An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for Taxes
It’s Not YOUR Money!
Stopping the Largest Tax Hike in History
The Foundry
The largest tax hike in history is due to strike the United States on January 1, 2013. Known as “Taxmageddon,” it would impose $494 billion in higher taxes on the American people in the first year. So terrible would be its impact that yesterday Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Senate Democrats that the country is headed toward a “fiscal cliff” and that Congress must deal with the impending tax nightmare.
On Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced that his chamber will take up the issue before the November election. Knowing Washington’s general reluctance to do anything of substance in an election year, Boehner’s announcement was welcome news given the disastrous ramifications the threat of such a massive tax hike is already having on the economy. That’s according to Mohammed El-Erian, CEO of Pimco, the world’s largest bond trading firm. El-Erian argues a “prolonged political inaction is likely to postpone building plants and purchasing equipment and to discourage them from hiring.” And that is only an inkling of the blow that would strike the economy if these tax hikes actually took effect.
The Campaigner in Chief
Obama’s Afghan trip: 14,000 miles for brief remarks lacking one crucial word
As usual with this president, Obama’s trip to and speech from Afghanistan had way more to do with politics than any real substance.
Seven thousand miles, one way, is a long journey to share war remarks with countrymen that he should have and could have shared back home many months ago. Despite the administration’s best backgrounding sales efforts, the document he signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a meaningless basic agreement to talk later about forging a real agreement.
Nothing was essentially changed by what the media lovingly called his “secret trip” to the war zone, which was simply unannounced for security reasons.
So, how much did this useless little jaunt cost the taxpayers this time? I guess we’ll find out eventually. But we must remember to add in all the goodies he’s promised to the corrupt Afghan government as well. What was I heard? TWO BILLION? Was that a year, or in total? And we shall never forget the cost in the lives of our military men and women, those who will never come home (68% on Obama’s watch), and the many whose lives will never be the same, physically, mentally, or emotionally. There is no dollar number that could EVER reflect that cost!
The Day After
It seems that the big predicted “American Spring” sprung a leak. Other than the usual violence and destruction on the left coast, the ‘revolution’ of the left fizzled.
While most of the days festivities apparently were rather peaceful, according to the majority of the lame stream, there were, naturally….incidents.
In Seattle (via Fox News)
Ya Know Why They Call It “Higher Education”?
Not because the students are getting smarter….they aren’t! Actually, I could give quite a few examples of quite the opposite. (Think Jay Walkers on Leno, when he asks COLLEGE students the simplest questions!) No, the reason they call it ‘higher education’ is because the COST keeps getting higher and higher!
Washington Needs A Lesson on Student Loans
The Foundry
You know a politician is looking for applause when he speaks in front of a crowd of college students and says he’s there to help them pay back their student loans. After all, who doesn’t like the prospect of free money? But as the saying (sort of) goes, beware of politicians bearing gifts. That’s especially true this week as President Barack Obama travels the country warning students that their student loan interest rates are set to double and that he has the answer to all their problems.
Guess what? He doesn’t. But if there’s one thing the president has managed to accomplish, it’s in turning this issue into a political football. And now the House of Representatives is joining the game.
This all began back in 2007 when Democrats pushed for a five-year student loan interest rate reduction to 3.4 percent as a temporary subsidy in order to help make the loans more affordable. Now that “temporary” subsidy is set to expire, meaning that rates will return to their original 6.8 percent levels. In the midst of all this, the House is expected to vote today on a measure that would keep interest rates where they are — costing taxpayers $5.9 billion for a one-year extension. And under the proposal, the extension would be paid for by taking funds from Obamacare’s Prevention and Public Health Fund. Obamacare, instead, should be repealed outright — not used as a “slush fund” to pay for other programs.
AFP Wasteful Spending Ad
Wild Bill’s Tax Plan
Since Some Folks Have Comprehension Issues….
….I thought this graphic found on Heritage from the IRS might assist in their understanding of the issue:
You’ll also notice, that those in the middle ‘class’ bracket pay more than the tier above them. Wonder why that is? Because the government is doing it’s best to kill the “middle class”.
BIG Government – Alive, Well, and SPENDING
The Bloated Government of America
The Foundry
The General Services Administration blew through $820,000 in taxpayers’ money in a lavish ”team building” trip to Las Vegas, and President Barack Obama is “apoplectic” at the news, according to the president’s campaign advisor, David Axelrod. Obama, he says, has devoted his efforts to saving “tens of billions of dollars” in cutting waste, fraud and inefficiency in government. Yet under President Obama’s leadership, government spending keeps growing irresponsibly, and neither he nor his allies in Congress are doing anything about it.
The latest example came last week when Democratic leadership in the Senate again passed the buck on enacting a budget — on April 29, it will have been three years since the Senate last passed a budget resolution. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D–ND),whose job it is to shepherd a budget through the Senate, said of his decision: “This is the wrong time to vote in committee. This is the wrong time to vote on the floor. I don’t think we will be prepared to vote before the election.” Conrad also said that offering a budget would be futile and “would do little to move us closer to a bipartisan agreement that can actually be adopted.”
The Thieves Of DC
What Tax Day Could Feel Like in 2013
The Foundry
In addition to today being Tax Day, it’s also, coincidentally, “Tax Freedom Day” — meaning that it has taken from January 1 until now for Americans to earn enough money to pay this year’s federal, state, and local tax bill — 29.2% of all our income. In other words, for the first 111 days of the year, everything you earned went straight to Uncle Sam. Compare that to back in 1900, when Americans paid only 5.9% of their income in taxes and Tax Freedom Day came on January 22.
The Tax Foundation reports that because of higher federal income and corporate tax collections, Tax Freedom Day came four days later this year than last. And the bad news is that unless Washington takes action, it will take working Americans 11 more days to meet next year’s tax burden.
Try A Bit Of Self Discipline, Instead Of Sucking The Well Dry!
The Internet Taxes that Could Be Coming
The Foundry
If you’ve ever bought anything on the Internet, over the phone, or from a catalog, you might have noticed that when you buy from some stores, you don’t pay any state sales tax, but if you buy from other stores, you do. That’s because a Supreme Court decision protected out-of-state businesses from revenue-hungry states. But a new bill working its way through Congress would change all that, turning every online retailer into a sales tax collector. And that’s legislation Congress should reject.
Back in 1992, the Supreme Court ruled in Quill Corporation v. North Dakota that a state cannot force a retailer who doesn’t have any physical presence in that state to collect sales taxes from Internet, phone or catalog sales. So if you ordered a book online from BarnesandNoble.com and there’s a Barnes and Noble store right down the street from your house, you’d have to pay sales tax. But if you ordered that book online from a mom and pop bookstore with one location halfway across the country, they wouldn’t have to collect sales tax from you.
Out Of Nashville
Death Tax Repeal Moves Out of House Finance Subcommittee
Rep Vance Dennis Newsletter
But let me ask….is cutting the tax on food from 5.5% to 5.25% really going to be saving Tennesseans all that much on their grocery bill? The cost of a gallon of milk, or a pound of butter has risen by leaps and bounds over the last couple of years, much more than that .25% that they would be allowing us to keep of our own money. Now, if they REALLY want to make an impression, cut out the food tax altogether. 
Ok, maybe that isn’t an answer, but at least cut it by a FULL 1%!There Ought To Be A Law!
Oh….wait a minute….THERE IS! It’s called the Constitution, which LIMITS the power of the government, NOT the people!
President Obama has touted reports from the Congressional Budget Office claiming his health care law would actually decrease the deficit. But due to a bundle of budget gimmicks and other legislation, calculations show that Obamacare actually adds $698 billion to the deficit. This week’s chart outlines each of those budget gimmicks.
“This morning a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office concludes that the reform we seek would bring $1.3 trillion in deficit reduction over the next two decades. That makes this legislation the most significant effort to reduce deficits since the Balanced Budget Act in the 1990s,” Obama declared two years ago.
CBO actually did project the health care law would reduce the deficit, but that assessment has “always rested on a series of omissions, gimmicks, double-counting of savings, and implausible assumptions that also have not changed since the law was enacted in 2010,” according to James Capretta, a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
The CBO report double-counted Medicare savings, which adds $400 billion to the deficit. The Medicare cuts were supposed to pay for both entitlement expansions and future benefits out of the Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund.
So, let’s face a few facts here: Barack Hussein Obama, and his minions, have been lying to, cheating, and stealing from the American people. As Reagan said: “It’s not that liberals are ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” All you have to do is listen to Debbie Washerwoman Schultz to know that this is STILL the case. (What a buffoon). They have taken your money, that you worked to earn, and “invested” in companies that anyone in their right mind, with any economic sense, would steer clear of!
They have thrown this overreaching bill in our face, and told us we will like it or else! Or else what? Well, you’ll get fined, and of course, there is always the possibility of spending time in jail because you totally disagree with the idea that the government has the ‘right’ to force you to buy something you don’t need, don’t want, and the country, as a whole, can’t afford.
They lie to seniors, telling them the Republican plans will cut Medicare, and yet, that is exactly what THEY have done. They steal your hard earned money, and give it to people who are nothing more than animals who would go out of their way to murder you in the middle of the street, in a heartbeat, and think nothing of it. They encourage “dissent” in other countries and total anarchy in our own, yet insult and belittle those who disagree with their policies. You know the ones I mean…those who support the Constitution, and would very much appreciate if all elected officials would uphold their oath to ‘support and defend’. Yet when they don’t, and won’t, nothing is ever done so why bother. I honestly question how many who are holding elected office have ever actually read our founding documents? I have no problem responding, that very few know what is even in either of the most important documents, since they have a tendency to misquote, leave out parts, and generally ignore them.
We have a POTUS, who nothing more than a spoiled, narcissistic, little boy, who when he doesn’t get his own way, will go around the elected bodies that supposedly represent the PEOPLE, and sign executive orders. Misuse of power? Oh yeah…and lots of it! Intimidation, voter fraud, outright theft of the PEOPLE’S money. I’d say we have plenty of reason to worry.
Note to Republicans in office: GROW A PAIR!
VOTE! Because Your Life DOES Depend On It!
Gosh! You Mean He Lied? AGAIN?
Color me SHOCKED! /snark
Beware the Taxmageddon
The Foundry
Brace yourself. In a mere 271 days, you and your fellow Americans will be hit with a tax hike the likes of which this country has never seen. The Washington Post aptly called the unprecedented $494 billion tax hike “Taxmageddon,” and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke described it as a “massive fiscal cliff.” Whatever your preferred imagery, it’s a really big deal.
Despite all the warnings, President Barack Obama has kept his silence while Congress has made no apparent effort to prevent this impending calamity to families and the economy. The prevailing wisdom is that “something will get done” in a lame duck session of Congress after the election. But why wait? And why after the election?
Here’s why you should be worried. For starters, remember that this is the same President who in 2009 promised, “if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime.” That’s a vow he’s broken, and in 2013, things are going to get even worse if this year Obama doesn’t lead and Congress doesn’t act. Katy, bar the door, there’s big trouble in store.
Public Education Has NOTHING To Do With “The Children”
Council of Despair: The CFR on America’s Public Schools
The CFR’s “task force” has announced that the failure of tax-funded K-12 education is the #1 threat to America’s position in the world.
The United States’ failure to educate its students leaves them unprepared to compete and threatens the country’s ability to thrive in a global economy and maintain its leadership role, finds a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)–sponsored Independent Task Force report on U.S. Education Reform and National Security.
“Educational failure puts the United States’ future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk,” warns the Task Force, chaired by Joel I. Klein, former head of New York City public schools, and Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. secretary of state. The country “will not be able to keep pace—much less lead—globally unless it moves to fix the problems it has allowed to fester for too long,” argues the Task Force.
The report notes that while the United States invests more in K-12 public education than many other developed countries, its students are ill prepared to compete with their global peers. According to the results of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international assessment that measures the performance of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science every three years, U.S. students rank fourteenth in reading, twenty-fifth in math, and seventeenth in science compared to students in other industrialized countries.
This sounds bad. It is bad. The problem is, all this has been known for years. Nothing changes except cost per student, which rises. Reform after reform is proposed. A few are begun. The performance of the students falls. The cost per student rises.
I’m going to HAVE to slip in a “WE TOLD YOU SO!” here. What those on the right have known for years, has been confirmed over and over. This report is just one more confirmation! The cost of education continues to skyrocket, yet the quality continues to plummet. There is no one answer, but there is a BIG one at the forefront!
Here are some data on student performance.
- More than 25 percent of students fail to graduate from high school in four years; for African-American and Hispanic students, this number is approaching 40 percent.
- In civics, only a quarter of U.S. students are proficient or better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
- Although the United States is a nation of immigrants, roughly eight in ten Americans speak only English and a decreasing number of schools are teaching foreign languages.
- A recent report by ACT, the not-for-profit testing organization, found that only 22 percent of U.S. high school students met “college ready” standards in all of their core subjects; these figures are even lower for African-American and Hispanic students.
- The College Board reported that even among college-bound seniors, only 43 percent met college-ready standards, meaning that more college students need to take remedial courses.
These are national over all averages. Of course, there are some schools, school districts, that exceed expectations, but those are becoming fewer and farther between. Do you ever ask yourself why? I did, many years ago, and after some majoy reading, investigating on my own, I figured it out. Those school districts that are at the bottom, and usually wholly ‘owned’ by the unions. Yet, in those same districts, taxes keep rising due to the cost of ‘education’. It’s not the education of the student that is so expensive these days….it’s the cost of putting a union hack teacher in the classroom. You aren’t paying for books, desks, needed supplies for your kids. No, you are paying for fat benefit packages, the type of package that will continue to pay the so called ‘teacher’ until the day he, or she, dies.
