Late 2012 Tax Returns if no 'Fiscal Cliff' Resolution is made by Dec. 31

How bad do you need your 2012 tax returns next year? Well, if you can't file them until late March 2013, then you stand a good chance that you will not get your return until late spring or summer. Is that crazy or what! The fact is that this is absolutely the case if a fiscal cliff deal does not take place by December 31, 2012. The IRS would be severely limited on their activities and the refund program will suffer in result of no tax decision by the end of the year. Also, income exemption levels under the "wealth tax" - as the AMT is known -- were never adjusted for inflation since it was enacted decades ago. So Congress has regularly passed an AMT "patch" to correct for that by raising the exemption levels.  The tax season begins in two weeks. Even though inflation has gone up in 2012, exemption levels will not rise if the fiscal cliff issue is not resolved within two weeks, which means guaranteed more taxes for everyone.
Enough is enough. Keep it up Congress, as you are doing a great job in failing the American people. If year end goes by without tax cuts put into play, then the next thing to look for is going from a 'AA+' rating to 'AA'. This would be catastrophic to everyone."If the negotiations on the fiscal cliff and raising the debt ceiling extend into 2013 and appear likely to be prolonged with adverse implications for the economy and financial stability, the U.S. sovereign rating could be subject to review, potentially leading to a negative rating action," Fitch ratings agency said in a bi-annual report. Standard & Poor's cut its U.S. rating to AA+ in 2011, citing political brinkmanship that was preventing agreement on raising the debt ceiling -- without which the government can't pay its bills -- and a longer term plan to reduce borrowing. It warned earlier this year that a further downgrade was possible in the absence of a debt deal.
Congress continues in its lack of creating bills that would benefit everyone, but this latest failure would mean a disastrous end to the 2012 year. As everyone knows, the good and bad have shown themselves. President Obama was re-elected as President, and a city in Connecticut known as Newtown is the latest victim of a gun-slinger that killed 20 children at an elementary school. It sure would be great if Congress would just get something done to avert the tax issues and the remnants of failing to get it done by years end. Unfortunately, we the American people seem to be at our lawmakers mercy.

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Stories becoming 'Over-kill' about Newtown

Opinion of the Editor 'James' Obama in the White House Blog

Enough is enough! I've read so many stories now about the killings in Newtown, that I'm just about sick of hearing the same story over and over again, each time getting a little more information and details that continuously surface about the killer and about the school tragedy. How long must the TV stations keep broadcasting about the violence that strangled Newtown, Connecticut?  Yes, the story is very important, and continuously repeats the call for more gun control, and the debates regarding this subject are already stirring and have been revisited time and time again, without anything of any substance getting done. But what are the effects of such a story amongst the people who watch them? For me, and for most people across the country, it is nothing short of a devastating story, one that shakes your bones, knowing that 20 children perished in the shooting, ages 6 and 7, all merely first graders in a school that may never open again. All of the children will be attending other schools for an undetermined amount of time.
That's not the issue here. What is my issue with the stories are what effect does continuing to hear such a story have on the crazy people who perpetrate the crimes using gun violence? It makes them feel more powerful and more important in their own sick mind.  Just glancing over the national news will give you the answer. A man in the state of Indiana was arrested after trying to repeat the tragedy that occurred Friday in Newtown, Connecticut.  As the crazy man said, "kill as many people as he could at an elementary school." Upon searching his home, the police found 47 guns and ammunition throughout his residence. The value of his gun collection is well over $100,000. A man in his 60's, he was arrested with tons of charges and the man seems to be totally insane. He's all over the national news, and probably loving every minute of it. People now know his name, which I will not mention here.
In another instance, a man threatened to set his wife on fire after she fell asleep, then he also threatens to go to a nearby elementary school named 'Jane Ball Elementary' and open fire. The school is only 1000 feet from his home. He wasn't arrested until last Friday? why? Because they needed a warrant.  As a member of the 'Invaders Motor Cycle Gang', he resisted arrest even though a swat team came to his home, obviously another crazy man.
So truly copy-cat terminology and over-saturation of stories such as these are doing more harm than good. How many times throughout your day do you have to be reminded about the shootings of 6 and 7 year old children? Yes, stories like these spark your interest, but parents with children only have to be reminded only once that a situation of a shooting like the one in Newtown occurred  and they will take measures that they deem necessary to protect their own children. You don't need much news coverage for parents to find out that something such as this happened in the country. If you don't want to propagate more mass murders, says Dr. Park Dias, a psychiatrist warns that you don't have to blare out the story continually throughout the day. You should never show photographs of the killer, as there are other mediums to find this out. Why does there have to be 24/7 coverage on such a story. Why must you make the 'total body count' the lead story of the day. Why continuously say it is the 2nd worst school shooting in U.S. history? A copy-cat killer would want to make his kill the number 1 worst school shooting in U.S. history. Any crazy man that wanted to make the history books for his name to forever be known will perpetrate such a crime.  Stories that surfaced throughout the last week of other crazy people such as the one with a crazy man with 47 guns in his possession definitely has allot more fire power to kill more than 20 people.
The fact is that I'm proud to live in a free country, but is the country too free? Why does it have to take a tragedy such as this at an elementary school in a small town that many people never heard off, but now makes the national news and will forever be linked to the elementary school tragedy? Why does the topic of gun control have to be continuously revisited each time a tragedy like this occurs and then nothing gets done. There will now be continued stories about gun control, but Congress now must focus on the major issue facing them and that's the 'fiscal cliff' issue. Congress had to delay their holiday vacations because they need to get the fiscal cliff issue resolved before the end of the year, now just two weeks away. Congress IS the biggest procrastinating body of people I've ever seen. Obviously nothing will be done on gun control until the new Congress convenes after the first of the year, and just how many more stories will surface on shootings before then? As you can see, this story is full of questions, and every one of them is legitimate and needs to be answered.
President Obama works continuously trying to get bills passed, as he has been doing in an attempt to avoid the fiscal cliff, but Congress continues to buck the issues as they have for the last 2 plus years now. Yes, this Congress surely made the history books of being the #1 'do-nothing' Congress of all time. I hope the Senators in Congress are proud of themselves. I surely don't expect anything different when the new Congress convenes in January and that will not help the issues surrounding the elementary school shooting.

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President Obama - Official Vote by the Electoral College

Today marked the official vote by the electoral college where official ballots are cast from congressional districts in every state. The electors cast their votes for the candidate who received the majority of the votes in their state. Back on November 6, Obama reached the electoral college threshold of 270 votes out of a total of 538 electoral votes. At the end of election night, Obama had 332 electoral votes and Romney had 207, in a winning percentage over Romney of 51% to 47%. The voting always takes place on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, as required by the U.S. Constitution.

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