I understand obamacare will affect taxes is if you:
1) plan on having health expenses in 2013
-2.5% deduction of expenses in relation to AGI
2) don't have/get insurance in 2013
greater of $95 or 1% of income over taxable threshold
tax credits available to help pay insurance if income <96K
3) have income >200k, or 250k if filing jointly
0.9% tax on income in excess of 200k/250k
3.8% on lesser of investment income or modified AGI

As to prices rising not really sure where you're going with that. There is a constant ~2.5-3% rate of inflation that will raise prices regardless of economy.
And I'm not sure exactly how people judge the recession objectively; the DOW and NASDAQ are both up to pre-recession levels, unemployment is creeping back toward a reasonable level, the deficit-to-GDP is decreasing and debt is increasing at its normal rate. The only thing I see still in the pits are interest rates, which stinks if your investments are interest based (bonds/money markets/etc...) but is nice if you're buying things that require a loan.

But that is just finances, other things affect every day lives like social strides this country is trying to make toward equal rights for its citizens regardless of race/sex/creed/income/sexual orientation/etc...

I have been unemployed most of this year due being a stay at home dad. What I have worked would normally cover my tax as last year I made roughly the same amount (I made a bit more this year) and came out dead even. I have not had insurance since 2010 when I lost my full time job with benefits. This year coming up I will be taxed for "obama care" on top of the normal tax which normally would cut me even. The only other way I will avoid this is if I get this postal job this month and make enough next month to cover a bit of what I would owe normally. I should mention, my fiance files for our son so she gets a nice income on top of what she normally makes so we can use that to take care of what I owe, but we shouldn't have to. My financial situation has sucked for the past 3 years, and being taxed for something I don't want and never believed in makes it worse.

As for the rest, I'll copy and paste what a friend said.

Fact: Federal Government is going to run out of money before the end of this year.
Fact: Taxes are going up almost 20% on 98% of the population while only reducing spending by 0.25%.
Fact: Even after that goes into effect, the Federal Government will CONTINUE to run a deficit exceeding $500 billion/year (still higher than Bush with the tax cuts and no Iraq war--figure that one out).
Fact: Every economist says there's going to be a double dip recession with those tax hikes in the middle of a deep recession.
Fact: There is no path in Congress for an alternative route. In other words, the above is inevitable.

Oh yeah, and because Republicans aren't going to tolerate raising the debt ceiling AGAIN, either Obama is going to do it illegally using an executive order or the US Federal Government is going to default on its debt the first time ever. That could cause a depression. That event is likely to happen very close to the fiscal cliff taking effect--a double wammy.

Disregarding what I believe is speculation on his part, taxing heavier will cause a loss in income, which will cause a loss of spending, which will further the recession rate as he said.

 

[Yami]

I haven't seen anything that would indicate this so far of this administration. "Tax and spend" along with "borrow and spend" is not long range.

Oh I agree. I just meant that in an ideal world a lot plans would be longer-term than two terms in the oval office.

 

[Roark]

No, they actually count the amount that are on unemployment checks, not just sample a few thousand houses.

How the Government Measures Unemployment

 

[PP Mguire]

How the Government Measures Unemployment

I don't know what it is about that site, but I cannot sit there and read it for more than 2 minutes before my nerves start crawling. Maybe it's the font or something.

 

[Nitestick]

Sure, we get less debt out of it. However, we also have an undeveloped country with nothing interesting happening...

England...an undeveloped country? I'll have some of what you're smoking. Compare yourself with this: Least developed country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You'll actually find the UK on this page: Developed country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regarding Obama care, I can understand the perceived wrongness from some of you guys whose situations will change as a result but I say that had this already been part of your governmental system, no one would be arguing it as an injustice. It's the perspective from the outside heading in that makes the difference. Living in Australia where we've had socialised health care for my entire life time the only complaints I've heard about it are that people can't get enough of it.

Like it or not it's the same situation as every other tax. I don't hear people who don't use the roads complaining that they're taxed for their upkeep, I don't hear the people who don't read books complaining about taxes for libraries and I don't hear dropouts complaining about taxes for education. If you don't like it then you'll need to find a country that doesn't charge any taxes. Taxation would be pointless if people could sensibly determine and distribute their money on what needs to be accomplished; they can't, so taxation serves a very necessary purpose. I think socialised health care is very important for the US moving forwards, especially with the fact it shares our demographic problem of an aging population slowly killing itself with it's indulgences.

 

[PP Mguire]

The problem is as I've said many times before to people who live on the outside, it isn't the same. It boils down to this:
If you don't currently have health insurance, we are going to force you to pay so you do.

Um, I don't have health insurance for a reason. I can't afford it. What makes you think I, and many other Americans can afford this extra tax? Oh wait, because the lower class is never thought about except when they want more tax.

Not only that, but health insurance doesn't cover a lot of things like social care does.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The problem is as I've said many times before to people who live on the outside, it isn't the same. It boils down to this:
If you don't currently have health insurance, we are going to force you to pay so you do.

Um, I don't have health insurance for a reason. I can't afford it. What makes you think I, and many other Americans can afford this extra tax? Oh wait, because the lower class is never thought about except when they want more tax.

Not only that, but health insurance doesn't cover a lot of things like social care does.

Yeah, that part of it never made any sense. People don't have health insurance because they can't afford it so they will solve that by forcing them to buy it anyways.

 

[PP Mguire]

Yeah, that part of it never made any sense. People don't have health insurance because they can't afford it so they will solve that by forcing them to buy it anyways.

Indeed. It's the only part of all this that ****es people off. I don't care about having Obamacare in the least bit except the need to pay out more when I can't afford it to begin with. And the fact that it's the same as having ****ty insurance anyways I don't see the damn point. When you go to the doctor you still have a co-pay to begin with and depending on what you're getting done people can't afford that either.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Yeah, if they really wanted to fix healthcare they should have focused on getting costs down and eliminating waste so we all could actually afford it in the first place.

I was talking to my cousin the other day and he was telling me how he had some tests run and when he got the bill back the cost was absurd so he made them give him an itemized receipt of it all before he would pay a cent. Turns out they had run tons of tests his doctor didn't even order and they ran one test 14 times. His insurance was dumb enough to go ahead and pay it anyways even though they new the lab was pulling a fast one on them.

Crap like that is what is really wrong with our healthcare system.

 

[Trotter]

Yeah, if they really wanted to fix healthcare they should have focused on getting costs down and eliminating waste so we all could actually afford it in the first place.

I was talking to my cousin the other day and he was telling me how he had some tests run and when he got the bill back the cost was absurd so he made them give him an itemized receipt of it all before he would pay a cent. Turns out they had run tons of tests his doctor didn't even order and they ran one test 14 times. His insurance was dumb enough to go ahead and pay it anyways even though they new the lab was pulling a fast one on them.

Crap like that is what is really wrong with our healthcare system.

Exactly. Unless the costs of health care are controlled then ANY health care program is going to be a complete fiasco.