An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for Taxes
Obama-Biden Seek To Kill MORE American Jobs
The Highest Taxes in the World
The Foundry
There aren’t many American-owned companies more iconic than Anheuser-Busch, the famous producer of Budweiser beer based in St. Louis, Missouri. That was true up until 2008, when the Brazilian-Belgian company InBev executed a hostile takeover of the historic brewer, leading to layoffs of more than 1,800 workers. Unfortunately, conditions in the United States are growing ripe for even more takeovers like these to occur, especially now that the nation’s corporate tax rate is officially the highest in the world.
As of yesterday, the U.S. corporate tax rate of 39.2 percent claimed the world’s top spot, edging out Japan which recently lowered its rate from 39.5 percent to 36.8 percent. (The U.S. rate includes the 35 percent federal rate plus the average rate the states add on.) That’s well above the 25 percent average of other developed nations. Heritage’s Curtis Dubay explains the impact on companies based in the United States:
This gaping disparity means every other country that we compete with for new investment is better situated to land that new investment and the jobs that come with it, because the after-tax return from that investment promises to be higher in those lower-taxed nations.
Not An American!
Poll: Egyptian Negativity Toward U.S. Surges, As U.S. Prepares to Send Egypt $1.5 Billion
A majority of Egyptians (56%) now see closer relations with the U.S. as a bad thing for their country, up sharply from 40% in December 2011, a Gallup poll says.
Egyptians are now more likely to favor closer ties with Turkey and Iran than with the United States, the poll found.
Only 28 percent of Egyptians said closer relations with the U.S. are a good thing.
The poll, released on Friday, comes as the Obama administration announced it will waive democracy requirements so it can send up to $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt, despite concerns that the country is backsliding on its commitments to democracy and the rule of law.
According to the Associated Press, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has decided that it is in the U.S. national interest to allow $1.3 billion in military assistance to flow to Egypt. She also certified that Egypt is meeting its obligations to the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, which frees up an additional $200 million in economic aid.
Clinton is expected to sign the waiver on Friday.
Well, he can’t be, can he. I mean, if he was, he’d be able to understand plain ol’ American English, wouldn’t he? And EVERYONE understands the word NO! Haven’t we said it often enough? I’m even questioning Hillary’s ability to understand the language. I THINK she was born and bred somewhere in the states….Illinois, wasn’t it? But her comprehension comes into question as well. I suppose it’s possible since her spouse of many years never could understand the word, it’s rubbed off?
It’s a simple word, spoken by a large majority of people, on a regular basis, and yet….those at the top don’t seem to be able to comprehend….WE DO NOT SUPPORT GIVING ANY OF OUR MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO HATE US! Really, you’d think anyone with common sense would be able to grasp this concept. Oh…ooops! Silly me! There is NO common sense with this bunch! These are the type of people who would kill every single one of us, yet, the head honcho doesn’t seem to give a flying flip. Is that his intent? To encourage the slaughter of innocents? It’s worked real well in other countries, hasn’t it.
Contrary to what the fake potus has said, we ARE a Christian nation, by a large majority. Why would we send monetary support to a country that persecutes our brothers and sisters? There is no logic to this guy’s actions, in darn near EVERYTHING. No logic whatsoever! It’s our job to fight evil, root it out where we find it. Obviously, that’s not part of Obama’s agenda. Nope….he gives it money! OUR money!
The Looming Doom
Total Copy & Paste
15 Responsibilities You Have As An Adult
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. — 1 Corinthians 13:11
A society of children cannot survive, no matter how all-embracing the government nanny. — Mark Steyn
The biggest reason that our government has turned into a nanny state is because so many American adults act like spoiled, petulant children. This is not about being a conservative as opposed to a liberal; it’s about being an adult as opposed to a child. You want to be a man? Act like a man, not a boy. You want to be treated like a woman? Act like a woman instead of a little girl playing with her dolls. Ultimately, if you want the respect that comes with being an adult, you have to do more than reach adulthood. Instead, you have to actually embrace the responsibilities that come with being a man. Until you can do that, you’ll forever be an unworthy child, no matter what age you reach.
Take A Sugar Cane And……
Sugar under attack in obesity fight
Three California obesity researchers struck a nerve in Tennessee’s sweet tooth last month when they proposed regulating sugar in the same way government regulates tobacco and alcohol.
In the journal Nature , they pegged a litany of chronic illnesses to excess sugar consumption — diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver disease and others. Their article proposed taxing foods with added sugar, restricting purchases to ages 17 and over, and limiting convenience stores in poor neighborhoods.
There is no doubt in my mind….California really IS a granola state….fruits, nuts, and flakes! First off, ya don’t tax people even more, second, ya don’t tell people what they can and cannot eat or drink, and third….it’s called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY! The whole thing sounds like discrimination against the poor folks to me!
Days before the Nature article published, U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais made a proposal on the other side of the political spectrum: a bill that would bar federal dollars from being used to publicly criticize foods already approved by the Food and Drug Administration. He’d learned federal stimulus funds financed healthy living campaigns that, in part, discouraged drinking sugary soda.
It is not the job of the government to spend OUR money to tell us what we should or shouldn’t drink. Seriously, there are many other ways our funds could be used…usefully….like supporting our men and women in the military! Novel concept.
When Is It Time To STOP Being A Spoiled Brat?
When Spoiled-Rotten Children Grow Up
Riot police had to be called to an Orlando mall on Feb. 23. Why? Because an unruly crowd of would-be shoppers couldn’t wait to get their hands on the new Foamposite One Galaxy by Nike.
In case you’ve never heard of it (I hadn’t either), this is a special-edition basketball shoe that Nike introduced just days before the NBA All-Star Game. The House of Hoops by Foot Locker at Florida Mall had ordered a bunch of the shoes and announced that they would be sold (at $220 a pair) on a first-come, first-served basis at midnight.
Hundreds of people showed up long before the sale was to begin. Police were called to maintain some semblance of order. But well before the sale began, several hundred people rushed the door.
Law enforcement officers in riot gear pushed back the crowd. The store decided not to open that night at all. By Friday morning, Foot Locker announced that it was canceling the All-Star weekend shoe release at six other malls because of “safety concerns.”
So a near-riot broke out because some spoiled brats couldn’t wait to get their hands on a $220 pair of tennis shoes. Isn’t that ridiculous?
Frankly, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is just one more consequence of the entitlement philosophy our children have been taught. It’s been going for several generations.
Even MORE Taxes?
Color me shocked!
Obama’s Hidden Tax Hikes
The Foundry
EXCLUSIVE: It could be said that President Obama has never seen a tax hike he doesn’t like — whether it’s letting the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire, insisting on higher taxes for job creators, and yesterday calling on Congress to raise taxes on the oil industry. But as much as the President wants to raise taxes, Heritage has discovered that there are even more tax hikes hidden in his budget, adding up to a total of $2 trillion in higher taxes.
In a new report, Heritage’s Curtis Dubay uncovers Obama’s hidden tax hikes and finds that the President’s proposed $1.561 trillion tax increase over 10 years is much bigger than advertised. In fact, the President wants to raise taxes by $1.689 trillion – that’s $128 billion more than was reported by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the President’s FY 2013 budget proposal.
What’s to account for the discrepancy? Dubay explains that OMB reports the tax hikes in areas other than the tax section, misleading readers into believing that the President’s tax hikes are smaller than they are in reality. Among them are the “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee,” better known as the bank tax, which adds another $61 billion to the President’s tax hike total; a $44 billion tax hike from allowing the IRS to adjust a program integrity cap; a $48 billion increase of the unemployment tax; and a $1 billion hike of user fees for commercial navigation of inland waterways.
Bad Behavior
Greece to get $170B bailout, reduce debt
After more than 12 hours of talks, the countries that use the euro reached an agreement early Tuesday to hand Greece euro130 billion ($170 billion) in additional bailout loans to save it from a potentially disastrous default next month.
The deal is expected to bring Greece’s debt down to 120.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 — that’s around the maximum that the International Monetary Fund and the eurozone consider sustainable.
The euro surged as the news of a deal broke early Tuesday. The accord should take some pressure off the 17-country currency union that has been battling a serious debt crisis for two years.
Without the deal, Greece was facing a potentially calamitous default next month and possibly being forced from the eurozone. The talks stretched into the early hours of Tuesday as ministers wrangled over how to cut Greece’s debt to a level that it could eventually pay back while not raising their own commitments.
What we have here is rewarding bad behavior. Again. Honestly, the European Union was a real bad idea from the start, and it’s not getting any better. The socialistic tendency of Europe have increased to the point where they are complete unsustainable. Do they really believe the Greeks who have been burning businesses, destroying streets and behaving like spoiled children are going to change? I seriously doubt it. The best thing they, or any such entity could, and should, do is let Greece succeed or fail, on their own merits. Obviously, the rioters aren’t concerned about the country as a whole (kind of like our socialist ‘occupiers’). They just want to continue their gimme behavior and to hell with everyone else. Well, Greece has run out of ‘other people’s money’, and now, it’s time to pay the piper. Why should anyone else pay ‘him’? We’ve seen some of this right here in the U.S. with the bailouts of car companies, banks, etc., and we, the taxpayers are on the hook for billions and BILLIONS because of weasel behavior. Oakland is already burning. When will the rest of the country go up in smoke?
Translation: “If the revolution will not happen peacefully, then it will happen violently. Anarchy!”
(Glenn Beck in front of a warning from Greek anarchists. Photo by Mark Mabry)
Crony Corruption
Obama’s Friends Win Big in Budget
The Foundry
You don’t need to log on to President Barack Obama’s Facebook page to find out who his friends are, and you don’t need to read tea leaves, gaze into a crystal ball, or consult a psychic to learn where his priorities lie. No, you only have to take a look at his 2013 budget, just released on Monday, to see what kind of company the president keeps and to what extent he will go to lend his pals a helping hand.
The folks seated at the president’s head table haven’t changed much in the past few years — the only difference is how much is being served up in the taxpayer-funded buffet. As in the past, the president has plenty of handouts for his big labor buddies. His budget delivers a fourth consecutive annual deficit exceeding $1 trillion — and that spending goes to yet another round of not-so-shovel-ready construction projects and government “investments” totaling $178 billion. Heritage’s Patrick Knudsen writes that the spending includes the president’s favored road, bridge, and school construction projects, but “then they go alarmingly beyond the usual ‘infrastructure’ arguments to fund teachers’ pay.” In other words, unions representing the construction site and the classroom win big.
Betrayed
Diplomat: US, Allies Losing Face in Region
Iranian Envoy to Kabul Fada Hossein Maleki underlined the US and its allies’ continued failures in the region, and said they have lost their reputation among the regional states.
Maleki pointed to the complication of the security situation in the region and the failure of the US policies, and added that Washington and its allies have sustained heavy damages and lost their political prestige among regional countries.
Considering who is in “charge”, is it any surprise? We’ve become a laughing stock thanks to the moron that goes around, playing golf and apologizing for American exceptionalism, dragging us down into the sewers.
He emphasized that covert talks between the US and Taliban and the opening of an office for the militant group in Doha, Qatar, with Washington’s financial and political support show a stalemate in the West’s strategy.
Analysts are skeptical of the prospects of meaningful peace negotiations with the Taliban.
The Founders must be spinning in their graves! My dad, my uncles, the millions who volunteered to protect our nation, and who gave their lives, from the same type of animals who have no value for life. We don’t negotiate with terrorists, or their sponsors. Nor, do we foot the bill for them!
The developments came after the United States softened tone on the Taliban, an accomplice of the al-Qaeda which the US has long taken responsible for the 9/11 attacks on New York’s twin towers.
No, actually, the United States (WE, The People) has not “softened the tone”! The Barack Hussein Obama administration, filled with chicken sh***, is undermining every advancement our soldiers (and the coalition troops) have made. He obviously doesn’t understand the purpose of a war is to freakin’ WIN! True Americans don’t bow to anyone, especially their enemies.
The Pakistani media revealed in January that the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has removed the name of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar from the list of “most wanted terrorists.”
An act of cowardice!
The report came following Washington’s secret meetings with the Taliban after one decade of war. US officials have held several meetings with representatives of the Afghan Taliban leader, headed by Tayyib Agha, in Germany and Qatar over the past months.
During the meetings, the US and Taliban negotiators reached a deal to transfer five Taliban militants, who are under custody in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, to Qatar. The removal of Mullah Omar’s name from the terror list comes after the prisoner deal.
Honestly, I’m so angry right now, I can’t even think straight! Obama and his weasels MUST GO! How dare them give OUR money to the very same people who aided the trash who murdered 3000 human beings on 9/11.
A Hand UP…Not A Hand OUT
2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.
I wonder if this is why the Democrats in the Senate refuse to come up with a budget?
Dependence on Government Highest in History
The Foundry
When John F. Kennedy was President, just over a quarter of federal spending went to fund programs paying for some 21.7 million Americans to be dependent on Uncle Sam. But as high as that spending and dependence on the federal government was then, it has exploded today, with one in five Americans — more than 67.3 million — depending on Washington for assistance.
Obama’s “Jesus” Taxes!
Well said, Mr Crowder!
Thieving Money
Yesterday, this little story was in our church’s bulletin, and it got me to thinking. I have a tendency to associate things with current events, and this is no different.
A twelve-year-old member of the church I pastor recently left a five dollar bill on my desk with a note that read, “I have my thieving money”, along with her signature. I couldn’t figure out what she meant. Had she stolen money she was now returning?
When I saw the girl’s father the next Sunday, I mentioned the money and note and asked if he could tell me what she meant. With no hesitation, he said that it was her tithe. She obviously had misspelled tithing.
As I thought about the misspelling, I realized that for those who do not tithe, they really do have a stash of “thieving” money, for as the Bible suggest, the one who refuses to tithe is stealing from God.
Now, what struck me in the scope of current events? Well, that would be the complete misunderstanding of Barack Hussein Obama of scripture!
“For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that for unto whom much is given, much shall be required,” Obama said, quoting the Gospel of Luke.
Evidently, he doesn’t understand that the command is for the individual to give. Forced giving is not a joy, it is a burden. To give freely of yourself is the joy that the Bible is relating, not the theft by the government in the form of taxes. It is the church’s duty to care for the destitute, the infirm, the lost, NOT the government! I suppose sitting in Jeremiah Wright’s church for all those years, it’s understandable that he doesn’t know the true meaning of Scripture. I suggest we pray that his eyes will be opened, that he will take the blinders of socialism off, and truly see!
Lies, Damn Lies, and Politics
Labor Market Contracts by 1.2 Million People, Zero Hedge Reports
The labor market contracted by 1.2 million people in a month, according to research from Zero Hedge, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The government reports that the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in January from 8.5 percent in December as the economy has added a net 243,000 nonfarm payrolls to the economy.
However, those who quit looking for work aren’t counted as part of the total labor force, which also isn’t accurately reflecting population growth, which basically allowed the government to yank 1.2 million out of the labor force in January.
Wouldn’t it be nice if this administration would just tell the truth for a change? I know…. I’m asking the impossible! What are the REAL numbers? They can tell us the unemployment rate has dropped to 8.3%, but that doesn’t make it true. How about counting ALL the people who are out of work, who have given up because there are no jobs in their field, and are now having to take government aid? But then, isn’t that what this administration wants? As many people dependent on the government as possible. The ruinous policies of the Obama administration has sunk this country so far into debt, in all likelihood, no matter who wins in 2012, the ability to reverse the damage will be almost impossible in one term. However, giving Obama and his machine a second ‘chance’, will do even MORE damage!
Holder’s Crime Syndicate
A U.S. Justice Department source has told The Daily Caller that at least two DOJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted.
The sitting governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, his attorney general and an unspecified number of Virgin Islands legislators also accepted bribes, the source said, adding that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is aware prosecutors and elected officials were bribed and otherwise compromised, but has not held anyone accountable.
Is there NO ONE accountable in Obama’s administration?
The bribed officials, an attorney with knowledge of the investigation told TheDC, remain on the taxpayers’ payroll at the Justice Department without any accountability. The DOJ source said Holder does not want to admit public officials accepted bribes while under his leadership.
I may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but even I know that bribery is a crime. And these criminals are still on OUR dime?
DOJ leadership has been fretting internally, the source said, about how to handle the story when the news breaks because it represents a new level of corruption in the Obama administration. The Holder Justice Department is concerned about the appearance that it lacks the competence to enforce the laws in which Obama has shown political interest, including those related to corruption and other financial crimes.
The list is growing of the Obama administration’s crimes. Under the so called leadership of Eric Holder, crime seems to be the norm for his department. When will we see the arrest of this feckless weasel?
