The Great Bait and Switch of 2009

[Torakus]

WTF. In January I am encouraged to go out and spend up to 49k on a new vehicle to help the economy and the auto industry with the promise of a tax break on the sales tax and interest on that purchase.

So I go out and spend 44k on a new truck. But guess what? There is no rebate or reduction in the interest, just local and state taxes, but the initial 150k cap on personal income to be eligible gets pushed all the way down to 125k, making me ineligible.

And now it looks like I am going to get hammer-fucked in the ass with a new gas tax.

You are welcome for the vote, thanks for the dick in the ass.

Tora

[Embar Angylwrath]

Do you have a business, is the curb weight of the vehicle over 6K, and do you use the vehicle 50% or more in your business? If so, you may qualify for a $25K deduction if they haven't closed that loophole yet.

[Lurker]

Torakus,
Can you give some details on the original promise? Doesn't have to be links or anything, but details of who said what and when would be cool.

[Kulaf]

http://www.savingtoinvest.com/2009/02/c ... nomic.html

[Kulaf]

http://mikulski.senate.gov/_pdfs/Press/ ... ndment.pdf

I don't see anything about it being over $125,000 for individuals.....but this might be a scaled down version of the amendment.

[Klast Brell]

WTF. In January I am encouraged to go out and spend up to 49k on a new vehicle to help the economy and the auto industry with the promise of a tax break on the sales tax and interest on that purchase.

So I go out and spend 44k on a new truck. But guess what? There is no rebate or reduction in the interest, just local and state taxes, but the initial 150k cap on personal income to be eligible gets pushed all the way down to 125k, making me ineligible.

And now it looks like I am going to get hammer-fucked in the ass with a new gas tax.

You are welcome for the vote, thanks for the dick in the ass.

Tora

Next time do your research before you buy.

[Trollbait]

HAHA


Klast just said "Let them eat cake"

[Partha]

Erm, you bought a new truck solely because you thought you were going to get a tax break?

[Embar Angylwrath]

Its a good strategy and can reduce the real cost of the purchase, especially if the vehicle can be used in a business at 50% or more of the time. In certain circumstances, the depreciation can be accellerated to 100% of the vehicle cost. It's nice to take a 50K deduction.

[Torakus]

Erm, you bought a new truck solely because you thought you were going to get a tax break?

No. I rolled my truck on Jan. 5 in the mountains on my way back from Montana so needed new transportation. I just happened to decide on another truck because the tax / interest rebate would help offset the higher gas bill. But Klast is right, I should have made sure that the promise was kept. I normally live by a policy of trust but verify, and in this case I screwed up and didn't verify.

Tora

[Lurker]

Torakus,

This rant is barely rational. You are certainly old enough to know that proposed legislation is not an iron clad promise. Legislation has to go through several committees and negotiations and compromises on it's way through Congress. Legislation is practically guaranteed to change in the process. And after all that, the final form of this legislation was damn close to what was originally proposed.

I'm sorry you missed out due to the income requirement (and possibly because you purchased before the law even went into affect). But great bait and switch? Not even close.

[Torakus]

Torakus,

This rant is barely rational. You are certainly old enough to know that proposed legislation is not an iron clad promise. Legislation has to go through several committees and negotiations and compromises on it's way through Congress. Legislation is practically guaranteed to change in the process. And after all that, the final form of this legislation was damn close to what was originally proposed.

I'm sorry you missed out due to the income requirement (and possibly because you purchased before the law even went into affect). But great bait and switch? Not even close.

Since when is rationality a quality required of a rant?

A Senator proposed a great amendment to the stimulus package, it received popular support in the Senate and from President Obama, and I saw a good deal of reporting on it at the time. I made a poor assumption that the original wording of the amendment made it into the approved stimulus package, partly because it was buried in a package that could choke a blue whale and I saw no reporting on the final form of the amendment itself.

I purchased after the law went into effect, I just didn't bother to check to see if the advertised deal had actually been delivered. I am probably not entirely alone in having made this error of assumption.

The bait = big deduction which will help offset increased gas consumption, the switch = small deduction + increased gas tax.

Ok, so calling it the "great bait and switch of 2009" is probably a little over board, but the subject line of a rant is supposed to be over the top and has little to do with the validity of the content of a rant.

[Trollbait]

HAHA

Lurker just said "Let them eat cake" as well.

He was just more long winded about it.

The bait = big deduction which will help offset increased gas consumption, the switch = small deduction + increased gas tax.

That is how they operate Tor, Only their intentions matter....not the results.

They publicize the intentions so that to a good majority of Americans that is how they are percieved.....and when all of the good intentions come to nothing they have buckets of excuses.

That is how nearly all politicians operate nowadays.

[Lurker]

Lurker just said "Let them eat cake" as well.

No, I just thought his rant was over the top. Torakus missed out on a tax deduction because he earns too much. This is hardly a "let them eat cake" moment.

The bait = big deduction which will help offset increased gas consumption, the switch = small deduction + increased gas tax.

Unless your interest rate was somehow higher than the sales tax rate, the bigger deduction was left in the final version. You didn't qualify due to earnings. That doesn't mean the final bill was drastically changed from what was proposed.

Can you link to the legislation increasing the gas tax?

That is how they operate Tor, Only their intentions matter....not the results.

They publicize the intentions so that to a good majority of Americans that is how they are percieved.....and when all of the good intentions come to nothing they have buckets of excuses.

That is how nearly all politicians operate nowadays.

I have no idea what you're talking about. The final legislation contained everything the proposed legislation did except for the interest on loans part. The intention was to give people a tax break on new car purchases and that's exactly what was done. This is hardly like proposing legislation called "Clear Skies" when the policies contained increase pollution.

[Trollbait]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

I concur.

[Embar Angylwrath]

Might have helped if Obama kept the final bill up on the website for the 5 days like he promised.

And honestly, how fucking hard is it to keep a final bill up on a website for 5 days? If he's going to break a promise that is sooo easy to keep, what makes you think he won't break other promises?

[Lurker]

The five days was for non-emergency legislation and the Recovery bill was up for four days, but whatever. You'll always have the five day pledge to whine about. : ) And don't worry... it doesn't make you look petty or foolish at all.

[Harlowe]

Crying. Like angry, hungry babies.

[Trollbait]

I don't whine about the 5 day promise or Lurker's ridiculous qualifiers for it because it is a waste of time and all politicians will break their promises when it suits them. Oh well.

Is it just me or does Harlowe remind anyone else of that little dog bouncing around the big dog of Looney Tunes fame?

[Fobbon Lazyfoot]

Crying. Like angry, hungry babies.

Hunger is legitimate, at least. Crying like angry babies who want the 72'' plasma instead of the 54'' is more of what came to my mind.