Free Republic

Can we all just get along? President Obama says he's fed up with "obscene bonuses" on Wall Street. The Congress is in an uproar. And new numbers from the front page of The Wall Street Journal today are stoking this mob mentality to feverish proportions. Yet the actual metrics in the Journal story raise a key question: What’s all the screaming about? Wall Street’s total compensation simply isn’t out of control. And the pay critics, in their pious, get-tough crackdown, are only ensuring a new round of outrage when some of these banks recover. First, some key numbers (rounded up)...

President Barack Obama told banks Thursday they should pay a new tax to recoup the cost of bailing out foundering firms at the height of the financial crisis. "We want our money back," he said. In a brief appearance with advisers at the White House, Obama branded the latest round of bank bonuses as "obscene." But he said his goal was to prevent such excesses in the future, not to punish banks for past behavior. The proposed 0.15 percent tax on the liabilities of large financial institutions would apply only to those companies with assets of more than $50 billion...

The high-tech industry is planning to amplify its opposition to a tax proposal by the White House. On June 5, about a half-dozen tech trade associations discussed strategy for stopping a tax hike on multinational corporations, which would come if the Obama administration succeeds in changing a law that allows companies to defer taxes on overseas revenue of their subsidiaries. ..... That has led to a lobbying blitz out of Silicon Valley. This week, at least three tech trade associations are flying in executives from their member companies for meetings with lawmakers and White House aides. They will lobby against...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will allow tax breaks given to wealthier Americans under his predecessor, George W. Bush, to expire as scheduled rather than eliminate them sooner, an administration official said on Saturday. Obama, who promised during his White House campaign to roll back tax cuts on people earning more than $250,000, also plans to boost tax collections from about 16 percent of the economy this year to 19 percent in 2013, the official said, confirming a Washington Post report on Obama's budget proposals for the 2010 fiscal year.

Barely two weeks in office, President Barack Hussein Obama will raise taxes this afternoon with his signature on the SCHIP bill scheduled to pass the House of Representatives today.The reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program includes massive tax increases on cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products. Similar bills were vetoed twice by President George W. Bush in part because of the tax increases. Democrats in the House and Senate have voted overwhelmingly for the tax increases each time the bill was proposed and were joined by a handful of Republicans.The bill Obama will sign today raises the federal...