Free Republic

The fix is in. Did you know, corporations like General Electric Co. (GE) spend more money on lobbyists than they pay in taxes? The federal government currently taxes corporations at 35 percent. While many argue the rate is too high, you don’t hear companies like GE complaining about it. That’s because they aren’t paying it. Over the past 15 years, GE’s federal income tax rate averaged only 5.2 percent. General Electric paid no federal taxes in 2010, despite earning $5.1 billion in U.S. profits. Instead, the company claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. Meanwhile, GE executives awarded themselves more...

The monthly bills are due again, and it seems you are getting further and further behind. You’ve scrimped and cut costs as much as you possibly can, there’s no change left in the couch cushions or the car seats, and it looks like another month of Ramen noodles and raising/lowering the thermostat to cut down on energy bills. How about turning things around and looking at this from the income side instead of only cutting expenses? You may already be working two jobs to make ends meet, but there are legitimate ways to make side money online that don’t involve...

The amount of money the government spends on programs and the amount it collects in taxes could change from the budget office projections, so the office warns that the Treasury could run out of funds even earlier. Currently, the federal deficit stands at $693 billion, which is an increase of $134 billion than what it projected in January. The federal government has an outstanding debt of $19.8 trillion, which includes $14.3 trillion in public debt and $5.5 trillion held by government accounts. Spending on major government programs such as Social Security and Medicare causes the amount of borrowing to increase....

Could this have anything to do with Vatican financial reform? Let’s get the “full disclosure” out of the way up front: Cardinal George Pell and I have been friends for 50 years, and collaborators in different projects for 25. The Victoria police in his native Australia have now announced that they are filing “multiple charges in respect to historic sexual offenses” against Pell. This has come as no surprise to those familiar with the fantastic campaign of false allegations of sexual abuse that has been conducted against the cardinal: allegations of which he has been consistently exonerated. But despite that...

Disclosure this week that George Soros, financier of international leftist agitation, has donated to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's Institute for International Leadership has sparked some of the Senator's critics to question his judgment. In a bid to reassure everyone that he can "take money from anyone without compromising my principals," McCain pointed out that "I have taken millions of dollars from Republican donors without letting them influence my views. In fact, the Institute was initially funded with $9 million in campaign donations that I never spent. The $100,000 Soros gave the Institute is tiny in comparison. So, I think...

Executive leadership coach Lolly Daskal has worked with hundreds of millionaires and billionaires. The secret to their success doesn't boil down to one specific habit, routine or personality trait, she tells CNBC: "The secret of the true billionaire is what's going on on the inside." "There's so much literature out there about how to succeed," she continues. "Most of the books talk about 'how': Do this and you will be that. But it doesn't work that way. We have it backwards. What we really need to do is to figure out who we are on the inside. We need to...

The nation owes about $1.5 trillion in student loans today. Nearly $1 trillion of this was added during the last president’s term. Student loan debt has skyrocketed past credit card debt, and all other revolving consumer debt combined. By the end of next year, the country will pass the $2 trillion mark. This debt is strapped to 44 million people in the country, who carry an average debt of $34,000. Interest alone on this amount is about $90 billion per year. In President Trump’s joint session address last night, however, he said absolutely nothing about the student loan problem.

The Democratic National Committee raised nearly $4.3 million in May, making it the organization's worst May on record for fundraising since 2003, according to newly released Federal Election Commission data. In May 2003, the Democratic group pulled in $2.7 million. Although 2017 is an off-year for fundraising, the DNC has raised between $4.5 million and $20 million every May in the nearly decade and a half since then. The low number follows another rough fundraising month in April, in which the group hauled in $4.7 million, making it the worst April of fundraising since 2009.

Just wanted to send a big thank you to the Leftists in CA-NY-MA-DC that sent about $31 million dollars to be spent GA-6 the last 3 months. Please come again any time.

Britain’s banks are being urged to upgrade cash machines because the new £10 and £5 are ‘too slippery’. Bosses at Diebold Nixdorf, the firm which makes ATMs, said the network of around 70,000 UK machines would need to be upgraded once the new polymer £10 notes enter circulation in September. Some of the devices have already been improved to handle polymer £5 notes after it was released last autumn.

James Comey mentioned in his testimony at one time something about "what my mom taught me" in regard to values. He lied. Any man taught Biblical values properly by one's parents and/or Bible teachers at church and sometimes in an educational setting will stick by those values for the rest of his life. Comey hasn't done that. His priority in life was his income and retirement. So, he would go with the political winds in order to survive. Many have done this in their lives in order to remain employed and/or earn more money. So many senators praised Comey for...

RUSH: You know, we talked about this, too, not long ago, the discovery that whenever there were fines issued by the DOJ and the Obama administration, the fine money went to left-wing special interest groups, and Eric Holder administered it. It was almost like a Obama slush fund. Well, Jeff Sessions has just ended this. The DOJ will no longer make payments to left-wing special interest groups with money collected by fining various criminal activity. This is a huge, huge deal. People didn’t even know it was going on. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: If you’re just hearing about this for the...

President Donald Trump appears ready to remake the Federal Reserve in an image that will be considerably different than what investors have known for many years. The president is prepared to nominate Randal Quarles and Marvin Goodfriend to two of three vacancies at the central bank, according to multiple press accounts that have not been disputed by the administration. Quarles likely would assume the role vacated by Daniel Tarullo to oversee the nation's banking system. White House officials did not respond to a CNBC request for comment. Should Trump nominate the two men and they receive confirmation, it will represent...

No need to quit your job to start. Just begin laying the groundwork for a more prosperous future in your spare time. Would an extra $500 a month change your financial future? That is definitely possible. In fact, you could earn a lot more per month as a blogger. Once you are in a position to commit full-time to your blog, you can rise up to the $5000 per month income level. That and much more is also possible. Being your own boss means you get to choose your salary.

Abedin has had a change of heart and has since renewed the lease on their pricey Union Square duplex — and invited back home the man who has repeatedly heaped humiliation upon her. The sext-crazed pol, who had been sleeping on his mother’s couch in Park Slope, was to move out Tuesday, a source said. “He was supposed to move,” the building source explained. “But they just signed for another year.”

The new polymer bank notes appear to have had an unintended effect in stopping people snorting cocaine. The plastic notes have been leaving people with cut noses after they use them to sniff the drug.

President Trump's Religious Liberty executive order, like many of his orders, set out good general principles. The principles, e.g. "It shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enforce Federal law's robust protections for religious freedom" are good. The actual legal authority is limited. It's a good start for a much broader program. The order largely takes on the Johnson Amendment. But as a practical matter, that needs to be repealed by Congress. And it should find its way to the agenda. President Trump can try to limit its enforcement, but as long as it's there, it's a...

The Internal Revenue Service is demanding a whopping $7 billion or more in back taxes from the world’s most profitable hedge fund, whose boss’s wealth and cyber savvy helped Donald Trump pole-vault into the White House. Suddenly, the government’s seven-year pursuit of Renaissance Technologies LLC is blanketed in political intrigue, now that the hedge fund’s reclusive, anti-establishment co-chief executive, Robert Mercer, has morphed into a political force who might be owed a big presidential favor.

Summary: Although people living in consumer-based cultures such as the US often believe that they will be happier if they acquire more money, the findings of a newly published paper suggest that there may be downsides to this pursuit.

I've previously argued that the Trump administration should stop funding the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development because of its advocacy of higher taxes and tax harmonization. At the time, I was told that my position could be perceived as hypocritical because our government is responsible for the adoption and enforcement of the hideous Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. Let me address this omission. FATCA, which was passed in 2010 by a Democratic Congress and enacted by President Barack Obama, requires law-abiding Americans with legitimate bank accounts outside the country and foreigners working in the United States to turn over...