Free Republic

Obama wants to be generous to poor people in Africa - with YOUR money, while his own half brother lives on $12 a YEAR. He is very stingy with his own. Despite making well over $1,000,000 in family income from 2000 to 2004, the Obamas listed less than $11,000 in charitable contributions for all five years combinedClick here for proof If you think the Obamas just didn't want to claim their legal deductions, they had no problem in 2005 and 2006. Also note that the year Obama became senator his income jumped 700% from $200,000 to over $1.6 MILLION. No...

Sacramento - -- The state Senate will vote today on a budget by Senate leader Don Perata that's similar to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest spending plan for California that's 60 days late. But whether Perata will get two Republican votes needed in addition to unanimous support from Democrats to meet the two-thirds requirement in the Senate remains unclear. One significant issue is the Oakland Democrat's proposal to increase the sales tax by a penny per dollar for three years. Republicans have said they will not support any tax increases to help erase the $17.2 billion budget gap that includes $2...

"You can't cut the whole $15 billion," Schwarzenegger said, referring to the gaping hole in a $102-billion general fund. "You'd have to severely cut into education, which I don't think is the right thing. You would severely cut into health care, which is not the right thing to do. You would severely have to cut into prisons, and we can't do that." A good Republican trade-off for a one-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax increase for three years, he asserted, would be a long-term budget fix: A constitutional amendment requiring the state to transfer 3% of its annual revenue to a rainy-day fund...

Buried in that 8,000 (!) word NYT magazine article about Obama's economic plan that I mentioned yesterday, is this bit flagged by Geraghty at Campaign Spot: “If you talk to Warren [Buffet], he’ll tell you his preference is not to meddle in the economy at all — let the market work, however way it’s going to work, and then just tax the heck out of people at the end and just redistribute it,� Obama said. “That way you’re not impeding efficiency, and you’re achieving equity on the back end.� He continued by saying that he thought there was some merit...

Professor Hubbard explains that Obama's claim that he will increase the payroll tax by only 4% cannot be correct. This amount will not generate the revenue necessary to maintain even current levels of entitlement spending: "The new payroll tax hike is more modest than the one Mr. Obama hinted at last fall, which might have uncapped the payroll tax entirely. But it would also do very little to shore up Social Security, since it means that no more than 15% of Social Security's long-term funding gap would be closed. Thus, if Mr. Obama is indeed opposed to reductions in Social...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went public Wednesday with yet another state budget proposal, one that he said reflects a true compromise between Republican and Democratic goals for a spending plan. The proposal includes a three-year, one-cent increase in the sales tax, an effort to build a bigger state savings account for rainy days, and more spending cuts than he proposed when he released his last set of ideas in May. With no budget agreement in sight in the Legislature 51 days into the fiscal year, Schwarzenegger said the lack of a budget is "shameful." "Many Medi-Cal hospitals are not getting paid,...

Budget negotiations between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and four Legislative leaders fell apart Tuesday when one of the Republican leaders stormed out of the meeting, angrily charging that the talks "are not helpful." "Frankly, I was very frustrated when leaving that meeting," Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines from Clovis (Fresno County), said in an interview. "I'm tired of walking into (these meetings) and the only thing that's being talked about is more tax increases." Tuesday's meeting between the "Big Five" - the governor, and the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate and Assembly - was the group's first in more...

The central focus of Sunday's four-hour Assembly debate over the long-stalled state budget was the Democrats' $6.7 billion package of new taxes. Republicans complained loudly that with California's economy mired in recession, raising taxes would be counterproductive, making the state less hospitable to business and propelling investment elsewhere. Democrats countered that there's no evidence that California's above-average tax burden has stymied business investment or profits. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, was especially adamant on that point, citing statistics about the state's robust – until recently – economy. Leno's floor speech was tinged with irony, however, because he's carrying legislation that...

SACRAMENTO — Assemblyman Sandre Swanson is convinced that the only way to avoid lengthy budget stalemates in the future is to strip the minority party of what he calls its out-sized influence. The Oakland Democrat is among a handful of East Bay lawmakers who want voters to overturn the constitutional requirement that two-thirds of the Legislature must approve the budget. Now in its 50th day, the budget standoff is threatening to spill into next month as both parties remain far apart on finding a solution to the state's estimated $15.2 billion deficit. "It just has to change, and citizens will...

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California's Republican lawmakers on Sunday rejected a Democratic proposal for $6.6 billion in tax increases on the wealthy and corporations despite an offer to boost the state's rainy day fund. The failed vote now pushes California's budget impasse into its eighth week with no compromise in sight. The 45-30 vote in the state Assembly was the first since the state began its new fiscal year July 1 without a budget. It came after four hours of debate during which 49 of the Assembly's 80 members spoke. Democrats offered a revised tax plan that's smaller than the $8.2...

With a budget vote looming, Assembly Democrats this afternoon released a summary of the key proposals they will push.The Assembly is scheduled to vote today on a new budget, 48 days after the state began the new fiscal year with no spending plan.Republicans are not expected to support the budget proposal because its centerpiece is an income tax increase on California's wealthiest residents. Today's vote is politically important, nonetheless, because it could show whether any Assembly members are wavering on their party's position. The state Senate is not expected to meet.Assembly Speaker Karen Bass characterized the budget proposal as a...

California's unemployment rate soared to 7.3 percent in July, with nearly 400,000 more workers in the jobless ranks than a year earlier, indicating that we still haven't hit bottom in this recession. What started out as a sudden meltdown in the housing industry has spread to many other sectors, most obviously retail sales. Auto dealers are closing their doors throughout the state, and the Mervyns department store chain has sought bankruptcy protection, to cite but two examples. Steve Levy, who runs the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy, has devised a "misery index" of unemployment and inflation...

If you've been paying attention to California's chronic budget problems, you know that they fundamentally stem from a disastrous decision in 2000 by then-Gov. Gray Davis and legislators of both parties to squander a one-time windfall of revenue on permanent spending increases and tax cuts that could not be sustained over the long haul. It was, however, just one of three similarly irresponsible decisions during Davis' governorship, which was cut short by his recall in 2003. A second was to sharply increase state worker pensions on the assurances of the union-dominated California Public Employees' Retirement System that they could be...

Cancel those Sunday plans: The Assembly and the Senate have tentatively scheduled floor votes on a budget bill that day. It does not mean a deal is imminent. Lawmakers want a floor vote by this weekend to meet a deadline set by Secretary of State Debra Bowen for placing measures on the November ballot. Many see the deadline as a moving target, however, and believe the vote Sunday may be the first in several floor exercises before a final deal is struck. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said lawmakers plan to vote Sunday on a modified version of the...

Republican lawmakers have it within their sights to enact what could be the most far-reaching reform of state budgeting in modern times. The deal on the table would create a real rainy day fund, setting aside monies during boom years to use when state tax revenues fall. The effect would be to slow the growth of state spending and reduce pressure to raise taxes – a top priority for the GOP. The deal would also give the governor new authority to cut certain spending in midyear if revenues were to dip below a set threshold. For Republicans, this would be...

Senator Barack Obama Delivers the Democratic Radio Address This is Senator Barack Obama. This morning, I’d like to talk to you about why America needs to move in a new direction. In recent days, we’ve seen two stark examples of exactly what’s wrong with Washington, and what’s at stake in this election. First, we learned that the federal budget deficit could reach nearly half a trillion dollars next year. Eight years after we had a record surplus, we’re now faced with record deficits. This mortgaging of our children’s future is a direct result of the Bush Administration’s dangerously failed fiscal...

At least 29 states plus the District of Columbia, including several of the nation’s largest states, faced an estimated $48 billion in combined shortfalls in their budgets for fiscal year 2009 (which began July 1, 2008 in most states.) At least three other states expect budget problems in fiscal year 2010. In general, states closed these budget gaps through some combination of spending cuts, use of reserves or revenue increases when they adopted a fiscal year 2009 budget. At this point in the year, most states have already adopted those budgets; only two states — California and Michigan — continue...

Overall, Democrats deserve credit for being forthright about intending to close much of the state's budget deficit with new taxes, in contrast with Republicans who say they want deep reductions in spending but refuse to say what should be cut. That said, the details of how Democrats would generate more than $10 billion in tax revenues, roughly two-thirds of the projected 2008-09 deficit, leave much to be desired – even if one accepts the underlying premise that the state's fiscal problem is essentially a lack of revenues. The plan's core is tapping the most affluent Californians through higher income taxes,...

It took nearly five years, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke his no-tax pledge in an effort to break a budget deadlock.It was the right thing to do, even if we would have preferred a more progressive alternative to the governor's proposed temporary one-cent increase in the sales tax. But let there be no doubt: The $4 billion tax increase would have less of an impact on low-income Californians than a commensurate cut in state programs.Now the challenge will be for Schwarzenegger to persuade a handful of Republicans to break their own no-tax pacts that have all but frozen any meaningful...

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata today welcomed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed 1-cent sales tax hike as "a start," but declared budget negotiations are at an impasse and said he does not expect a quick resolution. Perata's comments, following a Senate session, were his first since Schwarzenegger proposed the temporary sales tax increase over the weekend in an effort to bridge the state's $15.2 billion deficit and bring an end to the 36-day budget standoff. "I'm glad the governor has come around to saying publicly what we've known all along - that we have to have taxes in order to...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed during private budget negotiations over the weekend to close the state's $15.2-billion deficit with a temporary one-cent hike in the state sales tax, to take effect immediately, according to Democratic and Republican legislative sources. The proposal, floated in meetings with legislative leaders and their staff, hinges on lawmakers agreeing to spending restraints to control the growth of government and give governors authority to cut programs whenever the state falls into the red. Lawmakers and staffers close to budget negotiations said the governor, who has repeatedly vowed never to raise taxes, would not support the...

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators confront a projected $15.2 billion budget deficit and weigh whether to impose new taxes to close it, local governments throughout California are contemplating a wide array of new taxes to close their shortfalls or expand local services and facilities. The most ambitious of the local tax schemes may be the Santa Clara Unified School District's plans to impose a $30,000 tax on each new house in a north San Jose development, subject to approval by voters, plus much-smaller parcel taxes on existing homeowners, to finance school programs. But the controversial Santa Clara Unified levy...

The annual political impasse over the state budget raises this annual question: Is it time to get rid of California's almost unique requirement for a two-thirds legislative vote on the state budget? Yep. Minority Republicans contend that the two-thirds vote is a bulwark against runaway spending by the dominant Democrats, but that contention ignores history. Indeed, the almost perpetual budget deficit is the best evidence that the two-thirds vote does not, contrary to GOP assertions, promote fiscal responsibility. A case in point is what happened in 2000, when the state received a $12 billion windfall of revenues from frenzied stock...

California voters could hardly be more disgusted at government's chronic inability to solve state budget woes effectively and on time. Only 4 percent, according to a recent poll, have a "great deal" of confidence that lawmakers can do the right thing on the overdue spending plan. But the same voters have passed laws that virtually guarantee annual spending increases for education, severely restrict what can be cut from transportation and local governments and make it virtually impossible to raise taxes. When voters are polled, huge majorities oppose cuts to schools, health care, law enforcement, road building, parks, the environment –...

...the casual observer, the situation in Sacramento probably seems pretty bleak right now. With the state facing a $15 billion budget shortfall, Democrats and Republicans are a month overdue in getting a new spending plan in place. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is about to order a temporary pay cut for 200,000 state employees and wants to furlough thousands of others to preserve cash so the government can continue operating through September. Legislative leaders, meanwhile, scheduled a Senate vote on a Democratic budget plan Tuesday, then abruptly canceled it. But in the topsy-turvy world of state politics, these seemingly dark developments might...

The Sacramento Bee reports that California State Senator Don Perarta has called off a budget vote, largely because he can’t find more than 25 votes to pass a $9.7 Billion tax increase. Meanwhile, the California Democratic Party has donated $250,000 to help Don Perata pay off his legal bills, as the Senate Democratic leader continues to rack up expenses fending off an ongoing FBI corruption investigation. Time to blow up the box, Arnold.

Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, takes over as state Senate leader after the current session ends. The Bee talked with him about the budget and taxes.Q: Why would the Democrats roll out a tax plan that they knew ahead of time the Republicans wouldn't vote for?A: There's actually some consensus that has developed over the past several years. It's clear from even the way the Republicans are acting in the budget negotiations, there is a common recognition that we cannot cut our way out of this problem. The Republicans aren't putting $15 billion of cuts on the table, for good reason....

Frustrated that the state has no budget more than two weeks into the fiscal year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday he may insist that legislative leaders begin marathon negotiating sessions until they secure a deal. "It is almost like there is no emergency there," Schwarzenegger told The Bee in an interview. "At one point or the other, you have to say, like they do with labor negotiations, 'let us sit in the room and not leave the room until it's done.' We have done that in the past, we have sat here until three in the morning. Eventually, I'm going...

Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, sat down with The Bee to talk about the state budget standoff. A month after their June 15 deadline to approve a budget, lawmakers have yet to take a vote.Q: Do you support all of the tax increases proposed by the Democrats?A: I think (the proposal) represents a very balanced and thoughtful approach. … We've said consistently that we think the solution to the budget deficit ought to be a balance of cuts and revenue increases. Q: Where are the cuts?A: We're about $2 billion below where we should be on education. … We've made cuts...

The day after unveiling $8.2 billion in proposed tax increases mostly on high-income earners and corporations, legislative Democrats on Wednesday said they have done all they can to trim the state budget without harming education and health care. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said they were drawing a line in the sand and would demand the tax increases be part of the solution to close a $15.2 billion shortfall in the $101 billion general fund. Republicans, again, said the tax plan faced certain defeat because they would not supply the votes to reach the...

Democrats on Tuesday proposed billions in tax increases on businesses and high earners to help bridge California's budget shortfall. The proposed hikes include rolling back the dependent child income tax credit expanded in the 1990s, creating two higher income tax brackets for the state's biggest earners and increasing corporate taxes. The long-awaited list of revenue proposals faces near certain defeat, however, as Republican lawmakers have repeatedly said they are unified in their opposition to any tax increases. Approving a budget and increasing taxes requires a two-thirds vote, which means GOP support is mandatory. "I guarantee you it will be a...

Californians would pay higher traffic ticket, parking, car registration, property insurance and other fees under dozens of proposals flying around the Capitol. Whether taxes ultimately are raised, state officials are looking to cut a $15.2 billion deficit by increasing other revenue. Higher fees could bolster the California Highway Patrol, state parks, emergency services, state wildfire response, oil-spill prevention and various public programs. Fee hikes are not touted as a way to solve the massive deficit, but they could soften the blow as legislators fight over sales and other taxes. Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said...

Even as lawmakers of both parties talk about the need to shift the country toward clean, renewable energy, Congress is in danger of letting key tax credits that have fueled the growth of wind and solar power expire at the end of the year. The Senate failed for the second time in a week Tuesday to pass a bill to help businesses and homeowners switch to renewable energy. The tax incentives have strong bipartisan support, but they have been caught up in a fight between Democrats and Republicans over how to pay for them. The stalemate is causing jitters among...

This year's version of California's more or less perpetual state budget crisis has four noteworthy aspects, to wit:• The $15.2 billion projected deficit in the 2008-09 budget's general fund is the worst of recent history. Roughly half is the "structural deficit" that has plagued the state for the past seven years; the remainder is the result of reduced revenues from a sharp economic downturn.• The political differences are every bit as wide as the financial gap. Democrats, who had been coy about advocating tax increases to close the structural deficit, now are saying taxes should be raised, although they differ...

IT'S AN UTTERLY remarkable American story that Barack Obama, by means of extraordinary energy, intelligence, charm and eloquence, is on the verge of being the first black to secure the Democratic nomination for President, but no one who has been paying attention can buy his pledge of change. He offers more of the same. Beginning most notably with FDR's New Deal, the federal government has been extending its reach in America, ignoring constitutional restraints, usurping the responsibilities of other levels of government and involving itself in virtually every aspect of our lives to the point where we now face a...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is proposing to raise $6.4 billion in taxes to balance the state budget. Bass told the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday she wants to close tax loopholes and eliminate tax breaks on wealthy Californians. She declined to say which taxes Assembly Democrats want to raise.

ONE OF THE BIGGEST SHORTCOMINGS of the conservative mind is that conservatives generally have moderate intellectual temperaments and therefore don't really grasp the radicalism of the opposition. When the opposition says something that would be absurd if taken to its logical conclusion, we tend to assume that they won't take it there, simply because we wouldn't if we were in their position. Nowhere is this clearer than on the issue of sexual mores. I must caution the reader that the content of this article is shocking and absurd, (not to mention unsuitable for children) but I regrettably cannot say that...

California has always been looked upon across this country and around the globe as the state that leads – in its diversity of communities, its beautiful coastline, its commitment to protecting the environment from the ravages of climate change, its world-renowned public universities and the innovation by its best and brightest minds. However, California's luster has tarnished, today boasting the highest gas prices in the nation, consumers paying top-dollar for groceries and being among the top five states in home foreclosures last year. As if this weren't enough, Californians are about to be sucker-punched again from the effects of an...

While Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton was preparing to call for a 17 percent hike in city property taxes, he had a little tax problem of his own: unpaid city and county property taxes. This morning, Herenton paid $5,768 in Shelby County property taxes on his home at 5281 Horn Lake. They were due Feb . 29. The amount paid this morning included $168.02 in interest and penalties. City taxes on a property owned by Herenton Investment Co. at 270 Dubois, located in the Banneker Estates subdivision that Herenton is developing and where he lives, were paid yesterday. As of Wednesday,...

In an interview in conjunction with his big economic speech in New York, Senator Obama tells CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo he favors increasing the capital-gains tax rate Bartiromo reported: “Right now, as you know, the cap gains tax is at 15 percent. He has yet to give us a specific number. How high he wants that number to go? He has said, and he told me today, that he won't go above 28 percent. So we are talking about the possibility of a doubling in the capital gains tax. He was averaging at about 25 percent.” Here is her exchange with...

Trustees for the government's two biggest benefit programs warned Tuesday that Social Security and Medicare are facing "enormous challenges," with the threat to Medicare's solvency far more severe. The trustees, issuing a once-a-year analysis of the government's two biggest benefit programs, said the resources in the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by 2041. The reserves in the Medicare trust fund that pays hospital benefits were projected to be wiped out by 2019. Both those dates were the same as in last year's report. But the trustees warned that financial pressures will begin much sooner when the programs begin...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he does not want to raise taxes to solve California's budget problem. But he also says he has not ruled anything out, and he is willing to discuss any idea that could reasonably help narrow a persistent gap between the state's spending and its revenues. One of those ideas might be to broaden the sales tax to cover some services rather than only the sale of goods, Schwarzenegger said last week at a town hall meeting in the Northern California city of Pleasant Hill. "The way we are taxing. I mean, we are missing a lot...

The 212-207 roll call Thursday by which the House approved a budget blueprint that would raise taxes by $683 billion over the next five years and provide increases to domestic federal programs. A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the resolution. Voting yes were 212 Democrats and 0 Republicans. Voting no were 16 Democrats and 191 Republicans. X denotes those not voting. There are 4 vacancies in the 435-member House. . . .

A political fight over raising taxes to help solve California's fiscal crisis was touched off Wednesday when Democratic lawmakers proposed taxing big oil to help pay for threatened public education programs.ABX3 9, introduced by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, would have raised $1.2 billion a year by taxing oil firms' windfall profits and through a separate tax on petroleum that is pumped in California.The bill, which required a two-thirds vote to pass, was defeated on the Assembly floor after Republicans refused to vote for the new taxes. But several other Democrat-authored tax bills are likely to stir heated debate...

It won't outdraw the Stones or Hannah Montana, but the "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour" should be just as electrifying. It's a bipartisan band of Washington budget wonks, headlined by the retiring Comptroller General David Walker, with a basic message: This country is headed toward a financial train wreck that Washington won't face. Fractured politics are begetting the worst possible results: ever-rising costs for safety-net programs such as Medicare and Social Security while leaders dodge the long-term consequences. That's the central message of the doomsday crew making the rounds of college campuses, lunch groups and newspaper editorial boards. The band leader is...

If the previews are any indication, the summer of 2008 is shaping up to be a blockbuster show in Sacramento, a classic struggle for the hearts and minds of Californians, a contest between those who want bigger government and advocates of a slimmer state. The Democrats who control the state Senate declared last week that they won't vote for a budget this year that does not raise taxes. Their goal: something on the order of $5 billion. But almost every Republican in the Legislature has signed a pledge asserting that they will not vote for a tax increase. This is...

Bay Area residents would pay another $1 on their annual vehicle-license fees and 10 cents on a gallon of gas under legislation proposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Wednesday. And unlike earlier attempts to raise money for transportation programs, both proposals appear to have state legislators prepared to argue for them in Sacramento. The newest item on the commission's legislative agenda for the 2008 legislative session is a $1 addition to the state vehicle-license fee paid by Bay Area residents. The $6 million raised annually would boost a program that increases freeway efficiency with tow trucks that quickly remove...

Washington - -- As Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton toured the land denouncing special interests, giveaways to the rich, home foreclosures, job losses and a middle-class squeeze, back in Washington House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats met behind closed doors on a plan to raise taxes and cut food stamp money to protect billions of dollars for agribusiness, a sector of the economy that is booming. The negotiators agreed Tuesday to find $10 billion in extra money in a last-ditch effort to save the farm bill, once seen as an opportunity to reform commodity programs and...

It feels almost like willed ignorance. It feels as if we're all playing a game because playing a game is more fun than facing the facts. And, of course, thanks to a combination of factors, we haven't had to face the facts for a while now. But eventually, facts will out. I hear the Democratic candidates talking about the good things, getting our schools back on track, helping veterans get continuing medical care, investing in renewable energy, getting our national parks back in shape, expanding protections against the importing of bad toys and making our harbors safe: all good things,...