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1.) Soaking the rich, Obamacare style — Many of Obamacare’s taxes aren’t kicking until now, which you will note is after November’s presidential election. How convenient. But starting next year, they’re coming, especially for the “rich.” The AP reports:
“For the vast majority of people, the health care law won’t mean sending more money to the Internal Revenue Service. But the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans will take the biggest hit, starting next year. … Starting Jan. 1, individuals making more than $200,000 per year, and couples making more than $250,000 will face a 0.9 percent Medicare tax increase on wages above those threshold amounts. They’ll also face an additional 3.8 percent tax on investment income. Together these are the biggest tax increase in the health care law.”
And this, of course, is on top of the return to pre-Bush era tax rates that will almost certainly take effect for at least most of the top 1 percent of earners beginning next year. But don’t fret, rich. Obama will still be there to hector you about how greedy you are and how you need to pay your fair share.
2.) Oh Crapo — A politician getting arrested for a suspected DUI is an interesting, if not entirely unheard of, story. But a Mormon senator getting arrested for a suspected DUI is something else altogether. The AP reports:
“When U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo sponsored a 2010 bill to cut taxes on small beer brewers, he said he did so for pro-business, not pro-beer reasons. A Mormon, the Idaho Republican told The Associated Press at the time that he abstains from alcohol, and he pledged to have a root beer to celebrate if the bill passed. Crapo’s arrest early Sunday in a Washington, D.C., suburb on suspicion of drunken driving suggests a private life that departed from his public persona as a teetotaling member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. About a quarter of Idaho’s population subscribes to the Mormon faith, which discourages members from using alcohol, as well as coffee, tea and tobacco.”
TheDC Morning is just happy no one got hurt due to Crapo’s alleged gross irresponsibility.
3.) All’s quiet on the Senate front — With John Boehner’s failure to corral his caucus into voting for his “Plan B” fiscal cliff proposal, the focus has shifted to the Senate. TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein reports:
“As the focus to prevent the United States from falling off the so-called fiscal cliff turns to the Senate, a top Democratic aide tells the New York Times that not much is really going on there. ‘It’s hard to overstate how little is going on,’ the aide, described by the Times as “a senior Democratic leadership aide,’ said. The aide also told the Times that senators were admitting in private that they do not expect a deal to be reached before $600 billion dollars worth of tax increases and spending cuts automatically kick in at the beginning of 2013.”
Things can always change rapidly, especially with the Senate coming back into session Thursday, but it looks like we very well could be be heading off the so-called (and perhaps erroneously-called) fiscal cliff. Evel Kenevil would be proud. Not sure about the rest of America.
4.) Living like a Churchill — Want to live like a king? No? Okay. What about a Churchill? TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein reports:
“Winston Churchill helped shape the world during his long life — and often did so at the dinner table. In her book ‘Dinner with Churchill: Policy-Making at the Dinner Table,’ Cita Stelzer, director of Britain’s Churchill Centre and a research associate at the Hudson Institute, explains how Churchill used meals to push his policy views. ‘Churchill dined with virtually all of the decision-makers of his long life – people like Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, Stalin, De Gaulle and British and American generals and politicians,’ she told The Daily Caller. ‘At those dinners, policy questions were discussed and decisions made that affected the course of history. I was fortunate to find at the Churchill Archives, Churchill College, in Cambridge, U.K., many of the original menus, as well as unpublished diaries and letters by those present describing the dinners, lunches and picnics.'”
Read the full interview to learn more about what Churchill liked to eat, where he liked to eat, whether he was as big a drinker as legend suggests and much more.
5.) Tweet of Yesterday — KimJongNumberUn: People of North Korea: there is no Santa Claus. Also, no food.#HappyHolidays
6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: News of Kim Jong Un’s Revolutionary Activities Reported Abroad
VIDEO: Ginni Thomas interviews superstar Congressman-elect Tom Cotton