Free Republic

Then presidential candidate Barack Obama mocked Sen. John McCain during the campaign for proposing to tax health care benefits. Do you find it ironic that the Senate seems to be seriously considering implementing McCain’s idea of taxing health care benefits to help pay for Obama's very pricey Health Care Reform?

About a week ago, a mailer from a cigar company I have dealt with arrived at my home. It contained this text: Dear Friends, As many of you know and some may not, one of President Obama's first actions was to sign into legislation what is known as the SCHIP bill. This legislation provides for health insurance for children. This legislation was vetoed by President Bush twice as an unfair tax on the American people. This program is almost entirely funded by the tobacco industry, and not just cigarettes. Some of the new taxes on tobacco increase by 2400%. That's...

Nearly two dozen Colorado legislators were briefed Wednesday on the status of health care reform plans being developed by a legislative commission charged with finding ways to insure all Coloradans. The Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform is only two weeks away from finalizing a fifth and final proposal, one that resembles a plan started by Massachusetts last year requiring that people purchase insurance and prevent companies from rejecting sick applicants. While the commission stressed that it still is working out details of that final plan... A commission subcommittee working on the fifth proposal previously suggested providing subsidies to...

ut for all the talk about warming, leading politicians have yet to educate their constituents (and their colleagues) about an unpleasant and inescapable truth: any serious effort to fight warming will require everyone to pay more for energy. According to most scientists, the long-term costs of doing nothing — flooding, famine, drought — would be even higher than the costs of acting now. But unless Americans understand and accept the trade-off — higher prices today to avoid calamity later — the requisite public support for real change is unlikely to build. Energy is currently underpriced in part because its cost...

A theory, via e-mail: Actually, Chertoff said something even more interesting yesterday. A yet unanswered question is “Why is the open borders lobby pushing for amnesty?” After all, they had it pretty good with no federal enforcement.Chertoff and Kyl both seem to have answered that question recently, Kyl in his Wall Street Journal interview and Chertoff on Fox News yesterday: because businesses are starting to worry about efforts to enforce immigration laws at the local level. One state in the vanguard of that effort is Kyl’s (and McCain’s) home state of Arizona, where the legislature has passed numerous laws (usually...

Hillary Rodham Clinton also addressed a hotel and casino workers Wednesday morning in Las Vegas. Senator Clinton told members of the Culinary union that corporate America was trying to pull the rug out from under the middle class. She said, "I have nothing against rich people... but what made America great is the middle class." Clinton credited the union movement with building the middle class. She said she thinks it should be easier to join unions and said she supports a union-supported method of organizing called "card check." The union is negotiating its contract with MGM Mirage, Harrah's Entertainment and...

Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined a broad economic vision Tuesday, saying it's time to replace an "on your own" society with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity. The Democratic senator said what the Bush administration touts as an "ownership society" really is an "on your own" society that has widened the gap between rich and poor. "I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society," she said. "I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none." Clinton said she would...

Before Amendment 42 passed in November, some restaurateurs weren't concerned about a minimum wage increase, but as it turns out, the law is impacting restaurant budgets significantly. "It's a huge change," said Barb Richard, marketing manager for the Dillon Dam Brewery. "We've had to tighten our belt everywhere, from ads to raises, and cut costs dramatically. (But) there's no way to absorb it completely." Eric Mamula, owner of Downstairs at Eric's in Breckenridge, said he's paying his waitstaff $75,000 to $80,000 more annually because of the amendment, which calls for waitstaff to earn a minimum of $3.83 an hour, up...

If you make minimum wage, get ready for a raise. Amendment 42, which increases the minimum wage in Colorado, will take effect January 1. But not everyone is excited about the change. "It's gonna be less people making more money," said Conway's Red Top Operations Manager, Ralph Brown. Brown says 12 employees lost their jobs last month when the chain's Palmer Park location closed. He says the reason was low business and what the wage increase will cost the chain's remaining 4 restaurants. "It will be almost $100.00 a day for pay role at every store." That's money Brown says...

Under Texas' new tax proposal, savvy consumers who get a deal from a private seller on a used car or truck won't get the same deal from the tax assessor. To get $70 million in extra money for the state's budget, the Texas Tax Reform Commission has proposed a "liar's affidavit" that would crack down on used-car sales in Texas to thwart sales-tax fraud. That means someone who buys a discounted vehicle would have to pay sales tax on its full value. The provision is a relatively small part of the overall tax reform proposal, which seeks to raise $6...

827 Seattle students informed they will be freshmen again... Nearly one in four Seattle Public Schools sophomores is missing required credits and has been reclassified as a freshman, potentially delaying graduation. The move, effective this semester, was part of a package of changes the district announced in October to help better prepare high school students to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and graduate. Under district policy, high school students have to complete five credits a year to advance to the next grade. At some schools, the rate was far higher than one in four students. At Rainier Beach...

Enjoy those $6.59 cigarette packs for the next 19 days. Starting March 1, they'll cost $7.59. By a 10-7 vote, Cook County Board members voted Thursday to double the county tax on a pack of cigarettes from $1 to $2. A pack of Marlboro Lights that cost $6.59 at a downtown Walgreens Thursday will be $7.59 next month. The same pack costs $4.45 at a White Hen in the DuPage County city of Elmhurst, and it costs $3.76 at a Hammond, Ind... Commissioners voting against the tax hike said shoppers will increasingly hop borders, hurting Cook County businesses. With the...

Last year was another instrumental year in the advance of world government. While most commentators will concentrate on popularized events, many will not discuss the latest steps taken to cement the final touches to a world governmental structure, that has been in the making for the last 150 years or so. In order to understand the importance of 2005's global achievements in the march towards global governance, which is the integration of the world's peoples, countries, and philosophies, we must briefly visit the past. Let us recount the 1913 birth of the U.S. tax code. Over the past 92 years,...

Posted on Fri, Jan. 27, 2006 Corzine advisers calling for taxes Their transition report has outlined unpopular budget solutions. N.J. lawmakers joined in a chorus of boos. By Kaitlin Gurney Inquirer Trenton Bureau TRENTON - Expand the sales tax to include clothes and online purchases. Tax 401(k) retirement accounts. Raise the gas tax. Consider a temporary increase in the state income tax. With New Jersey's finances "perilously close to ruin," Gov. Corzine's budget advisers have recommended these unpopular solutions and more to fill what they estimate to be a $6 billion hole in the state's budget. The grim transition report...

As optimism poured into their hearts and knowledge crammed into their brains, more than 100 local residents peered with a wan smile into their collective future Friday during the first official smart growth educational workshop. Four erudite speakers presented a path toward a near-utopian life for Ukiahans -- full of walkable communities, slower traffic and more prominent greenscaping. But it was the far-reaching, more intimate impacts of smart growth that produced a series of gasps from the audience. A cross-sectional crowd of elected officials, public and private planners, contractors, builders and other concerned citizens took part of the workshop, co-sponsored...

What does IBM know that most New York lawmakers don't? Judging by Big Blue's recent announcement that it is shifting to a defined-contribution pension plan, it knows that these plans are the only way forward for any company that hopes to stay on this side of bankruptcy court. Defined contributions have been the norm among small companies for years, but old industrial giants have been slow on the draw. Some, like General Motors, are still grappling with defined benefit pension programs ... There's a lesson here for New Yorkers faced with troubled pension systems. The logic becoming so catastrophically clear...

The sales tax in town will increase ... "I don't think now is the time to put the squeeze on other things just because we have additional expenses," (Hans Scharer) said. That's just what Tom Ahern, who owns Latitude 33 bookshop, is proposing. He worries shoppers will now head elsewhere with higer taxes in Laguna. "Why do they always have to consider raising taxes, rather than cutting taxes from a fat government?"

If Hillary Clinton runs for President in 2008, just 25% of Americans say they would definitely vote for her. That's down five points over the past two weeks. It's also the lowest level of support measured for the former First Lady in 2005. (Review Trends). Forty percent (40%) would definitely vote against Senator Clinton. That's little changed from two weeks ago. Rasmussen Reports has conducted a Hillary Meter poll every other week since April. Only once has the number who say they would definitely vote against Clinton been higher than it is now.

http://www.gunowners.org/a111705.htm URGENT!!! URGENT!!! -- House to Vote Soon On Granting FBI Unlimited Access To Gun Sales Records Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585 Thursday, November 17, 2005 Registration leads to confiscation. We all know that, and that is why GOA has vehemently opposed all attempts by government forces to compile or retain information pertaining to lawful firearms purchases. But in the name of fighting terrorism, the United States Congress is getting ready to trample on the rights of law-abiding Americans, no matter what the Constitution (and current law) happens to say. The House...

Voting problems cropped up late in the day: Higher-than-expected turnout led to ballot shortages in El Paso County, a conservative Republican stronghold anchored by Colorado Springs that can swing elections as Colorado's third-most populous county. County returns were delayed for hours as sheriff's deputies toted ballots to polling stations where lines of people were still waiting to vote, county clerk and recorder Bob Balink said. A voting machine also broke down in tiny Mineral County... Referendum C would let the state keep an estimated $3.7 billion over five years that would otherwise be refunded under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights,...