Free Republic

Curtis Ellis is a long-time Democratic communications aide who runs ObamaTrade.com, a project of the American Jobs Alliance. The site promotes conservative opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but Ellis is a self-described progressive. A three-time Democratic congressional candidate funds the site. Ellis on Monday criticized Republican TPP supporters for violating Americans for Tax Reform’s no-tax pledge due to a provision that raises penalties for businesses that fail to file 1099 tax forms from $30 to $50.

House Republicans called up Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's tax-shifting plan on Monday, and the House shot it down by a unanimous vote. Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Oakmont, called the vote on an amendment that contained Wolf's tax plan “a political stunt.” “It does nothing to move this process forward,” Dermody said. “I would never ask (Democrats) to vote for a stunt.” Wolf denounced the vote as “gamesmanship” and said it was an effort to “‘see if we can embarrass the administration.'”

Oregon is about to embark on a first-in-the-nation program that aims to charge car owners not for the fuel they use, but for the miles they drive. The program is meant to help the state raise more revenue to pay for road and bridge projects at a time when money generated from gasoline taxes are declining across the country, in part, because of greater fuel efficiency and the increasing popularity of fuel-efficient, hybrid and electric cars. Starting July 1, up to 5,000 volunteers in Oregon can sign up to drive with devices that collect data on how much they have...

Oregon is about to embark on a first-in-the-nation program that aims to charge car owners not for the fuel they use, but for the miles they drive. The program is meant to help the state raise more revenue to pay for road and bridge projects at a time when money generated from gasoline taxes are declining across the country, in part, because of greater fuel efficiency and the increasing popularity of fuel-efficient, hybrid and electric cars. Starting July 1, up to 5,000 volunteers in Oregon can sign up to drive with devices that collect data on how much they have...

Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate and self-proclaimed socialist who wants the United States to morph into a vast Scandinavia, is holding a Tuesday press conference to explain how he will soak the rich to make tuition at public, four-year colleges and universities free. Sanders will propose legislation to fund his free-college scheme with massive new taxes on stock transactions, Bloomberg reports. The Vermont senator’s bill, if passed, would add a 50-cent tax for every “$100 of stock trades on stock sales, and lesser amounts on transactions involving bonds, derivatives, and other financial instruments,” according to a press release

Despite fury from lawmakers the day before, Colorado’s health exchange board voted on Thursday to collect millions of additional dollars from all Colorado health insurance customers, even those who have nothing to do with the exchange. On top of that “broad market assessment,” the board also voted to more than double the user fees levied on people who buy insurance through Colorado’s exchange. .. The higher broad market fee is projected to allow Connect for Health Colorado to scoop up about about $20 million in 2016. It has been set at $1.25 per member per month on all health insurance...

JACKSON, MI – Jackson County Circuit Court Judge John McBain has been known to unload a healthy dose of candor when entering judgments. Anyone from a convicted murderer to a local politician can get caught in the judge's verbal volley. In the case of the city's illegal stormwater tax hearing on Tuesday, May 12, it was the latter. City leaders are required to repay their illegally collected stormwater fees by June 26 or face a $1,000-per-day fine, McBain ruled with fiery contempt. After creating the fee in 2011, a Michigan Court of Appeals' decision ruled the fee unconstitutional two years...

Placing a tax on business services in California has the potential to raise an additional $122.6 billion annually for state and local governments, according to a recent Board of Equalization study. A services tax could become a reality if Senate Bill 8 is approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

... In January, the German government said that in 2014 it had managed to balance its books for the first time since 1969, a year ahead of target.

If you’ve been holding your breath, waiting to see if Governor Rick Snyder (RINO-MI) was going to enter the RINO sweepstakes for President, the suspense may be over: Gov. Rick Snyder said he would wait until after this week's special road funding election to decide whether he'll run for president. The overwhelming defeat of the measure should send a straightforward message to the governor: Don't run, Rick. – Detroit News Not only does Snyder rank dead last in name recognition among Republicans in Iowa, butt the ballot initiative he championed to raise taxes in Michigan was not just defeated in...

Why did Rome and Byzantium fall apart after centuries of success? What causes civilizations to collapse, from a dysfunctional fourth-century-B.C. Athens to contemporary bankrupt Greece? The answer is usually not enemies at the gates, but the pathologies inside them. What ruins societies is well known: too much consumption and not enough production, a debased currency, and endemic corruption. Americans currently deal with all those symptoms. But two more fundamental causes for decline are even more frightening: an unwillingness to pay taxes and the end of the rule of law. Al Sharpton is again prominently in the news, blaming various groups...

Embattled Clinton Foundation and Clinton Health Access Initiative its major health-related offshoot received over $7 million from the US government in recent years, according to an analysis of public records conducted by the Washington Free Beacon. The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), chaired by Bill Clinton and run by the former president’s long-time associate Ira Magaziner, has received $6,010,898 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 2010. CHAI, the biggest arm of the Clinton family’s charitable efforts, accounting for 60 percent of all spending, received $3,193,500 in fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012, according to federal contracts,...

So, get this. I was offered a job to sell cars by a friend, who owns the largest automobile dealership group in Northern California. Drug Test: Check...Completed Finger Print Test: Check...Need to finish CA DMV License to sell cars: Check... but, wait. "You are from America? You can't use DMV on Weekend. DMV, on weekend, is only availble to immigrants... Huh? I am a Natural Born American. A full blown Tax Slave every since I can remember and I cannot use DMV on weekend? No. Funny rules, due to influx of immigrants, DMV is only available to immigrants. All others...

“You support President Obama’s proposal to increase taxes on the wealthy?” That was the question put to George Soros on CNN some three years ago. Here was his answer: “Yes, very much… the super bubble really resulted in creating a great increase in inequality, and now we have the after effect where you have slow growth, but if you could have better distribution of income, then the average American would actually be better off.” There’s no question that “everyday Americans” (as a reminder, those are the people Hillary Clinton wants to help by running for president… well, those people...

From liberal Democrats and the radical left, the mindset of tax, borrow and spend has been their legacy throughout American history It was 1963, and I was a 16 year old high school junior, sitting attentively in an American History class, when our history teacher informed us that the national debt was 311.6 billion dollars. Being good at math even then, it was not difficult, knowing the population stood at about 180 million in 1963, that the debt amount to approximately 1600.00 for every adult and minor child in America. My reaction, even at age 16, was one of concern...

The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are asking lawmakers to put a new tool in their toolbox, so to speak: a parking surcharge that could eventually fund downtown amenities like pedestrian walkways and bike paths. Proposed legislation would allow the Twin Cities to impose a tax on non-metered parking, including stalls in public and private ramps and surface lots, within a defined area of their respective downtowns.

Class warriors on the left argue that the United States should be more like Sweden, and we agree: Senate Republicans should move forward with a plan to repeal the inheritance tax, which the House passed Thursday. Sweden had an inheritance tax for 110 years, and though the rate was sometimes quite high, the tax never became an important source of revenue. In the United States, the hated death tax produces only a fraction of a percentage point of federal revenue, though it imposes very heavy costs on a small number of families and businesses. In Sweden, the tax provoked various...

Every year since 2011, the White House has used tax time to post a "Federal Taxpayer Receipt" showing taxpayers how their federal tax dollars are being spent. President Obama introduced the concept in his 2011 State of the Union address, and Wednesday the White House posted the fifth installment so taxpayers can see how "tax dollars are being spent on priorities like education, veterans benefits, and health care." While users can punch in their own tax liability and see dollar amounts assigned to each category, the figures are based on percentages from the prior fiscal year budget. Comparing those percentages...

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April 15 is right around the corner, and millions of Americans will find themselves paying more in taxes than ever thanks to Obamacare. The law is more than a fundamental change to the country’s health care system. It also is a massive tax hike. As The Heritage Foundation’s Federal Budget in Pictures shows, according to the most recent scores, Obamacare will increase taxes by nearly $800 billion for the period of 2013-2022.