An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 14 February 2011
Get Out Your Calculator
From ATR:
Under the Obama budget, tax revenues will grow from 14.4% of GDP in 2011 to 20% of GDP in 2021. By comparison, the historical average is only 18% of GDP.
Tax hike lowlights include:
- Raising the top marginal income tax rate (at which a majority of small business profits face taxation) from 35% to 39.6%. This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike
- Raising the capital gains and dividends rate from 15% to 20%
- Raising the death tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the death tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million. This is a $98 billion/ten year tax hike
- Capping the value of itemized deductions at the 28% bracket rate. This will effectively cut tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, state and local income or sales taxes, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and unreimbursed employee business expenses. A new means-tested phaseout of itemized deductions limits them even more. This is a $321 billion/ten year tax hike
- New bank taxes totaling $33 billion over ten years
- New international corporate tax hikes totaling $129 billion over ten years
- New life insurance company taxes totaling $14 billion over ten years
- Massive new taxes on energy, including LIFO repeal, Superfund, domestic energy manufacturing, and many others totaling $120 billion over ten years
- Increasing unemployment payroll taxes by $15 billion over ten years
- Taxing management capital gains in an investment partnership (“carried interest”) as ordinary income. This is a tax hike of $15 billion over ten years
- A giveaway to the trial lawyers—not letting companies deduct the cost of punitive damages from a lawsuit settlement. This is a tax hike of $300 million over ten years
- Increasing tax penalties, information reporting, and IRS information sharing. This is a ten-year tax hike of $20 billion.
Add it all together, and this budget is a ten-year, $1.5 trillion tax hike over present law.
I keep hearing Obama is attempting to do a Clinton. Right. I mean….left….I mean… Well, he ain’t no Clinton, that’s for sure!
What Is That?
Well, that is what is left of the snow! A small blob! Heh. After hitting 70 this afternoon, I was REAL surprised to see it just laying there in the parking lot. 
Buh bye!!!!
Proof….
….criminals have more “rights” than homeowners in England, and that country has gone 100% bonkers!
Shed owners warned wire on windows could hurt burglars
A spate of thefts in several towns and villages in Kent and Surrey over the past few months led to many householders taking action to protect their property.
Some have been warned by police that using wire mesh to reinforce shed windows was ”dangerous’’ and could lead to criminals claiming compensation if they ”hurt themselves’’.
Are they flippin’ serious????? Criminals might hurt themselves? Who freakin’ cares? They can come in, take what you worked hard to get, and sue you if you decide it’s your stuff, and don’t want to share it with thieves? Shoot the SOBs, and there won’t be a problem, will there!
A “Food” Review?
Lucky me! I got to go down to Corinth and spend a few hours waiting around for my heart doctor this afternoon. Yeah, I’m fine. Just a check up on some things that were going on. Not to worry.
Well, I have been seeing that ad for Sonic’s Red Velvet Cheesecake Blast.
I don’t usually fall for the commercial push for any particular item, but I really like red velvet cake (hey….I’m a Southerner….it’s in the DNA), so I figured after spending so long waiting, and getting more and more hungry, I deserved something full of calories. And it would get this urge for that thing out of my system.
Well, it worked! Not because I have any strength to resist such hinder spreading goodies. No, it worked, cuz now I know……
BLECH!
Who’s bright idea was that anyway? Sheesh! Did I finish it? Umm…. yeah….I did. Why? Well, there IS ice cream involved, y’know. 
Evidently, I’m not the only one with this opinion. Wish I had read that BEFORE I gave in to my urge. 
Happy Made Up Hallmark Holiday
It’s No Secret….
……I don’t much care for unions! If more people were aware of just how much damaged they have caused in this country, and how connected they are with the communists, I’m fairly sure, there would be many more who feel the same way I do. But, sadly, there are way too many who choose to be willfully ignorant on the subject.
Does anyone know why we have no manufacturing industry in this country any more? Why many products that are made here now are inferior? Quality isn’t important when your union can keep your sorry ass from being fired because you are incompetent. Many unions have brought about the slow demise of companies that provided jobs and supported communities. Many companies have left the country due to union influence. Why would I keep a company here, have to support a mediocre employee from ‘cradle to grave’, when I can move my company to a country that has people who actually want to EARN their income, and I can pay the going rate for said country, and hire MANY more people for the same money I would employee just one right here in the U.S.? It doesn’t make any business sense.
The connection between the unions and the left>progressives>socialists>communists is quite well documented, and, as Beck says, “Do your own homework.” From one of the many union publications:
Without the American labor movement there is no American left, and the debate taking place right now could very well determine if the movement survives.
By all means….kill it! The slow demise of this nation can be laid directly at the feet of such feckless beings.
The most incompetent in our time? The teachers and their unions. The biggest of which is NEA and its affiliates. Here in Tennessee, that would be TEA. One major plus for Tennessee though, we are a ‘right to work’ state. My understanding, you can’t be forced to join a union and support their left wing agenda with your money. Not to mention you won’t be paying for the top union officials play time at fabulous resorts.
Now, I’m not saying that all teachers are incompetent. Quite the contrary. There are many excellent teachers out there who actually CARE about the education of the nation’s children. The dream of becoming a teacher is strong in so many, they want to give, to teach, to aid, to mold minds of mush into rational thinkers. Sadly, they have been hamstrung by the unions. Unions with so much power, parents no longer have a say in how their children are education, or what they are taught.
Who decided some mindless union bureaucrat had that kind of power over our children? Actually, we did. We handed off our responsibilities, and it is way past time to take it back.
The State of Tennessee is making an effort to take away some of the union’s power with two bills, SB 113 and HB 130. Obviously, the union doesn’t like these bills. Why would they? Removing power from a union? Hey…works for me though. And it should be of utmost importance to every parent, grandparent, and future parent in the state!
Collective bargaining sounds pretty good on the outside….kind of like everyone is being looked after, and no one gets hurt, however, the nuts and bolts are anything but. It does not address the issue of the kids, just the teachers, and the union. If the left is all fired concerned with ‘the chillllllruns’, why is it that our children’s education has suffered so miserably through the power of the unions? When it is our tax dollars supporting unions, I think we should stand up and just say, not just no, but HELL NO! No other teacher’s union in the South East, or other public union in the state of Tennessee, has such a power. Why does the TEA?
Call, or write your state senators and representatives, and let them know you support these bills! If at all possible, show up at the Capital, EARLY (committee meeting starts at 10am, February 16, building opens at 8am). You can be sure, the unions will do what they always do…..bus in as many people as possible in opposition to these bills. (Aren’t they suppose to be working???? Teaching our children how to read, write, add, subtract….how to THINK? For themselves???)
Did you catch that? Power. And that’s what it is really all about. Power.
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. – Lord Acton
