We need an emergency jobs program now !

            We need an emergency jobs program now.

Unemployment and underemployment remain at crisis levels. We need jobs—and we need them now.  Wall Street has gotten its bailouts. Now it’s past time for Main Street to get some immediate help.

Counties, states and cities  are again cutting services; police, fire, health care.  And the state has cut k-12 education and higher education and now will cut more if Republicans continue to block  tax extension on the rich.  These cuts are a direct result of the looting of the economy by finance capital  in the economic crisis.

            At the same time,  GE, Bank of America, Exxon, etc. manages to evade taxes while off-shoring jobs.   In a struggling economy, these companies obtain tax refunds, while bringing in billions (GE earned 14.2 billion and received a tax benefit of 3.2 billion).  Offshore tax havens, tax loopholes and tax breaks (tax expenditures), allow these corporations to rake in billions while you and I   struggle to pay our  taxes. 

            And the shell game goes on –

Taxes have been progressively lowered on the upper 1%, starting with Reagan and continuing to the point where Warren Buffett famously observed that he paid taxes at a lower rate than his secretary.  The justification for these cuts, entirely unsupported by  evidence, is that jobs are created.  In this upward distribution of wealth, 1% of the population tripled their share of after-tax percentage of our nation’s total income from 1980 to 2006, and captured 75% of the economy’s growth between 2002 and 2006 (Buchheit, DePaul University). Meanwhile, the bottom 90% saw their share drop 90%.

            It is past time to tax the corporations and the rich.  We should collect fair taxes and pay for vital services first; fire, police, schools, health care, etc. 

Although the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009, the US economy has failed to provide the jobs needed for long term, sustained growth. The  tax subsidies, budget cut mania costs jobs and makes the recession worse.  At the current rate of job creation most economists believe we would not recover the 8 million jobs lost until 2016. To generate the growth required to employ both the unemployed and underemployed, we need a serious commitment to job creation such as that embedded in HR 870- -the jobs bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D- MI).

             We need to  rebuild America’s schools, roads and energy systems. America still has at least $2.2 trillion in unmet infrastructure needs. This requires tax sources.  The rich and the bankers are the appropriate sources. We should put people to work to fix our nation’s broken-down school buildings and invest in transportation, green technology, energy efficiency and more.

      We need to increase aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services. State and local governments and school districts have a $178 billion budget shortfall this year alone—while the continuing  recession creates a greater need for their services. States and communities must get help to maintain critical front-line services, prevent massive job cuts and avoid deep damage to education just when our children need it most.

"Taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society." 
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, former US Supreme Court Justice


California has long relied on mostly short-term solutions to our budget problems, which has done us no long-term favors. The health of California's public schools depends on stable tax revenues. It is time to demand action to restore fairness to the system and make sure everyone is paying their fair share.

The bottom 20% of wage earners in California pay 11% of their income in taxes, while the top 1% of wage earners only pays 7.8%. Corporate income grew over 400% from 2001-2008 compared to 28% for personal income. And additional tax loopholes were provided to big corporations in the 2008 and 2009 budgets, worth $2 billion annually.

The cost of funding state services has shifted from corporate to personal income tax payers. When Proposition 13 was passed, responsibility for funding public schools shifted from the taxpayer to the state.  Now the state is in financial crisis and cannot foot the bill. We must reevaluate how we are funding our government and make it fair and equitable. The fact of the matter is California is a moderate tax state, ranking 15th in taxes and fees compared to other states, even though we have the 8th largest economy in the world.

Investing in public education (dollar for dollar) grows the economy more than tax cuts and corporate subsidies. Dishearteningly in 2009, California ranked 43rd in per-pupil spending. And given the drastic funding cuts of the past 3 years, we’re not moving in the right direction. Our goal is simply to have the adequate amount of per-pupil funding needed to provide all students the opportunity for a quality public education.

See the AFL-CIO jobs agenda.  http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/jobsagenda.cfm
and report on corporate profits at  http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/05/05/corporate-profits-soar-81-percent-but-few-jobs-created/

U.S. corporations avoid taxes - while you and I pay

We are not broke, but Corporate Tax Subsidies are Killing Us!

Dr. Duane E. Campbell and Dr. Bill Barclay.

“We’re broke,” said John Boehner, Republican speaker of the House in arguing for $100 billion in cuts in the federal budget, cuts that impact students, poor and the elderly.

 This argument is false.

 The US is not broke – and neither is California.

We suffer from two problems: a huge concentration of income at the very top of the income distribution and a tax system that fails to tax  that concentration.  Our tax system asks those with less to pay more and those with more to pay less. 

Who Doesn’t Pay their Fair Share?

Concern about budgets and taxes should begin with a focus on who doesn’t pay their fair share of taxes. The most recent IRS Oversight Board Report found that $290 billion in individual and corporate income taxes goes uncollected because of misreporting.  Almost 2/3 of the misreporting by individuals occurs among the top 10% of households by income.  So, you might think that John Boehner would be concerned about collecting  these taxes.  You would be wrong:  instead Mr. Boehner proposes cutting $285 million from the IRS budget.

Even more illuminating is the comparison of who pays and who doesn’t with 1961, the year in which President Obama was born.

In 1961 there were 15,753 households who reported income of more than one 1 million in 2011 dollars – and their average federal income tax rate was 43.1%.  Today there are 361,000 households with income over $1 million – almost a 20-fold increase.  At what rate do these pay?  23.1%.  If these very few extremely rich households paid at the 1961 rate, we would have an additional $231 billion in revenue – for roads, scholarships, health care and other public needs. 

Who else doesn’t pay their fair share?  At the head of the list would be companies such as General Electric, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. 

• During the past five years, General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States – and received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS. 
• In 2008, Goldman Sachs made a profit of $2.3 billion – and paid only 1.1 percent of its income in taxes.
• Bank of America made $4.4 billion in profits last year – and received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS. 

Both Goldman Sachs and Bank of America were saved by average taxpayer, you and me, in the bail out engineered by the Bush administration. Goldman Sachs received $10 billion, and Bank of America tapped us for over $25 billion.  

The list of corporate tax evaders is much longer than these three but these cases illustrate the larger problem with our existing tax system at both the federal and state levels.  Over the past 5 decades, corporations have shifted taxes from themselves to everyone else.  If US corporations, who reported pre-tax profits in 2010 of $1.24 trillion, paid taxes at the same rate as they did in 1961, there would be an additional $485 billion in federal tax revenue.

And, who doesn’t pay their fair share in California ?

Well, Amazon for one.  We should  enforce the current California law taxing the sales of goods by out of state companies (such as Amazon)  over the internet.

The companies that take our oil from the ground.  California is the only oil producing state in the country that imposes no taxes on the pumping of oil. The proposed tax was to be 6% of the sales price of oil.  Alaska and Louisiana both charge 12.5%.   

The corporations who received a middle of the night tax cut to in  2009 and 2008 tax cuts to gain the extra Republican votes for the budget. 

The high income people who received a tax bonanza in the extension of the Bush Era tax cuts in  the December federal   budget deal, including the reduction of taxes to the wealthiest taxpayers.  State tax rates  should be increased so that these persons making over $250,000 each pay their fair share.

The corporations using a loophole in Proposition 13 to not accurately record the value of their commercial property.

These are just a few of the many  available tax entitlements given to the wealthy and corporations in the state tax codes.

Where Else Should We Tax?

Taxes should also be used to discourage economically wasteful and/or socially harmful activity.  Thus we tax tobacco and alcohol consumption.  One additional tax fits this category and would raise a very large amount of revenue: a financial transaction tax (FTT) or a sales tax on finances.   An FTT would levy a small fee on all trading of stocks, bonds and currencies as well as derivatives of these financial assets.  If the tax were set at $1 on every $400 (0.25%) of the amount traded, it would raise over $500 billion annually.  And the vast majority of this tax would be paid by the hedge funds, banks and other financial entities that caused the financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent Great Recession.

Are we broke?  No.  All we lack is the political will on the part of Congress and the Legislature to solve our deficit problem by taxing those who have wealth  rather than sacrificing the well being of those who have not.  That may be a kind of deficit but it is political, not financial. 

Dr. Duane E. Campbell and Dr. Bill Barclay.

Duane Campbell is a Professor (emeritus) of Bilingual/Multicultural Education at CSU-Sacramento and the Chair of  the Sacramento local of Democratic Socialists of America.

Prior to retiring in 2004, Dr. Barclay worked for 22 years in financial services.  His areas of expertise were financial product creation, including development of derivative products, and business strategy planning.

Currently he is an Adjunct Professor in the Liautaud College of Business Administration at the University of Illinois, Chicago

Save Our Schools March

by Lisa Schiff
 

Exon Mobil, $156 million. Bank of America, $1.9 billion. General Electric, $4.1 billion. Chevron, $19 million. These highly profitable companies, and many others like them, received these extraordinarily large amounts of money back as tax refunds. Yes that’s right, Republican lawmakers at the state and federal levels are trying to convince the American public that we need to decimate critical services like Medicare and public education so that we can hand over our money to these companies.

In the most intense ideological battle since Newt Gingrich was in office, Republicans at state and federal levels are holding fast to plans to extend tax breaks and implement drastic cuts to a variety of social services, including education. In California, the health care community, K-12 public schools and public institutions of higher education are steeling themselves for unknown levels of losses.

But for public school supporters the challenge is doubly difficult. Not only do we need to fight more forcefully than ever for the minimal, insufficient funding that schools currently receive, we must also fight for a totally revamped approach to education. Education activists across the nation have made the painful realization that President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are no friends to the project of providing a quality education to all children. If anything, the programs and proposals of this administration have set schools back even further than under the Bush regime. Certainly they have only reinforced the approaches established by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and their destructiveness has been extended through the outrageous Race To The Top (RTTT) competition, that attempts to pass for policy.

We have no choice but to face facts--public education is under attack from all sectors of elected leadership, regardless of party. There is no one now to turn to other than ourselves, which may in fact be the best position to be in.

Asking to be invited to the conversation about improving our schools for all kids has only resulted in a controlled pacification of parents, a grinding down of educators, and more sophisticated means of covering up where are schools are failing our students.

Parents and educators across the country now understand that asking for permission is just not getting us where we need to go. With that new understanding has come new types of action, including a tremendous effort this summer for the Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action in Washington D.C. July 28-July 31, 2011.

The Save Our Schools March has endorsers that include parents and educator from across the country who have been deeply involved in challenging test-driven, corporatization of our schools and who are committed to seeing rigorous, engaging, well-rounded, education provided to all children. The guiding principles of the event capture the goals and dreams so many of us have been arguing for these past years:

“For the future of our children, we demand:

Equitable funding for all public school communities

• Equitable funding across all public schools and school systems

• Full public funding of family and community support services

• Full funding for 21st century school and neighborhood libraries

• End to economically and racially re-segregated schools

End high stakes testing used for the purpose of student, teacher, and school evaluation

• Use multiple and varied assessments to evaluate students, teachers, and schools

• End pay per test performance for teachers and administrators

• End to public school closures based upon test performance

Teacher, family and community leadership in forming public education policies

• Educator and civic community leadership in drafting new ESEA legislation

• Federal support for local school programs free of punitive and competitive funding

• End political and corporate control of curriculum, instruction and assessment decisions for teachers and administrators

Curriculum developed for and by local school communities

• Support teacher and student access to a wide-range of instructional programs and technologies

• Well-rounded education that develops every student’s intellectual, creative, and physical potential

• Opportunities for multicultural/multilingual curriculum for all students

• Small class sizes that foster caring, democratic learning communities”

This may be the moment we’ve been working towards, when enough of us, from enough communities throughout the country have reached the same level of frustration, fueled by the knowledge of what is both possible and necessary for the education of our kids. We’re the only ones we can count on to make it happen.

Lisa Schiff is the parent of two children in the San Francisco Unified School District and is a member of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco and the PTA.

reprinted with permission from Beyond the Chron

Many corporations pay limited taxes

Major corporations pay as little as 6%. Boeing - 4.5%; Southwest Airlines 6.3%. What do you pay?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/business/economy/02leonhardt.html

Possible tax vote in California

An important piece from Dan Walters.
Prop.25 may actually help.

Dan Walters: Vote margin on taxes key factor

PUBLISHED WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12, 2011 in Sacramento Bee.

A key factor in Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to balance the state budget is whether he and fellow Democrats could do it by themselves, or whether the votes of at least a few Republican legislators would be required.

Politicians and stakeholders are consulting attorneys, but at the moment, no one appears to know for certain – in part because the sections of the state constitution involved have never been legally tested.

….Republicans who voted for the temporary taxes two years ago were hammered by anti-tax groups and radio talkers. So far, GOP leaders have shunned an election to extend them.

If that holds, Brown and his chief legislative partner, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, leave open the possibility of moving ahead without a supermajority vote.

"We'll look at every and any way we have at our disposal to save California," Steinberg says.

There are two potential pathways for placing taxes on the ballot in June with a simple majority legislative vote and Brown's signature.

One would be a section of the state constitution that allows the Legislature to propose amendments to previously approved statutory initiatives. In theory, therefore, the additional taxes could be framed as amendments to a previous tax measure, such as Steinberg's own Proposition 63, which imposed an income tax surcharge on the rich for mental health programs.

Under this theory, the amendment would be passed in the Legislature's special session on the budget and after a 90-day wait would be placed on a special election ballot.

The second potential pathway would be Proposition 25, enacted by voters last November. It reduces the legislative vote on budgets from two-thirds to a simple majority and also applies the lower vote margin to measures needed to implement the budget, called trailer bills in Capitol jargon.

While the constitution requires a two-thirds vote to enact new taxes directly, would Proposition 25 allow taxes to be placed before voters with a simple majority vote as a budget implementation measure?

Lawyers inside and outside of government are hurriedly seeking an answer. And since the legal picture is cloudy, were Democrats to move on their own, court battles would surely follow.

edited for space. Read the entire piece at the Sac Bee.  here.http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/12/3317494/dan-walters-vote-margin-on-taxes.html

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Create 6 million jobs!

How to Create 6 Million Jobs and Save 3.4 Million Homeowners with a Payroll Tax Increase:  see the Talking Union post to the left.

Obama's position on tax deal

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. Before I answer a few questions, I just wanted to say a few words about the agreement we've reached on tax cuts.

My number one priority is to do what's right for the American people, for jobs, and for economic growth. I'm focused on making sure that tens of millions of hardworking Americans are not seeing their paychecks shrink on January 1st just because the folks here in Washington are busy trying to score political points.

And because of this agreement, middle-class Americans won't see their taxes go up on January 1st, which is what I promised -- a promise I made during the campaign, a promise I made as President.

Because of this agreement, 2 million Americans who lost their jobs and are looking for work will be able to pay their rent and put food on their table. And in exchange for a temporary extension of the high-income tax breaks -- not a permanent but a temporary extension -- a policy that I opposed but that Republicans are unwilling to budge on, this agreement preserves additional tax cuts for the middle class that I fought for and that Republicans opposed two years ago.

I'll cite three of them. Number one, if you are a parent trying to raise your child or pay college tuition, you will continue to see tax breaks next year. Second, if you're a small business looking to invest and grow, you'll have a tax cut next year. Third, as a result of this agreement, we will cut payroll taxes in 2011, which will add about $1,000 to the take-home pay of a typical family.

So this isn't an abstract debate. This is real money for real people that will make a real difference in the lives of the folks who sent us here. It will make a real difference in the pace of job creation and economic growth. In other words, it's a good deal for the American people.

Now, I know there are some who would have preferred a protracted political fight, even if it had meant higher taxes for all Americans, even if it had meant an end to unemployment insurance for those who are desperately looking for work.

And I understand the desire for a fight. I'm sympathetic to that. I'm as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I've been for years. In the long run, we simply can't afford them. And when they expire in two years, I will fight to end them, just as I suspect the Republican Party may fight to end the middle-class tax cuts that I've championed and that they've opposed.

So we're going to keep on having this debate. We're going to keep on having this battle. But in the meantime I'm not here to play games with the American people or the health of our economy. My job is to do whatever I can to get this economy moving. My job is to do whatever I can to spur job creation. My job is to look out for middle-class families who are struggling right now to get by and Americans who are out of work through no fault of their own.

A long political fight that carried over into next year might have been good politics, but it would be a bad deal for the economy and it would be a bad deal for the American people. And my responsibility as President is to do what's right for the American people. That's a responsibility I intend to uphold as long as I am in this office.

So with that, let me take a couple of questions.

Transcript. The complete video is available on CSPAN. I encourage readers to see the entire event.

Taxes and deficits.

The tax extension forced by the Republicans will make the deficit problem worse.  Republicans claim that they want to cut the deficits, but what they have done is increase the deficit to give millionaires a tax cut.

The two deficit commissions have begun a consideration of the growing national debt.  It is important to notice what they have not considered.  The Simpson-Bowles group actually proposed to cut taxes on the corporations while cutting benefits to social security and other programs.

            There are alternatives.  First, the Congress  should restore the Clinton era tax levels on millionaires, the top 2% of the nation.  Republicans have said no and have blocked unemployment benefits to force their way.  It seems that the Obama Administration has given in.  Note.  The Democrats  did not have the votes in the Senate to win.  Losing elections has a cost. 

 The Economic Policy Institute has developed a balanced fair plan that does not tax the middle class while giving tax breaks to the rich.  And they note, as most agree, social security is not in crisis. (http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/investing_in_americas_economy/)

            Another alternative would be to establish a 2% sales tax on stocks, bonds, and securities.  You and I pay 8% sales tax in the county while the “dealers” on Wall Street pay no sales tax.  Such a  tax would quickly reverse our debt problem.  It would tax the very people who created the financial crisis 

Tax day and Tea Parties

Hey. Tea Party advocates. You forgot to notice:

You probably paid more taxes than ExxonMobil this year. Seriously.

That's probably because they spent a lot more money lobbying Congress than you did. In fact, last year, they spent over $27 million in lobbying so they could take home a bigger chunk of the $284 billion they made.¹

And they aren't the only corporation to dodge their tax bill through offshore accounts and shell companies. Far from it.² 

The good news is that President Obama has been trying to close loopholes that allow corporations to get away with this kind of highway robbery.³ 

But there are still too many lobbyists in DC fighting against him. That's why we're launching this petition to show how fed up we are with lobbyists rigging the system and demand that they take action before next Tax Day.

See the petition at Moveon.org

Why is Bank of America not paying taxes in California?

Why is Bank of America Not Paying Any Taxes on $4.4 Billion in Income? By Sara Flocks
 California Labor Federation

Around this time every year, Californians scramble to finish doing their taxes and pay what they owe to the government.

But not everyone is paying their fair share. Forbes Magazine recently analyzed the tax returns of the top 25 U.S. companies and found out that they’re not paying much in taxes. In fact, corporations such as Bank of America, General Electric and Citigroup will not be paying ANY taxes this year --- they’re actually getting money back from the government. Forbes explains:

How did Bank of America not pay any taxes on $4.4 billion in income? Because of deductions like $860 million in tax-exempt income, $670 million in low-income housing credits and a $600 million loss on shares of foreign subsidiaries. With a provision for credit losses of $49 billion, Bank of America probably won't be paying taxes for a long time.

After taxpayers bailed out Bank of America to the tune of $45 billion and helped boost their income to $4.4 billion, Bank of America is using every possible tax loophole to get out of paying their fair share.

Bank of America isn’t alone in using tax loopholes, shelters and other shell games to get out of paying taxes. A study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that two out of every three U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005.

In California, state legislators and Governor Schwarzenegger have made it even easier for corporations to use state resources, yet not pay a penny for them. Every year, California gives away $14.5 billion in tax breaks to corporations. Since 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger has signed into law numerous corporate tax breaks, exemptions and credits that will cost the state an estimated $3 billion a year.

Three tax breaks, passed as part of the 2008 and 2009 budget deal, will benefit a very small number of extremely wealthy corporations. According to Jean Ross at the California Budget Project:

Nine corporations will receive tax cuts averaging $33.1 million each in 2013-14 due to the adoption of elective single sales factor apportionment. Eighty percent of the benefits of single sales factor apportionment will go to the 0.1 percent of California corporations with gross incomes over $1 billion.

Under existing law, it is nearly impossible to track how much of California’s budget is lost to corporate tax subsidies, what companies are getting the subsidies, and if those subsidies are creating jobs. Many of these tax expenditures are permanent and never reviewed. Companies are permitted to take taxpayer money and run – relocating jobs in other states or countries.

And guess who has to make up what corporations squirm out of paying? You, me and every other working person out there. When corporations don’t pay their fair share, the burden of funding schools, public safety, parks, libraries and infrastructure like roads and bridges falls on the rest of us.

California is facing a $20 billion budget shortfall. The state has cut every vital social service to the bone, and we’re facing more cuts to our schools, police, firefighters, medical clinics, roads and other services we depend on every day. Even though we are paying our fair share in taxes, middle class families are getting less in return and are bearing the brunt of the state’s drastic budget cuts.

$14.5 billion a year could go pretty far in filling the budget hole, if we got rid of corporate tax loopholes. The California Labor Federation is sponsoring a package of four bills to increase transparency and accountability of public spending on corporate tax expenditures. They are:

AB 2564 (Swanson) – Corporate tax breaks are not included in the budget, making it difficult to track their true cost. This bill requires that an analysis of all tax expenditures show up in the budget so that legislators can review tax expenditures and budget allocations at the same time. 

SB 1391(Yee) – Companies that receive tax subsidies and fail to meet the intended purpose and goals required by the Legislature should pay the state back the tax subsidies received. This bill allows the state to recapture, or “clawback,” tax breaks given to a business to create jobs if that company decreases employment in California.

SB 1272 (Wolk) – Tax expenditures should be regularly reviewed for their effectiveness. This bill requires every new tax subsidy to state public policy goals and measures of effectiveness, and each subsidy will sunset after 5 years.

AB 2666 (Skinner) – This bill will create a publicly accessible database that would display the names of all applicants for economic development subsidies, their stated intended purposes, the number of jobs created, their wage rates and benefits. Illinois has adopted such database, providing more information to policymakers and the public to assist in holding recipients of tax expenditures accountable to taxpayer goals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sara Flocks is the Public Policy Coordinator for the California Labor Federation (CLF). CLF is made up of more than 1,200 AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions, representing 2.1 million union members in manufacturing, retail, construction, hospitality, public sector, health care, entertainment and other industries.

On Thursday, the Tea Party noisemakers will protest high taxes.  Here is why working people have high taxes. 

THE LOOMING TAX INCREASES

Spotted at Feed Your ADHD....

Get ready for the tax increases in 2010 (from The Heritage Foundation):

While millions of Americans are more than ready to put 2009 behind them, they should know that Congress failed to reauthorize dozens of tax breaks for individuals and businesses before the Members scurried home for the Holidays. These “expiring provisions” affect every American in one way or another as individuals or businesses. By allowing them to lapse, Congress has enacted tax increases at time when these taxpayers can least afford it.

Among the items allowed to expire at midnight on December 31, 2009:

* Deduction of state and local general sales taxes (section 164) (Personal Tax Incentives)

* Additional standard deduction, up to $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples, for state and local property taxes (section 63) (Personal Tax Incentives)

* Research tax credit and alternative simplified credit (section 41) (General Business Tax Incentives)

* New markets tax credit (section 45D) (Community Assistance Provisions)

* Empowerment zone incentives (sections 1391 and 1202) (Community Assistance Provisions)

* Renewal community tax incentives (sections 1400E, 1400F, 1400I, and 1400J) (Community Assistance Provisions)

* District of Columbia Investment Incentives (sections 1400, 1400A, 1400B, and 1400C) (Community Assistance Provisions)

* Net disaster loss designation and $500 limit per casualty for personal casualty losses attributed to federally declared natural disasters (section 165) (General Disaster Relief Provisions)

* Expensing for qualified disaster expenses (section 198A) (General Disaster Relief Provisions)

* Biodiesel and renewable diesel incentives (section 40A) (Energy Incentives)

* Alternative motor vehicle credit for heavy hybrids (section 30B) (Energy Incentives)

Although the House has acted and passed its version of the Tax Extenders Act of 2009, the Senate failed to act on similar legislation, as a result the following additional key tax provisions will expire:

* Increased exemption levels for the individual alternative minimum tax (section 55) and personal tax credits allowed against the AMT (section 26)

* Exclusion of unemployment compensation benefits from gross income (section 85)

* Alternative fuel mixture tax credit (section 6426(e))

* Reduced estimated tax payments for small businesses (section 6654(d)(1)(D))

BHO's campaign promises about no tax increases for most Americans were lies, and those lies are going to hit each and every one of us in the pocketbook.