The average middle class family will pay significantly more in taxes from the "cliff" deal and it add 4 trillion to the debt over 10 years; with 653 billion in new revenue. So we raised taxes and raised spending. More spending by nearly 5 times new revenue. Ia that what the election told the winners to do? Do you feel like a winner or a loser from the deal?




Sabrina Garcia, a 35-year-old accounting assistant from Quincy, Mass., who together with her husband made about $102,000 last year, said the payroll tax increase equated to “about $200 a month for my family.”

That is small consolation for middle-income Americans like Joe Interlandi, 61, a long-haul trucker who on Tuesday was driving a load of tomatoes from Florida to Los Angeles.

Mr. Interlandi, writing from a rest stop, said he understood the need for higher taxes. He will rather pay more now than impose higher taxes on his children and grandchildren, he said.

But Mr. Interlandi, who estimated that he worked 100 hours many weeks, added that the payroll tax increase still meant he will need to spend even more time on the road. Describing things he will have to cut back on, he wrote, “Family outings like vacations, and time together.”

How is 100 hours a week even legal for a trucker to be on the road? I hope they take Mr. Interlandi of the roads asap!

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Any individual tax increase palls in comparison to the additional costs of living that will result from the massive deficit borrowing and running the money printing presses non stop. If this has not already started to impact families It will shortly.

Up here in Canada increasing living costs are already well underway. for the last year with the costs moving faster upward during the last three months of the past year especially. Enough to start talk of higher wages are needed soon if not already just to tread water.

In our case as retired people it is cutting into our surplus income at a noticeable rate now. A large percentage of retired people will have to cut back on some essentials if they have not already. Same for some working people.

There is a price populations have to pay for irresponsible activity and poor planning by governments. It is unavoidable. Some effort should be expended to examine ways to for the individual or families to cut back in the future. Pre planned makes it a lot easier than knee jerk reactions under pressure.

A real example here. Usually the wife pays the hydro and electronic service package to the house including the phone and tv in the package. Since one of the bills was due the other day and she was not going to town. Asked me to pay it.

No issue until I noticed both bills combined where over six hundred for two months. I remembred the last time I ever paid those two they were less than half. I will do something about this I think. Not quite sure what though yet.

If you think the cliff is bad, read Section 5210 of the Health Care Bill

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1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

A better wording would be "100 hours a week away from home".

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

You strain at the gnat and swallow the fly.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

If the DOT people, or whoever issues CDL's is reading this, they might just do that.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

I really wish the cliff had happened. It looks like a missed opportunity now, since the ship is still sinking.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

I would like to rewind much farther than that. I wish they hadn't done the TARP. They should have just let it fall. The cliff would not have been as high as it is now and we would already be crawling out of the ashes.

None, and I mean NONE of the politicians in Washington will do ANYTHING except kick the can farther down the road, making the cliff higher and higher before some day we will INDEED go over it and it won't be pretty.

As far as your specific wish goes, if it had indeed happened, maybe some of the people who have been paying no attention at all, would have pulled their heads out of the sand.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

Yup. It would have been a better alternative to this crap. "Oh, there will be some tax increases now but we'll address cuts at a later time." Bull$h!t.

Eff 'em all. They're all useless tools.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

yep, we are ****ed......

That's what I figured. A team driver could easily reach at total 100 hours per week with sleeper berth time, but their driving time is limited to 60/70 hours per week depending on some different factors.

Now, I'm not claiming that Mr. Interlandi fudged his log books. But some unscrupulous drivers might.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

We will all be very lucky if it only adds 4 trillion in the next ten years. The projections are for one trillion dollar deficits for the next four years alone so do you think that for the next six years after that there will be balanced budgets or even a budget as far as that goes. I watched a PBS news broadcast from Chicago area this morning and someone being interviewed (a financial expert)
said a few times that the increases will only effect those making 400 million a year,
I have said many times that most people do not know the difference between a million, a billion, or a trillion, it's just more zero's.

Talking to a driver recently who said that GPS tracks trucks and logs time. Trucking is very different from the man and machine days. Think disney version in a fishbowl.

That's the extent of your thinking on this subject? 4 trillion more in debt and you are worried about a trucker's statement of road time?