Storms

 The temp was 48 (F) this morning when I got up.  The skies were then, and are still, cloudy.  A constant drizzle is falling which will last into the afternoon.  Even though I've pretty much had enough of the rain, I know that soon it will disappear and Summer will only give us the occasional shower until hurricane season arrives.

Yesterday was a rather slow day.  I did do things:  3 loads of laundry, however I had to use the dryer since it was drizzly, rainy outside.

I had breakfast with my brother this morning.  His contract expired on his job and it was not renewed.  He's rather happy about that since his immediate supervisor showed bi-polar tendencies.  While working in the tech industry can be rather lucrative, it's my understand that this tends to quite frequently be the case.  Deadlines present themselves and since these people are salaried, every waking hour needs to be applied to the project.  It is definitely a field that I would not want to be a working in right now.

I get to work this afternoon.  Joy.

And... wow, did you hear that low rumbling?  I do think that there's a thunderstorm approaching!  Historically they were blamed on the gods.  There are, no doubt, some alive today who still believe we are living in that history.

The House of Representatives passed Orangie's big, beautiful bill which is geared to punish the average American while rewarding the 1%.  

One of the things included in this shitty piece of legislation is "no tax on tips."  Well, that's not exactly what it is.  This bill provides a nonrefundable tax credit of up to $25,000 on tips claimed during the year.  Keep in mind, this is a credit, not a refund.  In order to get a percentage of this credit the tipped associate needs to claim their tips in order for the employer to deduct the correct amount of taxes on each paycheck.  The Federal minimum wage for a tipped employee is $2.13 per hour.  Minimum Federal wage is $7.25 per hour.  This morning I gave our waitress a $10 tip.  If she claims that full $10, she will pay taxes on all of it, however pay taxes on the amount she claims, say $4.  Many tipped employees do not claim the full tip since they will play less in taxes and have more money at the end of the week. From what I've seen this tax credit is not like a EITC, which will give you money back at the end of the year, it will simply reduce your tax so you will not have to pay anything in to the IRS.  I'm sure there are those out there who will dance around singing "no tax on tips," and in an odd way they're right, they're just not going to get a bigger refund when they file their Federal Income Taxes.