Free Republic

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 62% of voters would prefer fewer government services with lower taxes. Nearly a third (29%) disagrees and would rather have a bigger government with higher taxes. Ten percent (10%) are not sure. Those numbers have changed little over the past month. Republican voters overwhelmingly prefer fewer government services—83% of the GOP faithful hold that view while just 13% prefer more government involvement. Democratic voters are evenly divided on this question: 46% prefer more government services, while 43% prefer less government services.

If the United States shows signs of weakness, surrender, and a one-sided departure from Iraq, the rejoicing of those who predicted that they would in the end defeat us will profoundly strengthen their resolve for the next battle. Further, without an offensive thrust in Iraq, any military forts or airfields of ours would be sheltered in a defensive enclave -- announcing to those who hate us that they should keep killing two or more Americans every day, drip, drip, drip, until the American people cannot stand it any more. Weakness once shown invites fiercer aggression. Iran will thus have its...

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Department of Water and Power are expected to announce on May 15 a revised water use and management plan for this city that includes using recycled wastewater to recharge drinking water aquifers, according to a May 15 Los Angeles Times article. The new plan allocates about $1 billion for the proposed reclamation system, also known as “toilet-to-tap” or “sewer-to-spigot.” The city would recycle about 4.9 billion gallons of treated wastewater to drinking standards by 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported on May 15. Villaraigosa, who less than a decade ago opposed such...

A group of antitax activists launched a campaign over the weekend to abolish the state income tax, setting the stage for a contentious public battle if the measure is added to the ballot this fall. After pushing a similar initiative that almost passed six years ago, a group called the Committee for Small Government is back for another round, asking voters to end the income tax and save the average taxpayer $3,600 a year. The group, led by libertarian Carla Howell, is almost certain to gather the 11,000 signatures needed to put a question on the November ballot. To say...

My good friend Lee – a Vietnam veteran and proud gun-toting conservative – recently declared to me that the FairTax is a great idea that will never actually happen. Because I am a true Reagan conservative – one full of optimism and faith in the American people – I respectfully dissent. And I write today to explain exactly how we will win the war against the I.R.S. and make the FairTax a reality. We can all agree that the FairTax movement is a grass roots effort that must prevail over the resistance of politicians and lobbyists who have a powerful...

John McCain, looking through a crystal ball to 2013 and the end of a prospective first term, sees "spasmodic" but reduced violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden dead or captured and government spending curbed by his ready veto pen. The Republican presidential contender also envisions April’s annual angst replaced by a simpler flat tax, illegal immigrants living humanely under a temporary worker program, and political partisanship stemmed by weekly news conferences and British-style question periods with joint meetings of Congress. In a speech being delivered Thursday, McCain concedes he cannot make the changes alone, but he wants to...

As part of a widening probe, the U.S. has charged a former UBS AG banker and a Liechtenstein consultant with helping clients avoid taxes by opening secret bank accounts, destroying documents, using Swiss credit cards and filing false tax returns. One client was billionaire California real-estate developer Igor Olenicoff. Mr. Olenicoff set up a web of secret bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to avoid taxes on $200 million in assets, a person familiar with the U.S. case said. Mr. Olenicoff has been cooperating with investigators in the wake of his December guilty plea to a criminal count of filing...

A labor-union campaign in Colorado to tighten restrictions on layoffs and ... could put Democrats in an awkward position as they gather here in August for their presidential convention. Unions are pushing to get a total of six measures on the fall ballot, all of them opposed by small-business owners and corporate interests. "If they pass, it would be like putting a big 'Do Not Locate Your Business Here' sign on Colorado," ... Big labor groups said they will pump as much as $35 million into Colorado to pass their own measures and defeat a rival initiative promoted by business...

The embattled government trimmed income taxes for 22 million people on Tuesday, as soaring food and fuel bills sent inflation rocketing and dented hopes for more interest rate cuts soon. Higher household bills are creating a headache for increasingly unpopular Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the tax handout came after Labour came third in this month's local elections -- its worst post-war performance on record. "This family tax cut provides support this year for those on middle incomes at a time where they face increased bills," Chancellor Alistair Darling told parliament as he unveiled the surprise tax cuts. Ordinary tax...

Behind-the-scenes negotiations are under way at the State Capitol to scuttle a proposal that would gradually eliminate the state income tax, lawmakers said Monday. As an alternative, the Jindal administration and the legislative leadership suggested a $302 million tax break, said state Sen. Buddy Shaw, R-Shreveport. The suggestion is identical to the way Shaw originally drafted Senate Bill 87 with one distinction. The alternative proposal is to phase in the tax break over two years beginning in 2009, a delay that Shaw opposes. Shaw said he does not want taxpayers to have to wait until 2010 — when they file...

"Ohio has three things it is promoting that is destined to make it the newest state to suffer a mass exodus going forward of it's existing population and absolutely zero attractability for new residents: A limited and parochial world view of Foreign Direct Investment, the UAW and TEAMSTERS Unions, and a state income tax that is funding legacy health and welfare systems that need to be rethought. The three great things: Ohio State, Lake Erie, and the Cleveland Clinic have an uphill battle to balance the above. Ohio Democratic Representative Marcy Kaptur ranted, "They are selling America" when recent Asian...

RICHMOND (AP) — Gov. Tim Kaine is expected today to announce a tax package to pay for highway construction and the upkeep and repair of state roads and bridges. Mr. Kaine scheduled a news conference at the state capitol to outline details of the bill that he will ask legislators to consider next month. He has called the General Assembly to Richmond beginning June 23 for the second special session on transportation funding in two years. Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, wants regional funding plans to pay for new projects in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia, the state's most populous, fastest-growing...

The headline for the poll may as well have read “Vote Yes to Save PBS,” but the editors at Parade magazine didn’t go quite that far. A poll on Parade’s Web site posted on May 4 ask respondents how Congress should vote on supporting PBS with $400 million in funding, or as they put it – “whether to continue supporting Big Bird – or give him the ax.” And on top of that, NPR affiliates have joined in a campaign to skew the poll’s results. “In the next few months, Congress will decide whether to continue supporting Big Bird –...

A House committee postponed action Monday on a 10-year phaseout of the state income tax. The House Ways and Means Committee had been scheduled to vote on Senate Bill 87, which would eliminate the state income tax by 2017 at an eventual cost to the treasury of about $4 billion a year. But some legislators want to bring the bill by Sen. D.L. "Buddy" Shaw, R-Shreveport, back to its original posture when it would have rolled back the 2002 "Stelly Plan" tax increases. "There is no rush necessarily to have this bill heard today," Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, the...

Having not been able to undermine the Iraq War, the Democrat Party must concentrate on another strategy to win the White House. The Democrats must insure that gasoline will be even more expensive in November, and they must keep whispering "recession," despite not having the economic numbers which indicate a recession. "Let's Make It The Economy Again, Stupid," will be their rehashed mantra. The Media can very well continue disparaging the American public, thereby forcing consumer confidence lower, even while there is no appreciable inflation.Recent good economic news must have caused some consternation in the Party of Carter, Dukakis, Clinton,...

-- snip --Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a likely preview of the Republican line of attack in the general election, said Democratic leaders and Mr. Obama "get up every morning with three things on their minds: more taxes, more regulation and more litigation." -- snip --

A conservative legal-advocacy group is enlisting ministers to use their pulpits to preach about election candidates this September, defying a tax law that bars churches from engaging in politics. Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., nonprofit, is hoping at least one sermon will prompt the Internal Revenue Service to investigate, sparking a court battle that could get the tax provision declared unconstitutional. Alliance lawyers represent churches in disputes with the IRS over alleged partisan activity. The action marks the latest attempt by a conservative organization to help clergy harness their congregations to sway elections. The protest is scheduled for Sunday,...

Well, now in Massachusetts they are looking to tax college endowments, university endowments that have more than a billion dollars in it. They say that by doing this, they can put more than a billion dollars a year into the state revenue. Legislators have asked state finance officials to study a plan that would impose a 2.5% annual assessment on colleges with endowments over a billion dollars. Now, the universities are very upset and here's quite possibly -- I want to frame this. I want to frame this. I want this on my wall of my office. When a nonprofit,...

Washington - Today, the Club for Growth released its 2007 annual scorecard, awarding the Defender of Economic Freedom award to six senators and forty-nine representatives who scored a 90 or above on the Club's scorecard.... "These top-scoring members of Congress are staunch defenders of American taxpayers," said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. "Their votes are critical to lowering taxes, cutting wasteful spending, and promoting economic growth for all Americans. The Club for Growth scorecard allows taxpayers to see how their senators and representatives are performing in Congress and find out who is truly fighting for pro-growth, limited-government policies...." The...

NEW YORK — Conservative legal advocates are recruiting pastors nationwide to defy an IRS ban on preaching about politicians, in a challenge they hope will abolish the restriction. The Alliance Defense Fund, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., will ask the clergy to deliver a sermon about specific candidates Sept. 28. If the action triggers an IRS investigation, the legal group will sue to overturn the federal rules, which were enacted in 1954. Under the IRS code, churches can distribute voter guides, run voter registration drives, hold forums on public policy and invite politicians to speak at their congregations. However, they cannot...

An extremist Mexican "La Raza" group that annually gets millions of U.S. federal grant dollars will receive even more in the next few years thanks to Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank's multi million-dollar earmark to council Hispanics about housing. La Raza already gets millions from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for "comprehensive housing counseling" for Hispanics whether they are in the country LEGALLY OR NOT. Frank is giving the National Council of La Raza, which has raked in millions of taxpayer dollars over the year, $5 million dollars this year and $10 million over the next two years....

WASHINGTON - Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady. "You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate," Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, said in an interview aired on NBC's "Today" on Thursday. Asked if she would release her tax returns if she was first lady, Cindy McCain said: "No." The Arizona senator released his tax...

ANNAPOLIS (AP) — Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that if a referendum on slot-machine gambling fails in November, "it'll be back to the drawing board with a lot of unpopular choices, and I don't think any of us wants to go there." Mr. O'Malley said during an interview on WCBC-AM in Cumberland, Md., that the money Maryland would eventually get from slot machines would constitute about 25 percent of what's needed to balance the state's budget in coming years. The rest of the money to handle Maryland's projected deficit comes from about $1.4 billion in tax increases approved last November...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- When the Pentagon announced an obscure California company had won a lucrative military contract, no one mentioned any plans for a Caribbean outpost -- a tropical shell the company quickly created that allowed it to duck millions in taxes and deflect U.S. lawsuits. It's legal, at least for now. Contractors large and small have been heading offshore to shield piles of taxpayer dollars, according to an Associated Press investigation, but irate lawmakers are thundering that they'll put an end to it. Almost a decade ago, a few months after winning the deal that has totaled more than...

I apologize for the vanity, and hopefully this ends up in the right forum. My interest was really piqued though and I'm pretty sure there are a few folks here who can give me opinions. I was reading the Constitution this evening and noticed that the 24th Amendment states in part: "[Voting privlidges] shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax." The part of the Amendment which I found intriguing is the last three words, "or other tax". The Federal Income Tax, and...

RED LIGHT CAMERA SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND PLACEMENT FOR INTERSECTION SAFETY WEB SEMINAR Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Time: 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Eastern Credit: 1.5 PDH/.15 IACET CEU Background: Red light running is a serious safety issue at many intersections in the US and other countries. Cameras that automatically record red light violators and provide the means for issuing citations by mail have been shown to reduce the collision toll under some circumstances over the past few years. However, the success of a camera program depends upon many good decisions being made by the responsible jurisdiction and engineers. This course will...

BOSTON —— The Massachusetts Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to raise the cigarette tax by $1 a pack and close hundreds of millions of dollars in so-called corporate tax loopholes. The House passed a similar tax package last month. Gov. Deval Patrick generally supports an increase in the cigarette tax, but the $1 boost will be tied up in negotiations over corporate tax rates before it reaches his desk. The Senate tax package, which passed 31 to 6, would raise nearly $472 million in revenue next year. The House passed a tax package last month that would bring in $80...

Official testifies in TABOR lawsuit that more money collected as a result of mill levy freeze. State treasurer Cary Kennedy conceded today on the witness stand that a bill passed last year by the legislature alters the way taxes are calculated with the net result that many property owners pay more. But Kennedy continued to insist the 2007 law, SB 199, does not violate Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Kennedy's testimony came on the second day of a lawsuit brought by opponents of the 2007 law. They say SB 199 should have been referred to voters under TABOR provisions. The...

The rough political road for a proposed state-budget fix got even rougher Monday as Gov. Bill Ritter stopped short of endorsing it and the group expected to propel it to November's ballot expressed concern about funding, timing and other issues. "I don't know ultimately . . . if we're going to have the coalition together to put that on the ballot," Ritter said ... The proposal, which would alter the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and end mandated increases in education funding, started as a referendum, but Romanoff could not muster the support of two-thirds of state lawmakers — the requirement...

Saying the ailing economy is putting enough stress on taxpayers, Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill said Tuesday that Republicans will adamantly oppose any tax hikes to bridge California's budget deficit, which he pegged at $16 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Cogdill suggested the budget could be balanced through service cuts and tapping into the reserves of voter-approved initiatives intended for early-childhood education, mental health services and transportation. Taxpayers already are grappling with "record gas prices (and) food prices going through the roof," Cogdill, R-Modesto, said during a meeting with The Bee's Capitol Bureau. "They're very concerned about...

In the past few months, American workers, consumers, and businesses have experienced a sudden and dramatic rise in gasoline prices. In some parts of the country, gasoline costs as much as $4 per gallon. Some politicians claim that the way to reduce gas prices is by expanding the government’s power to regulate prices and control the supply of gasoline. For example, the House of Representatives has even passed legislation subjecting gas stations owners to criminal penalties if they charge more than a federal bureaucrat deems appropriate. Proponents of these measures must have forgotten the 1970s, when government controls on the...

Pelosi backs 2nd stimulus, says Bush "in denial" Tue May 6, 2008 12:30pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called for a second economic stimulus package, and said President George W. Bush is "in denial" about the country's economy. "It's clear there is a need for a second stimulus," Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters at a news conference. "The president has for a long time been in denial on the state of the economy," she said. Tax rebate checks are in the mail to millions of Americans under a $152 billion...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has sued the state of New York, challenging a new statute requiring Internet retailers based elsewhere to collect New York sales taxes. Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer, said in a complaint filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York on April 25 that the new law, passed by the state legislature in early April, was unconstitutional, vague and overly broad. Through its "Associates Program," the company pays unaffiliated Web site operators around the country a commission if they advertise Amazon on their sites. Those ads often allow consumers to click...

While it's politically popular to impose confiscatory taxes on America's 40 million tobacco smokers, there are a number of consequences one might consider, but let's start out with a quiz. If a carton of cigarettes sells for $160 in New York City, and $35 in North Carolina, what do you predict will happen? If you answered tons of cigarettes will be going up I-95 from North Carolina to New York City, go to the head of the class. Smuggling cigarettes is illegal; so the next quiz question is: Who is most likely to engage in cigarette smuggling? It's a mixed...

A judge today will hear a case calling Gov. Ritter's move unconstitutional because voters didn't approve it. The year-long controversy around Gov. Bill Ritter's mill-levy freeze spills into a Denver courtroom today, where a judge will decide whether the state has to give the money from the freeze back. A group of taxpayers, organized by the conservative Independence Institute, filed suit late last year against the Colorado Department of Education, arguing that the property-tax freeze amounts to an unconstitutional tax increase because voters did not directly approve it. The trial in the case is scheduled to start today in Denver...

Interview with Warren Buffett reveals an amazing stupidity on the choice for the next American president.

Both Hillary and Obama have explicitly stated that we need to "tax the rich" so each pays "their fair share". I recently came across a report titled DISTRIBUTION OF CERTAIN FEDERAL TAX LIABILITIES BY INCOME CLASS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2000, as Prepared by the Staff of the JOINT COMMITTEE ON TAXATION. The following table from that publication is interesting. Income Category...................Individual Income Tax ................................................Income......Percent Less than $10,000.......................-5.........-0.6% 10,000 to 20,000........................-7........ -0.8% 20,000 to 30,000........................10..........1.1% 30,000 to 40,000........................30..........3.4% 40,000 to 50,000........................39..........4.4% 50,000 to 75,000.......................114.........12.9% 75,000 to 100,000......................113.........12.8% 100,000 to 200,000.....................213.........24.1% 200,000 and over...................... 377.........42.7% Highest 10%........................... 587.........66.4% Highest 5%.............................478.........54.0% Highest 1%.............................297.........33.6%...

...Mr. Obama supports most of those "no drilling" rules, but that hasn't stopped him from denouncing high gas prices on the campaign trail. He is running TV ads in North Carolina that show him walking through a gas station and declaring that he'll slap a tax on the $40 billion in "excess profits" of Exxon Mobil. ...Exxon's profits are soaring with the recent oil price spike, but the energy industry's earnings aren't as outsized as the politicians seem to think. Thomson Financial calculates that profits from the oil and natural gas industry over the past year were 8.3% of investment,...

Al Franken's accountant hasn't talked to reporters since Franken blamed him for giving him bad tax advice. But tax experts say the accountant should have known that Franken, who is seeking the DFL endorsement to run against GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, needed to pay taxes in the 19 different states where Franken earned money in the last four years. Minnesota Public Radio News contacted 60 local accountants, and heard back from a dozen of them. They all said Franken is ultimately responsible for making sure he pays taxes in the right states. most of them also echoed Woodbury tax accountant...

Together, you and we cleared the first 4 hurdles to putting the END the Income Tax Initiative on the November 4th Ballot. First, we wrote the legal language for the Initiative - and got it legally certified by the Attorney General's Office. Second, we collected 76,085 certified petition signatures to qualify our END the Income Tax Initiative for legislative action - and move it toward the ballot. Third, we survived an under-the-radar, stealth campaign run by the Massachusetts Teachers Union to disqualify our ballot initiative. Fourth, although the Massachusetts Constitution requires the state legislature to take testimony on and vote...

Little-Known But Exploited Loophole Allows Politicians To Drive, Maintain Expensive Cars, SUVs On Taxpayer Money. Rep. Charles Rangel: 'My Constituents Appreciate It'. You may not realize it, but members of the House of Representatives can lease a car and have it paid for by you -- the taxpayer. And it's not just the car, but gas, registration, insurance … the works. And as CBS 2 HD found out, there's no limit on how much they can spend. Congressman Charles Rangel was recently seen getting out of his Cadillac DeVille, which he leases for $774 per month.... Congressman Gregory Meeks was...

In the first quarter, Exxon-Mobil earned $10.9 billion, but at the same time paid a total of $29.3 billion in taxes...

BATON ROUGE — Making Louisiana taxpayers think you’re going to eliminate the state income tax is a cruel hoax. However, a majority in the state Senate had no problem doing just that here Tuesday. Senators were being irresponsible, and one of them even admitted he was “playing one of my cutesy deals, and I messed up.” Gov. Bobby Jindal obviously doesn’t want to eliminate the tax, but he and his legislative lieutenants were AWOL when the foolishness started. If the governor had a game plan, it apparently got lost somewhere between his office on the fourth floor of the state...

The duly elected sheriff of a county is the highest law enforcement official within a county. He has law enforcement powers that exceed that of any other state or federal official. This is settled law that most people are not aware of. County sheriffs in Wyoming have scored a big one for the 10th Amendment and states rights. The sheriffs slapped a federal intrusion upside the head and are insisting that all federal law enforcement officers and personnel from federal regulatory agencies must clear all their activity in a Wyoming County with the Sheriff’s Office. Deja vu for those who...

The matchup was inevitable. For the past two months, House Speaker Andrew Romanoff ... His complex proposal would undo the tightest part of that knot by lifting the spending limits imposed by the 1992 Taxpayer's Bill of Rights... Rep. Douglas Bruce, R-Colorado Springs,... "For this purpose, I come before you as the author of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, and as is my wont, I will speak plainly," he began. "This measure, if adopted, will mean unlimited state spending forever." Bruce railed against what he saw as a conspiracy by the "tax-and-spend crowd" to "con" voters into giving up government...

Wesley Snipes had only been convicted of misdemeanors concerning his failure to file income tax returns. And the action movie star had submitted written character testimonials from Denzel Washington, Woody Harrelson, and television's Judge Joe Brown to assist him in the judge’s consideration of his sentencing. Through his attorneys, Snipes asked for probation rather than prison, which is the normal sentence with a conviction of someone without a criminal history. Still, in spite of it all, U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges sentenced Snipes to three years in prison. Why did this happen? Well, in February 2008, a federal jury...

Minutes south of Interstate 10 and Sealy, the pastures along FM 1458 are their own silent world in the morning. Mists lift to reveal black cattle, brown and spotted horses, snow-white egrets underfoot in lush green grass. Then a concrete mixer comes churning down the blacktop. Just up the road is a small subdivision. More are sure to come as city dwellers, including weekenders and retirees, move out in search of a quieter, simpler life — and relief from city traffic. Although the gradual influx may bring greater changes in the long run, what disturbs residents most is the planned...

“Barack Obama will dramatically simplify tax fillings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in five minutes.” It’s not the FairTax. It’s not the Flat Tax. It’s the Obama Tax. You have to read past page one of Obama’s Economic Agenda (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/#tax-relief) to find this little utopian gem of doing your taxes in five minutes. Page one is naturally beautiful rhetoric and inspiring promises. Obama’s rationale for making this possible is the fact that the IRS already receives Americans’ financial information directly from employers and banks. It’s required by law. What he did not tell...

For generations, Carney's, the only pub in this tiny village in western Ireland, had been the place to strike up a romance, celebrate a birth, or mourn a death - or just sip a pint of Guinness among friends near a warm fire on a damp day. So when Carney's shut down last year after more than a century in business, Teresa Tuttle, 62, took it hard. "Where can we go after a funeral? After work? Where would we all meet?" ... The "closed" sign abruptly posted on Carney's door - and on the doors of 1,000 rural Irish pubs...