Free Republic

Environmental groups are on track to spend more than $85 million on key races this year, more than ever before, according to an internal memo. The record spending comes as green groups are worried about the fate of the Senate and the future of President Obama’s climate agenda, which they say is crucial to helping the U.S. and other nations curb greenhouse gas emissions and stave off disastrous climate impacts. A memo circulated among five of the nation’s top environmental organizations, and provided to The Hill, summarizes in detail the plan hatched by the groups to put climate change on...

New York manufacturers are growing at the slowest pace in six months as new orders shrink and shipments barely rise. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Wednesday that its Empire State Manufacturing index dropped to 6.2 in October, down sharply from a five-year high of 27.5 in September. Any figure above zero indicates growth. October’s reading is the lowest since April. …

Strict laws must be put in place to combat New York City’s massive tobacco smuggling problem, former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives Assistant Director Rich Marianos told The Daily Caller News Foundation.“Street gangs, narcotics crews, Russian and Asian organized crime networks, and terrorists are trading cigs for guns, narcotics — even humans,” Marianos, who was with the ATF for 27 years, said.NYC’s disproportionately high cigarette tax is allowing hardened criminals and even terrorists to fund illicit activity and make huge profits, with almost no risk, thanks to lax tobacco smuggling laws.Since 2006, the tax rate on NYC...

France has seen an explosion in the number of households requesting a deferral or cancellation of part or all of their tax bill in recent years. The country’s public finance body, the DGFiP, says there was a 22% rise in the number of such requests between 2011 and 2013, from around 177,000 to more than 216,000. Over the same period, the number of reminders for payment sent out by the French government has soared from 4.5 million to nearly 10 million. …

Is Medtronic's massive international corporate merger a billion-dollar tax dodge, an indictment of the U.S. tax code or a business-savvy work-around that could spur investment and growth in the Twin Cities? The answer depends on whom you ask. The $42.9 billion cash-and-stock purchase of Covidien, which was announced Sunday, comes with plans for Medtronic to decamp its executive suite to Ireland, where Covidien is based. It also will nearly double the size of the Fridley-based medical device maker and likely result in no significant change in its 8,000-strong Twin Cities workforce. The company is talking about adding 1,000 workers locally....

 On this evening’s show, 5/23/2014, Mark Levin talked about the Great Compromise of the Convention of 1787, but he never mentioned how the apportionment of both taxation and representation became the moving parts of the Great Compromise. So, let me fill in the parts Mark Levin left out. During the framing of our existing Constitution the question of how each State would be represented in Congress became a matter of heated debate and deciding upon rules which fixed each State’s representation created an impasse during the Convention. On July 2nd of the Convention Sherman of Connecticut remarked: “We are now...

Is All Taxation Equal Under the Law Does the US Tax Code treats healthcare insurance premiums differently between employer paid premiums and individual paid premiums? Manufactures began offering free healthcare insurance as a way to attract employees and avoid violating World War Two Wage and Price Controls. Free always guarantees a demand. Later, perhaps 1948, the courts declared that employer paid healthcare insurance premiums were not taxable income.

A White House aide set off a stampede of liberal media criticism for Internet news pioneer Matt Drudge over Obamacare – but his critics don't seem to understand how small businesses pay taxes. The brouhaha started when Drudge tweeted, “Just paid the Obamacare penalty for not 'getting covered'... I'M CALLING IT A LIBERTY TAX.” Jesse Lee, the Director of Progressive Media at Barack Obama's White House, responded that that was a “Flat lie, no fee for previous year,” adding, “Scary how much influence he once had.” Lee’s response to Drudge set off a firestorm in the liberal media, with many...

What’s the Labour Party anthem again? It goes a little something like this, “The people’s flag is deepest red.” So these poll results should come as no surprise. Here’s the legend: Con = Conservative Party (Tories); Lab = Labour (equivalent to USA’s Democrat Party); Lib Dem = Liberal Democrat (not as left-wing as Labour); UKIP = UK Independence Party.The esteemed countermoonbat Daniel Hannan provides some analysis: Sixty-nine per cent of Labour supporters would want a top rate tax of 50 per cent even if it brought in no money. If you want to understand, for example, why Red Bill in...

Tom Perkins is not exactly a sympathetic figure, but the man has a point. Perkins, a gazillionaire venture capitalist and cofounder of Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, took a well-deserved drubbing for his comparison of anti-“1 percent” invective in the United States with the political conditions leading up to Kristallnacht in Germany. His offense there was both against good taste and substance. He has something useful and true to say about the anti-democratic, illiberal, and periodically violent mood of Western anti-capitalism and the American partisans of class warfare, but none of that is very much like Nazism. Not very many...

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the top 40% of Americans paid 106.2% of income taxes. How can the top 40% pay MORE than 100% of income taxes? Simple. The bottom 40% of Americans paid -9.1% of income taxes. And they received an average of $18,950 in government transfers. Of course, we know that real median household income has been falling generally since 2000 and especially since 2007. And house prices have been falling, but house prices have changed course and have been rising since 2012. csrealinc Seriously, how can the US have a dynamic housing market with such a...

Between ObamaCare, Iran and last quarter's uptick in U.S. economic growth, taxpayers these days may be distracted from several dangers to come. But households from the United States to Europe and Japan may soon face fiscal shocks worse than any market crash. The White House and New York Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio aren't the only ones calling for higher taxes (especially on the wealthy), as voices from the International Monetary Fund to billionaire investor Bill Gross increasingly make the case too.

On Thursday evening, October 28, 1920, vice presidential candidate Silent Cal Coolidge invaded Manhattan. Commencing from Wall Street, his plan was to process steadily uptown, being joined by as many supporters as he might, to finally reach Carnegie Hall, there to address whatever Republican faithful he might attract within the city limits. The New York Times, for some reason, lacked faith that much might come from his plan. But as Coolidge advanced ever northward, a full seventy-five thousand enthusiastic marchers joined with him, representing any number of the city’s trades and professions. They advanced through Greenwich Village’s Washington Square and...

.........If Dowd thinks Cruz a radical for taking to the Senate floor with his legitimate grievances about ObamaCare and the underhanded manner in which it was imposed upon the American people,I wonder what she might say about Virginian Patrick Henry's response to the Stamp Act of 1765,which whipped American colonists into an anti-British fervor? Britain,trying to raise tax revenue to pay for the French and Indian War,from which the American colonies benefited,issued an edict requiring a government stamp on newspapers,legal documents,and other items. According to historian H.W. Crocker III, Patrick Henry:... used the Stamp Act to declare that as Caesar...

Senator Landrieu outlines how the Biggert Waters flood insurance bill was manipulated through the legislative process without ever coming up for a vote in the Senate. This bill is nothing but a tax increase on anyone with property that requires flood insurance... People are now unable to sell property as this is driving away any and all buyers .. if you sell without disclosing the premium increases that will be levied on a new owner (rather than increased incrementally on existing property owners) you will be sued ,, bank on it. This is also impacting hurricane Sandy victims in the...

The Original Boston Tea Party had the slogan: “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION !” Back then in the 1700’s the Colonists did not like Tyranny, and eventually went to War to rid themselves of it. Today, low-information people, and their "Mainstream" Media's attitude is: “Tyranny? Is that like “bad” or something?” High-information people realize that we have had Tyranny imposed on us by our own NINE SUPREMES when they told us that ANY Administration can force us to buy anything they want us to buy as long as it is called a MANDATORY TAX. The Obama Administration then decreed that the...

As I compose this, I'm watching Ted Cruz as he filibusters to halt the disaster called Obamacare. I hope you will watch it as well. If he has used it once, he's used the phrase "...we no longer listen to the people, our constituents..." over a hundred times. And he's right...they don't. And the fact is, THEY NO LONGER NEED TO. I've sent my little rant on this topic before but Ted's honest comment compels me to do so again. Dick Bachert ************* WHY THE POLITICAL RULING CLASS NO LONGER LISTENS TO US! Among others, Thomas Jefferson warned that the...

Employers cut jobs in 20 states last month, suggesting modest improvement in the U.S. job market this year is not enough to benefit all areas of the country. The Labor Department said Friday that 29 states added jobs, while Montana showed no net gain or loss in August. Unemployment rates rose in 18 states, fell in 17 and were unchanged in 15. …

The October 1st start date is only a few weeks away from a dramatic reduction in personal liberties and greater taxation and growing government power. The Affordable Healthcare Act (aka, Obamacare) started with Hillary Clinton in her aborted efforts when Bill Clinton was President. It was dubbed “Hillarycare” and deemed to be a disaster (just ask economist Brad DeLong). While George W. Bush was President, Hillarycare was transformed under the guidance of the Center for American Progress. This became Obamacare with the election of Barack Obama. After meetings with lobbyists, Congress, the Administration and the Center for American Progress (behind...

Trying to forecast housing demand is complicated by the abysmal slowdown in jobs growth and more and more young people living in their parent’s basement than before. Another complicating factor is the Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare). [The American Action Forum is an excellent source of information on Obamacare]. As a former resident of Ohio and a current resident of Virginia, I was stunned to see the growth in insurance premiums under Obamacare. In Ohio the cost of a basic “bronze” plan for a 25 year old will virtually triple to $1,956 a year. A 25 year old will in...