rssOn Bush Tax Cuts, an Impending Battle Between Congress and Administration
Monday, July 26, 2010 at 8:27 am
- 33 Comments
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (epa/ZUMApress.com)
This weekend, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared on two Sunday news programs to make the case for the expiry of the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest earners and to argue for a strong recovery. The backdrop for the appearances is the looming fight over how to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. If Congress takes no action, taxes will rise for all income brackets.
[Economy1] The Obama administration hopes to extend the tax cuts for everyone making less than $125,000 a year, or $250,000 a year for couples. Some congressional Democrats want to keep lower taxes for all Americans until the recovery takes better hold. Most Republicans want to make the tax cuts entirely permanent. That sets the stage for a serious fight, during the run-up to the midterms, between the two parties and possibly among Democrats as well.
On This Week, Geithner called the Obama plan the “responsible thing to do, because we need to make sure we can show the world that [we are] willing as a country now to start to make some progress bringing down our long-term deficits.” He also said that “letting those tax cuts that only go to 2 percent to 3 percent of Americans, the highest earning Americans in the country, expire” would not “have a negative effect on growth.”
That argument is designed to combat the Republican line that tax increases would cut GDP growth and jobs. In advance of November’s midterm elections, campaigning for which will begin in earnest after the August congressional recess, Republicans have prepared a talking-points campaign focusing on the “Democrat tax hike.”
Delivering the Republicans’ weekly radio address this weekend, Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.) argued, “The economic policies of this administration have failed. Last year, the Obama administration said that its trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ plan would create jobs ‘immediately’ … [but] unemployment remains near a heartbreaking 10 percent.”
He continued, “[I]f they haven’t already done enough to wreck our recovery, Democrats in Washington are pushing more spending, more regulation, and right around the corner: more taxes. Democrats in Washington are now actually talking about embracing what would be the largest tax increase in American history.”
But Democrats are not embracing the tax increases wholesale, and several Democrats support extending them for at least another year or two. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), a deficit hawk and the head of the Senate Budget Committee, is arguing for extending all cuts. “In a perfect world, I would not be cutting spending or raising taxes for the next 18 months to two years,” he told reporters. “This downturn is still very much with us unfortunately.”
But the Obama administration is also heralding the economic turnaround more loudly than congressional Democrats. In a separate appearance on Meet The Press this weekend, Geithner said that “the most likely thing is, you see an economy that gradually strengthens over the next year or two. You see job growth start to come back again.”
Other economic figures do not agree. Testifying before Congress last week, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, described a weaker economy and argued for retaining tax cuts as a form of stimulus. “In the short term I would believe that we ought to maintain a reasonable degree of fiscal support, stimulus for the economy,” he said. “In the longer term, I think we need to be taking steps to reassure the American people and the markets that our fiscal situation is going to be well controlled.”
The Republican congressional leadership has argued that tax cuts do not need to be offset, because they are stimulative, a point contended by conservative and liberal economists.
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33 Comments
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sharon , WashIndependent. WashIndependent said: On Bush Tax Cuts, an Impending Battle Between Congress and Administration – http://bit.ly/8ZcsBP [...]
Pingback posted July 26, 2010 @ 9:09 am
[...] On Bush Tax Cuts, an Impending Battle Between Congress and … [...]
Pingback posted July 26, 2010 @ 9:40 am
[...] renewing middle-class tax breaksWashington PostWall Street Journal -Los Angeles Times -The Washington Independentall 753 news [...]
Pingback posted July 26, 2010 @ 12:29 pm
[...] Cuts, Poll SaysTheStreet.comBush-Era Tax Cuts a Likely Campaign ThemeWall Street JournalKSDK -The Washington Independent -Futures Magazineall 83 news [...]
Pingback posted July 26, 2010 @ 1:20 pm
[...] Republican Party's economic platform. …Obama, Republicans to duel over tax cutsUSA TodayOn Bush Tax Cuts, an Impending Battle Between Congress and AdministrationThe Washington IndependentTax hikes for the rich: Can the economy afford them?CNNMoneyDayton [...]
Pingback posted July 26, 2010 @ 2:18 pm
[...] On Bush Tax Cuts, an Impending Battle Between Congress and … [...]
Comment posted July 26, 2010 @ 3:07 pm
what a joke, continued tax cuts to the rich will create jobs? it's been going on for 10 years and it hasn't created jobs. is the leadership of this country brain-dead? knock knock, anyone home, hello?
Pingback posted July 26, 2010 @ 5:02 pm
[...] Tax Cuts a Likely Campaign ThemeWall Street JournalKSDK -The Atlantic (blog) -The Washington Independentall 83 news [...]
Pingback posted July 26, 2010 @ 5:04 pm
[...] On Bush Tax Cuts, an Impending Battle Between Congress and … [...]
Comment posted July 26, 2010 @ 4:38 pm
actually 100k thousan plus jobs were created by the two bush tax cuts, the only difference is that the jobs were everywhere but in the US.
Comment posted July 26, 2010 @ 5:41 pm
Geithner is finding himself on a ledge…..One getting thinner every day. His agreement to let the tax cuts for the rich expire is the first sensible thing he's said in a long while.
Republican grousing doesn't stand the light of day. The Bush years are evidence of their mismanagement, and they're using the “tax hike” (which it isn't, by ANY stretch of the imagination-it's an expiry on a free lunch) as a dog-whistle to corporate America to continue job exportation and non-hiring to “justify” the Republican position.
Bernanke's statements are hypocrisy at it's best. He's denying the last decade in his last statement. Considering he's protected the godd****d banks all this time, none of this comes as any surprise.
Comment posted July 26, 2010 @ 6:04 pm
How can the top 2 or 3% be the only group to increase or at least stabilize the GDP? It doesn't make sense. I do not see the large corporations hiring anymore now then they did prior to this meltdown, if anything they are hedging their bets by holding on to the US cuts while sending the jobs overseas. A few days ago I saw a tv clip showing Paris Hilton spending $45, 000. on Champagne in Europe, she doesn't even Party in the US, so explain how the rich need these cuts to help them help us. I know this is a a silly comparison but it still bothered me. Having gone through the unemployment debacle on a very personal level I am very concerned that the politicians are protecting their own wealth at our expense. I know that when I get a job a reasonable increase in my taxes would be acceptable if it makes sure the money goes to balancing our budget. But if it my taxes are raised, they damn well better raise for the 2 to 3% uber rich. If anyone has been following what is happening in Bell California it shows that the tax payers and us lowly unemployed have had enough and we will demand that the tax rates be fair. Or these politicians will be held responsible. If Bell CA can demand that their mayor and council be fired, so can we demand it of our State and national politicians. A real change is happening with in this new middle class and the politicians think it is just a something that will pass. I don't! The unemployment fiasco has hurt to many of our citizens and the powers that be are too stupid to see it.
Pingback posted July 26, 2010 @ 7:51 pm
[...] On Bush Tax Cuts, an Impending Battle Between Congress and … [...]
Comment posted July 26, 2010 @ 7:14 pm
NO OBAMA CARE IN WISCONSIN – YOU PEOPLE MUST BE NUTS – ANYONE THAT SIGNS THIS FOOLISHNESS DESERVES TO BE ON THE LOSING END OF MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY. WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!
Pingback posted July 27, 2010 @ 7:32 am
[...] On Bush Tax Cuts, an Impending Battle Between Congress and … [...]
Pingback posted July 27, 2010 @ 8:46 pm
[...] want to make this a key fight in the midterm. Sounds like a really good idea, when you look at that polling. Provided that the [...]
Pingback posted July 27, 2010 @ 8:56 pm
[...] want to make this a key fight in the midterm. Sounds like a really good idea, when you look at that polling. Provided that the [...]
Pingback posted July 27, 2010 @ 9:27 pm
[...] want to make this a key fight in the midterm. Sounds like a really good idea, when you look at that polling. Provided that the [...]
Pingback posted July 29, 2010 @ 6:02 pm
[...] The president’s own Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, has also argued for stopping these job-killing tax increases: “Testifying before Congress last week, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, described a weaker economy and argued for retaining tax cuts…” (The Washington Independent, 7/26/10) [...]
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Comment posted July 31, 2010 @ 12:06 am
CONTINUED BUSH TAX CUTS 4 OUR U.S. WEALTHY ELITE IS PUTTING SALT IN MIDDLE~CLASS AMERICAN FAMILIES WOUNDS PRESIDENT OBAMA….
AMERICAN WEALTHY ELITE TAX BREAKS & TAX FREE SLUSH FOUNDATIONS DAMAGE TO AVERAGE AMERICANS AND THEIR FAMILIES IS ENDLESS & OBVIOUS…. PRESIDENT OBAMA
WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS PAST, CURRENT & POSSIBLE CONTINUED FUTURE BUSH TAX BREAKS R COSTING TENS OF MILLIONS OF THE OTHER 99% OF AMERICAN'S THEIR POSSIBLE HOMES, LIVES, FREEDOMS, HEALTH~CARE, DENTAL CARE,,,
EVERYONE IN LAW IN AMERICA TODAY KNOWS DARN WELL THAT OUR LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD (U.S. CONGRESS) HAVE NEVER LIVED UP 2 EVEN PROPERLY FINANCING the 1963 U.S. SUPREME COURT GIDEON LEGAL DECISION. THAT LEGAL DECISION STATED ALL AMERICANS HAVE A RIGHT TO RECEIVE FREE LEGAL COUNSEL IF THEY CAN'T AFFORD ONE IN CRIMINAL LEGAL CASES ACROSS OUR WEALTHY AND BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY..
TODAY IN AMERICA THE MIDDLE~CLASS & WORKING POOR ARE IN DIRE & DESPERATE NEED OF CIVIL LAWYERS IN FAMILY COURTS,DIVORCE COURTS, ESTATE COURTS,BANKRUPTCY COURT, ETC…WHILE…
OUR AMERICAN WEALTHY ELITE'S LOBBYISTS ARE CONTINUING IN THEIR BEHIND THE SCENE ATTEMPTS TO PRESSURE ALL IN THE PEOPLES U.S. CONGRESS TO CONTINUE GIVING TAX BENEFITS AND BREAKS TO THEIR cabal of BILLIONAIRE FAMILIES, ESTATES ETC…
THEY DENY TENS OF MILLIONS OF OUR MIDDLE~CLASS & POORER AMERICANS PROPER LEGAL COUNSEL IN CRIMINAL COURTS,CRIMINAL APPEALS, AND CIVIL COURTS THROUGHOUT OUR WEALTHY COUNTRY WHILE THEIR HIGH PRICED LOBBYISTS BARTER WITH OUR PEOPLES U.S.CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES FURTHER ENRICHING THEMSELVES ???
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WILL THIS FLORIDA GRANDMA NEED 2 RIDE THE ROSA PARKS BUS INTO A FLORIDA PRISON TO BE LEGAL IN FILLING OUT COURT PAPERS 4 HER FELLOW PARISHONERS PRESIDENT OBAMA ???
FLORIDA NEEDS TO BE SUED BY THE ACLU 4 DENYING GRANDMA KATIE VICKERS EQUAL RIGHTS TO ASSIST OTHER FELLOW CHURCH PARISHONERS WITH THEIR LEGAL PAPER~WORK !!!
**WEALTHY ELITE AMERICAN'S AND THEIR HIGH PAID LOBBYISTS DO NOT CARE IF GRANDMA KATIE VICKERS OF FLORIDA EATS CAT FOOD NEXT MONTH **
WILL GOD'S AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LOBBY HELP OUR LITTLE FLORIDA GRANDMA KATIE VICKERS BEAT OUR U.S. WEALTHY ELITE'S BIG $$ LOBBYISTS ?
MANNY GONZALES THE KID THAT EVERYONE FORGOT IN THE CALIFORNIA PRISON SYSTEM AND ALL OUR OTHER AMERICAN PRISON INMATES NATIONWIDE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ALLOWED AND ENCOURAGED TO RECEIVE OTHER PRISON INMATES LEGAL ASSISTANCE REGARDING THEIR FEDERAL APPEALS ??
FLORIDA NOW DEEMS THAT GRANDMA'S CAN'T ASSIST THEIR FELLOW NEEDY AND POORER SICKLY CHURCH GOERS WITH THEIR PAPERWORK ??
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* THIS U.S. LOBBYI$T HOR$E~TRADING in OUR PEOPLES U.S. CONGRE$$ NOW REQUIRE$ BIG $$$ AND MIDDLE~CLASS AND POORER AMERICANS LIKE KATIE VICKERS OF FLORIDA DO NOT QUALIFY FOR OUR WEALTHY ELITE LOBBYISTS ASSISTANCE or INTEREST *
OK,OK NOW WE GET IT~ THE MIDDLE~CLASS & POORER AMERICANS NEED BIG $$ TO LOBBY THE PEOPLES U.S. CONGRESS 2 ALSO BE FAIRLY REPRESENTED ……. SO PUT UP OR $HUT UP ALL YOU little American people WHO EXPECT HONE$T CONGRE$$IONAL REPRE$ENTATION WITHOUT PAYING THE PIPER….
THEY CONTINUE TAKING BILLIONS U.S.TAX FREE FOUNDATIONS $$ OUT OF AMERICA & AT THE SAME TIME HAVE THEIR HIGH PRICED ELITE LOBBYISTS DEMANDING THEIR CONGRESS TO SEND MANY MORE BILLIONS OF U.S.TAX $$ TO EXIT AMERICA FOR UNKNOWN LOCATIONS WORLD~WIDE DEPRIVING OUR OWN U.S. MIDDLE~CLASS AND POORER AMERICANS OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS, HEALTH~CARE, DENTAL~CARE,PROPER LEGAL PROTECTIONS IN CIVIL,CRIMINAL, FAMILY COURTS …
WHY WOULD MILLIONS OF OUR NEEDY MIDDLE~CLASS AND POORER AMERICANS WANT TO CONTINUE HEARING ALL ABOUT OUR WEALTHY ELITE BRAGGING TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN THEIR OWN INTERNATIONAL CONQUESTS IN CONTINUING TO ASSIST THE INTERNATIONAL POOR WITH OUR AMERICAN GOVERNMENT'S TAX FREE $$$ ???
~ JUST 1 MORE PERFECT EXAMPLE PRESIDENT OBAMA OF WHY U.S. SLUSH FUND FOUNDATIONS NEED NEW FEDERAL GUIDLINES~
~ MIDDLE~CLASS AMERICANS AND WORKING POOR AMERICANS CONTINUE PAYING MORE TAX $$$ THEN OUR U.S. WEALTHY ELITE AND OUR UNEMPLOYED HAVE TO BEG THE PEOPLES U.S. CONGRESS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS ???
WEALTHY ELITE AND THEIR FAMILIES OWN 90% OF OUR AMERICAN WEALTH AND TOTAL ONLY 1% OF U.S. TOTAL POPULATION .
SADLY THIS ELITE CABAL APPEAR TO HAVE COMPLETE FINANCIAL CONTROL OVER THE PEOPLES U.S. CONGRESS SPENDING $$ (PURSE) THROUGH THEIR HIGH PRICED PAID LOBBYISTS.
LAWYERS FOR POOR AMERICANS WILL CONTINUE POINTING OUT VARIOUS MONETARY NEEDS HERE IN AMERICA FOR ALL OUR SINCERE CARING WEALTHY ELITE TO PONDER PRIOR THEIR TAX FREE SLUSH FUND FOUNDATIONS INTERNATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLDS POOR.
WE BELIEVE THAT ALL THESE BILLION $$$ TAX FREE SLUSH FUND FOUNDATIONS OF OUR SINCERE ELITE AMERICANS SHOULD ONLY BE USED FOR AMERICAN NEEDS AND NOT TAKEN OUT OF AMERICA.
**THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN THEIR TAX FREE $$ STATUS IN AMERICA & THOSE $$ SHOULD ALSO BE SPENT IN AMERICA **
OUR AMERICAN GOVERNMENT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE LEADING COUNTRY IN THE WORLD FOR CONTRIBUTING TAX $$$ TO THE INTERNATIONAL WORLD'S POOR. FOR OUR LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD(CONGRESS) TO CONTINUE TO ALLOW UNTOLD BILLIONS $$ TO ALSO ESCAPE OUR COUNTRY WITH THESE WEALTHY ELITE SLUSH FUND FOUNDATIONS,CAN ONLY MAKE ONE WONDER IF THIS IS WHAT MANY REFER 2 AS “THE NEW WORLD ORDER ” ???
*** OUR AMERICAN WEALTHY ELITE LOBBYISTS R NOT PAID $$ 2 HELP little Americans like KATIE VICKERS OF FLORIDA WRITTEN ABOUT IN in the WALL STREET JOURNAL & KATE HOWARD'S ARTICLE'S FOUND BELOW.
LAWYERS FOR POOR AMERICANS (424-247-2013)
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1)
More Strapped Litigants Skip Lawyers in Court
Article Wall Street Journal Newspaper
By NATHAN KOPPEL
July 22,2010
The economic downturn has left more Americans with the daunting prospect of fighting court battles without a lawyer.
The Florida Times-Union/Bruce Lipsky
Katie Vickers helped a friend in court and now faces legal woes herself.
A growing number of people have found themselves in court facing costly financial proceedings such as declaring bankruptcy, fighting foreclosure and litigating employment fights. Adding to the challenge, for many: The high cost of legal representation often prompts them to go it alone.
Jillian Edgar of Brooklyn, N.Y., is one example. The 32-year-old, who says she has been unsuccessfully looking for work since October, is fighting an eviction notice that claims she owes more than $2,800.
Last week in Kings Country Housing Court, she said she didn't know the steps to take to qualify for free legal aid. Still, she said, “I think I can handle myself.” Her plan: to say that she withheld rent because her apartment had fallen into disrepair.
Legal experts say many people are likely losing claims and paying penalties they could have avoided with a lawyer at their side. Litigants often don't understand the sort of evidence they need to present in legal proceedings, said Florida state Judge Claudia Isom.
She said she has seen a jump in people defending against mortgage-foreclosure proceedings without the aid of counsel, for instance, and they are “definitely at a disadvantage.”
“People will gather legal information from the Internet, from friends, or leaflets at a courthouse and think, 'I can play checkers, I'm ready,' ” said Raymond Brescia, a professor at Albany Law School, who has written about tenants' struggles to afford legal representation. “But when they get to court they realize it's a game of three-level chess, and they don't have the first idea of what's happening.”
Legal representation is expensive, and some critics say lawyers have created quasi-monopolies in some areas that raise the cost of their services.
“You can hardly find a lawyer who charges less than $150 per hour, which is out of reach for most people,” said Gillian Hadfield, a law professor at the University of Southern California.
In many areas, from immigration and family law to bankruptcy and housing disputes, she said, nonlawyer specialists could be trained to provide useful legal assistance. But nonlawyers who represent clients in court or provide other legal help face prosecution for the unauthorized practice of law, a violation of state bar rules.
“The U.S. is unusual in how restrictive the rules are on who can give you assistance in court,” Ms. Hadfield said.
Many who go without a lawyer are too well off to qualify for free legal aid, even if they can't foot the bill for private lawyers, attorneys said. “The problem is growing for the middle class,” said Larry Tribe, who heads the U.S. Justice Department's Access to Justice Initiative.
Most legal-aid organizations, which provide free legal services to people at or near the poverty line, have cut back as they have absorbed cuts in the funding they rely on from governmental and private sources just as demand for their services has risen. The Legal Aid Society in New York City, for instance, this year lost nearly $1.8 million in funding from its budget of about $30 million because of state and city budget cuts.
“We can only help one out of every nine people who solicit our help,” said Steven Banks, the head of the organization, which assisted about one in seven people who asked for help before the recession.
There are no comprehensive statistics on how many people represent themselves in court. But nationwide, 60% of state judges reported increases in the number of civil litigants who appeared in court last year without counsel, the American Bar Association said in a July 12 survey. Parties were hurt by not having a lawyer, 62% of the surveyed judges said.
Katie Vickers, a 70-year-old Florida retiree who isn't a lawyer, said she agreed in 2008 to help a church friend petition for workers' compensation benefits. She said her friend, who didn't have an attorney, needed help typing legal documents and answering questions in court. The friend lost his claim, she said.
Now, Ms. Vickers is facing legal problems of her own. The Florida Bar filed a court petition in March claiming that Ms. Vickers had engaged in the unlicensed practice of law and should be fined $1,000.
The bar has a duty “to protect the public from incompetent or unethical representation,” said Florida bar counsel Lori Holcomb. Ms. Vickers denied that she had practiced law and said she would vigorously defend herself—without a lawyer.
Write to Nathan Koppel at nathan.koppel@wsj.com
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2)
Defiant Jacksonville retiree charged with practicing law without license
She helped a sick friend with workers comp.
Posted: June 16, 2010
BRUCE LIPSKY/The Times-Union
Katie Vickers sits with the paperwork alleging she has been practicing law without a license after she assisted a church friend with workers compensation motions. The Florida Bar has filed a charge against Vickers, 70. “I’m not breaking the law,” she says.
By Kate Howard
Katie Vickers says she was helping a sick friend when she typed some documents for his court case and signed her name at the bottom.
The Jacksonville retiree claims she wasn’t trying to act as an attorney.
Now she really is — defending herself against a charge of practicing law without a license.
The Florida Bar accuses Vickers of portraying herself as an attorney by helping a friend from church type motions and request hearings in his workers compensation case. He didn’t have a computer or a lawyer.
“I’m not breaking the law,” Vickers said. “It’s a stretch.”
But the Bar believes she went beyond just typing, assisting her friend the way a lawyer would. They asked her to sign a cease-and-desist order and promise not to do it again, but Vickers refused.
“I felt like that would be admitting I did something wrong,” she said.
Why is the Bar pursuing costly sanctions again a 70-year-old woman?
“To protect the public,” said Bar counsel Lori Holcomb. “Our committee that investigated it felt that she would continue, and perhaps do this for someone else.”
Vickers is familiar with the courtroom, because she worked for many years in a state office that attempted to collect child-support payments.
But she’s never worked in the legal profession nor aspired to. She spends most of her time now at church or with her husband at their home in a tidy Mandarin subdivision.
The subject of the workers comp case, Artemias Rivers, is a member of her church, and Vickers wanted to help. He was sick, suffering from lung problems he believed were developed on the job and had recently undergone surgery that caused more pain. Rivers said he knew she wasn’t a lawyer, and she didn’t give him legal advice or ask him for any money. He suffers from pulmonary fibrosis, interstitial lung disease and sarcoidosis, and is considered disabled. He’s currently at home, living on disability checks and dealing with the pain.
“It’s outrageous the Bar would come after her when I had four or five attorneys who didn’t do their job,” Rivers said of the lawyers who dropped his case. “I’m not saying Mrs. Vickers was acting as my attorney, but why don’t they go after those attorneys?”
Attempting to help
Vickers signed the bottom of one document, “Katie Vickers for Artemias Rivers,” and in 2008 began going with him to court hearings held inside the judge’s chambers. She said she tried to help him answer questions he didn’t understand.
Soon, she was not allowed in the chamber, and neither was the court reporter. She was prevented from taking notes and said in her court filing early this month that she was escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
Cary Braswell, the lawyer representing JA-RU, the Jacksonville branch of a toy company that employed Rivers, filed a formal request that she stop helping Rivers with his case. Braswell could not be reached for comment.
The judge granted their request, and Vickers stopped going to the courthouse. Rivers lost the case. They both thought it was over.
But Braswell had also filed a complaint with the Bar.
That’s when the Bar sent the cease-and-desist letter. A year later, Vickers was served with the charge that could bring up a $1,000 fine.
“I was shocked,” she said.
According to Holcomb, the Bar has brought lawsuits in 45 complaints for practicing law without a license so far this fiscal year. She said most of the cases are similar to Vickers’.
“If you think of the things that lawyers do, we investigate cases of non-lawyers doing the same thing,” Holcomb said. “As soon as you tell someone, 'I can represent you,’ or 'I can help you with your legal matter,’ and then you actually help them, that would be crossing the line.”
An 'obscure line’
Vickers likely crossed some lines, said Stetson University of Law professor Lee Coppock, but he’s baffled as to why the Bar would bring charges.
He teaches professional responsibility courses that focus on this issue, mainly to ensure that law students don’t try to help friends and loved ones before they’re qualified to do so.
“It’s a fairly obscure line,” Coppock said. “I would be shocked if they didn’t have some basis to believe she did cross that line, but why go after this if she isn’t likely to do that again? … This lady doesn’t sound like a threat to anybody, unless she gave someone bad advice.”
The Florida Bar has brought cases like this before, one of which drew national attention. In 1976, the Bar sued Rosemary Furman of Jacksonville for selling do-it-yourself divorce kits and helping clients fill out legal forms for a small fee.
Furman was eventually ordered to shutter her business, but she became renowned as an advocate for improving access to justice.
Vickers is hesitant to hire an attorney for herself, afraid costs will skyrocket if the case drags on. For now, she’s researching — solidifying her defense, documenting everything she can and hoping for the best.
She has asked for a court date to defend herself against the charges, which she intends to take to trial.
“I think what they’re doing is a vendetta against me to make sure I shut my mouth and never help anybody again,” Vickers said. “If someone needed help and asked me to type something for them, I probably would type it. There’s no law against it, I don’t think.”
kate.howard@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4697
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LAWYERS FOR POOR AMERICANS IS A VOLUNTEER WWW LOBBY THAT SINGS OUT FOR OUR MIDDLE~CLASS & POORER AMERICANS SUCH AS THIS BEAUTIFUL AND CARING GRANDMA KATIE VICKERS OF FLORIDA.PUNISHING SPECIAL AMERICAN'S LIKE KATIE WHO ATTEMPT TO ASSIST OTHER LESS FORTUNATE AMERICANS IN OUR TROUBLED JUDICIAL SYSTEM IS A CRIME IN ITSELF.
lawyersforpooreramericans@gmail.com
(424-247-2013)
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DEFUSING THE TAX TIME BOMB ~ WALL STREET JOURNAL
Defusing the Tax Time Bomb
By DAVID WESSEL
WALL STREET JOURNAL
JULY29,2010
President George W. Bush left behind a ticking time bomb that is set for Dec. 31, 2010. If Congress does nothing, taxes on wages, capital gains and dividends will leap, the estate tax will be resurrected at a 55% rate and the pesky alternative minimum tax will hit an additional 21 million taxpayers on 2010 returns.
Neither Democrats nor Republicans have an interest in letting that happen. Doing nothing would, Goldman Sachs economists estimate, amount to a tax increase equal to 2.5% of gross domestic product, the value of goods and services produced each year. But what Congress will do and when…well, as one official puts it, this has become a gigantic Rubik's cube that everyone is twisting at the same time.
This is Washington, so take the politics first.
Despite misgivings from some Democrats, the Obama administration is pressing to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone with an income under $250,000 a year and to raise taxes on those above. Taxing the rich is red meat to the Democrats' left. Energizing them for the November congressional elections is key for the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A recent Pew/National Journal poll found that only 11% of Democrats favor extending all the Bush tax cuts.
Republicans are happily staking out the no-new-taxes turf, playing to their traditional constituency. Pew says 52% of Republicans favor extending all the Bush tax cuts. Republicans are convinced they can win votes by simultaneously blaming Democrats for the deficit and accusing of them of being tax raisers.
House Democrats are torn between taking a vote before the elections (so members can boast of having stopped a middle-class tax increase) and waiting for the Senate (so Democrats from rich suburban districts don't get stuck voting to raise taxes on over-$250,000 voters only to find the Senate will extend them for everyone.) Senate Democratic leaders promise a September vote, but it's far from clear they have the needed 60 votes.
The smart money in Washington says nothing gets done before a postelection lame-duck session.
Given the distressingly sluggish economy recovery, few see this as a propitious moment to increase taxes on anyone. But given the pressure to do something to reduce the budget deficit and the political appeal to Democrats of socking it to the rich, the argument is over how much damage raising upper-bracket taxes would do.
“Extending the tax cuts would provide some demand-side stimulus,” says Donald Marron, who sat on the Bush Council of Economic Advisers and now heads the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. “All else equal, the cuts that go to middle- and low-income taxpayers are likely to provide more demand-side stimulus in the near term, because they are less likely to be saved.”
Republicans focus less on consumer demand, and more on the impact of taxes on business hiring and investment. They observe loudly that raising upper-bracket tax rates hits ever-popular small businesses, whose profits show up on their individual returns. John Boehner, the House Republican leader, accuses President Barack Obama of pushing “job-killing tax hikes.” But Leonard Burman, a Syracuse University economist who worked in the Clinton Treasury, counters that academic evidence “suggests strongly that higher marginal income-tax rates on high-income entrepreneurs are unlikely to result in significantly less employment or risk taking.”
In fact, fewer small businesses would be hit than the rhetoric implies. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that only 3% of taxpayers who show business income on their returns would be touched by the Obama tax increase, though these 750,000 taxpayers account for half of the $1 trillion in business income reported on personal tax returns.
And then there's the deficit. Raising taxes on the over-$250,000 crowd isn't going to cure it. The price tag on the Obama-backed extension of Mr. Bush's middle-class tax cuts and stopping the alternative minimum tax from reaching down into the middle class is $2.5 trillion over 10 years, the Joint Tax Committee says. Unofficial estimates circulating on Capitol Hill say that's about 85% of the price tag for extendingall the Bush tax cuts.
The administration argues that symbolism matters as much as dollars. It'll be hard for the U.S. government to persuade anyone that it takes the long-term deficit seriously if it won't even let a tax cut on the best-off Americans expire on schedule. Though he doesn't say so explicitly, Mr. Obama knows he is unlikely to wrestle down the deficit without also raising taxes on folks making less than $250,000 at some point.
So what happens? Political gridlock, wavering Senate Democrats, deficit angst and a gnawing sense that the tax code is due for an overhaul could combine to make a one- or two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts—perhaps all of them, perhaps only those Mr. Obama likes—likely.
This could tee up a massive tax and deficit package after the 2012 presidential elections. But one problem with that politically expedient solution: It would exacerbate the already overwhelming uncertainty hanging over the economy and discouraging business hiring and investment.
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A2
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THEY ALL WANT THEIR CAKE & TO EAT IT 2 WITHOUT PROPERLY TAKING CARE OF OUR POORER U.S. FAMILIES ??
MIDDLE ~ CLASS & POORER AMERICANS ENLISTED MILITARY CHILDREN PROTECT our WEALTHY ELITE'S U.S. BUSINESS INTERESTS WORLD~WIDE…SO LETS ALL NOW HOPE OUR U.S WEALTHY ELITE AND THEIR BILLIONAIRE FAMILIES DECIDE TO START PROTECTING ALL OF OUR TENS OF MILLIONS OF NEEDY AMERICAN FAMILIES HERE AT HOME !!!
LAWYERS FOR POORER AMERICANS@GMAIL.COM
424-247-2013
Comment posted July 31, 2010 @ 12:13 pm
“You can hardly find a lawyer who charges less than $150 per hour, which is out of reach for most people,” said Gillian Hadfield, a law professor at the University of Southern California
Comment posted July 31, 2010 @ 12:13 pm
“You can hardly find a lawyer who charges less than $150 per hour, which is out of reach for most people,” said Gillian Hadfield, a law professor at the University of Southern California
Pingback posted August 14, 2010 @ 4:01 pm
[...] cut battle in the offingInternational Business TimesWall Street Journal -KSDK -The Washington Independentall 89 news [...]
Pingback posted August 18, 2010 @ 3:04 pm
[...] On Bush Tax Cuts, an Impending Battle Between Congress and Administration « The Washington Ind… [...]
Comment posted August 19, 2010 @ 1:21 pm
“You can hardly find a lawyer who charges less than $150 per hour, which is out of reach for most people,” said Gillian Hadfield, a law professor at the University of Southern California
Comment posted August 19, 2010 @ 1:21 pm
“You can hardly find a lawyer who charges less than $150 per hour, which is out of reach for most people,” said Gillian Hadfield, a law professor at the University of Southern California
Pingback posted September 2, 2010 @ 11:46 pm
[...] want to make this a key fight in the midterm. Sounds like a really good idea, when you look at that polling. Provided that the [...]
Comment posted September 6, 2010 @ 3:04 am
The Republican congressional leadership has argued that tax cuts do not need to be offset, because they are stimulative, a point contended by conservative and liberal economists.
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