Free Republic

There is a breathless article in today's Washington Post by Lori Montgomery detailing a study by JEC Democrat staff of the House GOP budget's tax reform plan. The headline of the report is that the tax plan, if implemented, would be a net tax hike for middle and upper-middle income households, and a giant tax cut for high income households. The only problem is that the analysis contains a fatal flaw that Lori Montgomery should have seen. The fact that she did not is troubling, to say the least. The House GOP budget empowers the Ways and Means Committee to...

Faced with the coming threat of the largest tax hike in history, commentators are salivating at the idea of another "grand bargain" that gets Republicans to agree to raise taxes on American families and employers. Any lawmaker willing to consider such a deal is poised to become another fool of history. The 1990 Budget Deal: Starting May of 1990, President George H.W. Bush huddled with Democrat House and Senate members at Andrews Air Force Base. What was Promised: Congressional Democrats convinced a number of Republicans to join them in a bipartisan deal promising $2 in spending cuts for every $1...

Deceptive Chimp Hides Ammo, Blasts Unsuspecting Zoo Visitors - (Santino just 1 second before the throw.) A chimp that creates hiding places for rocks he throws at zoo visitors reveals for the first time that humanity's closest living relatives can plan to deceive, researchers say. These findings could shed light on the evolution of higher mental functions such as planning, investigators added. The chimpanzee known as Santino is the dominant male of his group at Furuvik Zoo in Sweden. Intriguingly, past research showed the ape calmly gathered stones from his enclosure's moat and pieces of concrete he pulled off an...

Over the past three years, President Obama has demonstrated his willingness to lie about anything and everything if it leads to the acquisition and retention of maximum power for himself and his cohorts. Obama follows a pattern of overloading the system with deception, making responses to every individual distortion impractical or outright impossible. While Obama's opponents spend their precious time addressing each new lie, Obama keeps the focus off the end-zone, and seizures of power previously unthinkable are accomplished. At some point, citizens grow weary of hearing that their leaders are out for their ill, that political policies are nothing...

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Once upon a time the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation helped to maintain a certain focus. America and its European allies were supposedly upholding capitalism and freedom against Soviet Communism. Then the Soviet Union broke apart and we got our hands on the “peace dividend.” Money could be diverted from weapons to social programs. The West was free to pursue its own socialism – leading to bankruptcy. In 1990 a Soviet dissident named Sergei Grigoryants, who was twice imprisoned by the KGB, gave a speech in which he warned of the deceptive reality behind of the collapse...

Stumping for his “Buffett Rule” tax increase in Florida today, President Barack Obama said the following: “For those people who make under $250,000 a year – like 98 percent of American families do – then your taxes don’t go up.” – Barack Obama, April 10, 2012 But since taking office, President Obama has signed into law at least seven new or higher taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year. President Barack Obama’s central campaign promise – a “firm pledge” against “any form of tax increase” on families making less than $250,000 per year – was shattered when he...

President Barack Obama’s central campaign promise – a “firm pledge” against “any form of tax increase” on families making less than $250,000 per year – was broken two years ago today when he signed the Affordable Care Act into law. The healthcare law contains at least seven tax hikes that unquestionably violate Obama’s pledge. Documentation of Obama’s promise is as follows: Speaking in Dover, New Hampshire on Sept. 12, 2008, candidate Obama said: “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income...

The jobs-killing Obamacare law contains 20 new or higher taxes on American families and employers. Many of these tax increases fall on families making less than $250,000--a direct violation of candidate Obama's promise not to raise "any form" of taxes on these families. In less than a week, the second anniversary of Obamacare being signed into law will take place. The Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments about the constitutionality of Obamacare next week. Out of the 20 new or higher taxes in Obamacare, here are the four that most hurt young adults and children. Every single one of...

This was the winning photo of the year in Turkey in 2010 – a battered and bloody Israeli soldier aboard the Mavi Marmara. Nine people were killed onboard the Gaza-bound Turkish ship after IDF troops who raided it encountered violent resistance by “peace activists” armed with an assortment of weapons. The “peace activists” threw stun grenades and beat the Israeli soldiers with pipes and chains. In August 2011 the Obama Administration warned Israel to apologize to Turkey over its bloody interception of a Gaza aid flotilla in 2010, or risk strained ties with Washington. There were also reports that Barack...

According to Sharia law, if one's father is Muslim, one automatically becomes Muslim. "Most of the Muslims I know (me included) can't seem to accept that Obama is not a Muslim." Many in the media are indignant with Reverend Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Invited on "Morning Joe" last Tuesday to discuss Christian persecution, Graham was asked whether he thought President Barack Obama was Christian or not. Although Graham concluded that Obama "has said he is a Christian, so I just have to assume that he is," he appeared skeptical, suggesting Obama's policies disagreed with Christian...

Democrats in Washington State’s House of Representatives have unveiled their budget proposal – HB 2127 – which they claim closes a $1 billion budget shortfall without raising taxes or borrowing money. In reality, the budget does raise taxes, and relies on accounting gimmicks to solve their $1 billion spending problem. The budget proposal, along with SB 2728, would allow counties in Washington State to add a 6-perent utility tax that in many instances would wind up on taxpayers’ cell phone bills. Washington State already has the 2nd highest national tax burden on wireless, with a combined state and federal rate...

We haven’t written on this item yet because, well, it’s so easy to kick ‘em when they are down. But we’ll deign to indulge just this once: The global warmists are at it again. Remember ClimateGate? They call this one FakeGate. James Taylor at Forbes sums it up nicely today: . . .

President Obama released his FY 2013 budget [Monday] morning. By his own numbers, his budget raises net taxes over the next decade by $1.56 trillion (Table S-9, page 225). As a percentage of the economy, tax revenues would rise all the way to 20.1% of GDP in 2022, far higher than the historical tax revenue average of 18.3% of GDP (Table S-1, page 205). Here are some of the tax lowlights: All 20 of the new or higher taxes in Obamacare are assumed to take place. That means that there will be a 3.8 percentage point surtax on investment income....

One of our letter writers, and we love you all, complained that our Sunday column wasn’t civil enough for his liking. “While columnist Mark Landsbaum cannot be accused of harassing the president…” Whew. At least we aren’t a harasser. But the writer had his complaints:...

In December 2010, Congress enacted a 2 percentage point payroll tax reduction, bringing the FICA rate down from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent as a part of the legislation extending unemployment benefits and preventing tax rates from rising. All throughout the debate Democrats billed the reduction as a temporary move, slated to expire on December 31, 2011. Congress is considering whether to extend this rebate. Because it was always a temporary measure, opposition to this extension cannot fairly be called support for a tax increase. There is ample evidence that Democrats always believed the payroll tax rebate to be temporary....

Don't be conned into nominating Mitt Romney.

By avoiding the contentious question of Obama's "natural born" eligibility, America's academic establishment has also stifled discussion on the inextricably related issue of citizenship law in our country, in the greater context of immigration reform. The first instance of academia's cloak-throwing was noted in an American Thinker article which described the revision made by Professor Larry Solum to his scholarly paper that addressed Senator McCain's eligibility, "Originalism and the Natural Born Citizenship Clause." The original version was published in 2008. Without saying it explicitly in his footnote of explanation, Solum's revision implied, subtly, that he also supported the eligibility of...

A Jefferson County judge today set a Monday hearing on a lawsuit challenging President Barack Obama's citizenship and right to be on the 2012 ballots in Alabama. Circuit Judge Helen Shores Lee will consider a request by Mark Kennedy, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, to dismiss the suit filed against him on Dec. 14 by Birmingham resident Albert E. Hendershot. The hearing will start at 9 a.m. Jan. 9 in Lee's Birmingham courtroom. Hendershot wants Lee to issue an injunction blocking Obama from being certified as a candidate in Alabama. His suit claims he has "staggering evidence" that Obama...

Despite a referendum from House Republicans, the National Labor Relations Board is moving forward with its Ambush Election rule. The NLRB finalized the rule yesterday, making cosmetic changes to the original proposed rule. Unsurprisingly, the Ambush Election rule still silences workers and burdens employers. Here’s what DC’s labor experts are saying about the rule: “With the unemployment above 8 percent for almost three years, the NLRB Final Election Rule is another slap in the face at out-of-work Americans. The rule, which reduces the time before elections for union representation and prevents employers from presenting the facts to their workforce, will...