Free Republic

The IRS targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups prior to the 2012 election was an unconscionable abuse of power for which accountability and punishment have been noticeably absent. But this was and is not the only use by the Obama administration of the power to tax to attempt to destroy its political opponents. The IRS is also involved in targeting what President Obama has called “less than loving” Christians through the mandates of ObamaCare and its attack on the free exercise of religion through the attempted coercion of mandated health insurance coverage This administration’s war on religion is...

I caught New York Mayor Bill de Blasio streaking along Manhattan’s waterfront—and it wasn’t the first time.“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true,” writes author Nathanial Hawthorne in his classic novel, “The Scarlet Letter.” Mayor de Blasio has finally reached complete bewilderment over who he is as a politician. Is he a champion of the poor and oppressed? Or is he the oppressor? In his confusion, he has taken to metaphorically streaking in public, giving us clues to his...

But when you take a look at the organizations these religious leaders represent, you’ll see that these religious types are political progressives who’re using the cover of religion for their political activism. The websites of these organizations who oppose Walker’s drug-testing legislation all, in some form or another, uses words or phrases immediately identifiable with progressive- rather than religious- causes. Such terms and phrases found were “social” and “economic” justice, “peacemaking,” “solidarity,” and “human community”; “restorative justice,” “united for justice.” One website even had a “living wage campaign” and “resources for justice seekers.” Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker recently proposed a...

But when you take a look at the organizations these religious leaders represent, you’ll see that these religious types are political progressives who’re using the cover of religion for their political activism. The websites of these organizations who oppose Walker’s drug-testing legislation all, in some form or another, uses words or phrases immediately identifiable with progressive- rather than religious- causes. Such terms and phrases found were “social” and “economic” justice, “peacemaking,” “solidarity,” and “human community”; “restorative justice,” “united for justice.” One website even had a “living wage campaign” and “resources for justice seekers.” Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker recently proposed a...

In this election, the mainstream media — always subconsciously eager to remain the palace eunuchs in the Democrats’ Forbidden City — will back Hillary or whomever the Democrats nominate. Should a Republican win the White House, the shrill cries over the miniscule “sequestration” cuts to domestic spending in 2013 will be but a mild preview of what’s to come. The Obama legacy and these challenges are why many Republicans want to nominate an experienced governor to run — preferably one with a revolutionary flair and serious political skill.Jeb Bush announced his exploratory PAC in mid-December, and led most Republican polls...

The Federal Communications Commission recently adopted a plan to regulate the Internet like the phone companies of the 1930s. The decision is wrong for countless reasons, including an imminent reduction in investment and innovation. To undo these burdensome regulations, Congress should work together in the coming months to pass a law that both ensures the desired consumer protections everyone favors but forgoes the antiquated 1930s-style public-utility regulations. Let's take a step back. The FCC initially proposed last year to adopt a simpler set of rules guaranteeing that the Internet remains open and available to all users. This type of regulation...

Clinton rules mean they feel entitled to …well…everything. Now that Hillary Clinton has announced her candidacy, even the mainstream media has started to raise questions regarding the Clinton Foundation. In the wake of reports of pay-to-play donations made to the foundation from rogue nations and Iranian sanction busters, Reuters has investigated the disclosures made by the foundation for years and found them wanting. From Jonathan Allen: Hillary Clinton's family's charities are refiling at least five annual tax returns after a Reuters review found errors in how they reported donations from governments, and said they may audit other Clinton Foundation...

‘Completely unworkable,” “irresponsible,” “happy talk,” “a disservice to the political process.” That’s just a sampling of what tax experts, most of them right of center, told me they think of one of the most popular lines from Ted Cruz’s stump speech, his promise to abolish the Internal Revenue Service. Senator Cruz has been talking about the idea for a couple of years now, but it got a bit more attention when he mentioned it in the speech he gave at Liberty University to officially launch his presidential campaign. You can expect the idea to get even more popular in light...

Colorado lawmakers started work Wednesday on a proposal to ask voters to keep some $58 million in marijuana tax collections. Colorado voters already approved the taxes on recreational pot sales in 2013. But because that ballot measure didn’t account for a quirk in state law related to new taxes, the money will have to be refunded unless voters again approve the 10 percent sales and 15 percent excise taxes. Colorado voters approved the taxes the first time by a 2-to-1 margin. The new ballot measure has broad bipartisan support, with lawmakers calling the measure a do-over of what voters already...

Democrats are fond of accusing Republicans of being hypocrites on a variety of issues, but particularly when it comes to tax policy. The liberal comedian Bill Maher recently claimed that Republicans expose themselves to this critique when they champion the value of hard work and perseverance while simultaneously opposing the inheritance tax. “If the tough love of cutting off free money for the poor is the right thing to do, how can we stand by and do any less for the Conrad Hiltons of the world? They’ve never known the dignity of work either,” Maher insisted recently. “Shouldn’t we...

Every year since 2002, Minnesota has been losing residents to other states. What’s worse: Young adults are leaving in the greatest numbers. Casey Sperzel is Minnesotan through and through. She grew up in Maple Grove, went to college at the University of Minnesota, and lived in both St. Paul and Minneapolis. But when the 27-year-old met with a job recruiter last year, she was set on the Pacific Northwest. “I don’t think I’ll be back,” said Sperzel, now with a Seattle ad agency. States are scrambling for young professionals like Sperzel to help offset the wave of baby boomer retirements....

If anything needs cutting or confiscating is the politicians' power and insatiable desire to spend the taxpayers' money The Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, gave a speech on Tuesday, April 14, 2015, in which he proposed, among other things, raising the retirement age from 67 to 69. He stated that, “We should remember that Social Security at its core should be retirement insurance. I’m suggesting that Americans pay into the system throughout the course of their life, knowing that it will be there, if they need it, to support them in their later years, so seniors will not grow...

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently appeared on one of the late night talk shows, beating the class warfare drum and arguing for billions of dollars in new social programs paid for with higher taxes on millionaires and billionaires. In recent years, though, blue states such as California, Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland and Minnesota adopted this very strategy, and they raised taxes on their wealthy residents. How did it work out? Almost all of these states lag behind the national average in growth of jobs and incomes. So, if income redistribution policies are the solution to shrinking the gap between rich...

Between the shrimp on a treadmill study and then the IRS's Star Trek-themed training films, there have been more than a few cries of outrage from taxpayers fed-up with their hard earned dollars seemingly wasted on hyper-frivolous reports and projects, the federal government doesn't seem to have gotten the message. Case in point would be the article published by The Washington Free Beacon on April 17, 2015, which details the government dropping nearly a half million dollars to study the levels of sexual satisfaction for men after their first "penetrative same-sex experience." With the impressive project title of FIRST AND...

It's a question that naturally springs to mind when tax season rolls around: Where are all those tax dollars being spent? In total, Washington will spend $12,304 per citizen. Unfortunately, the government will collect only $10,878 in tax revenue per person. That means that, you, the American citizen, will be left with an additional tab of $1,426, on average. The $1,426-per-person represents this year's deficit of $455 billion. Perspective: Adjusting for inflation, the government spent $894 per person in 1940, $7,319 per person during the peak of World War II (1945), $6,026 per person in 1980 and slightly more than...

If you’ve recently finished running the gantlet known as income tax preparation, you might be particularly cheered by Sen. Ted Cruz’s suggestion to abolish the Internal Revenue Service. After all, few of us — except perhaps a few tax preparers for whom the practice provides a livelihood — enjoy navigating the increasingly arcane bureaucracy that governs our tax code. Every year, it seems, there are new rules, new deductions, new forms to fill out and new uncertainty about how all of it will affect one’s bank account. So when Cruz and fellow presidential campaigner Sen. Rand Paul began talking about...

Glenn Beck on Tuesday said the tax reform plan proposed by Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is “bizarre” and an “absolute jobs killer.” Rubio announced he will be running for president in 2016, and Beck said his tax plan is so bad, Americans may as well “just vote for Barack Obama again.” According to Politico, Rubio’s plan is designed to “reward families with children while slashing levies on business and investment income but keeping a top rate personal income rate of 35 percent, far higher than many Republicans would like.” Though 35 percent is a slight cut from the current top...

WASHINGTON - The American people are overtaxed by a waste-ridden government whose grotesquely swollen budget could be shrunk by hundreds of billions of dollars without harming its necessary functions and programs. We know this is true because of years of shocking audits produced by Congress's Government Accountability Office that have exposed massive levels of waste, inefficiency, duplication, mismanagement and thievery throughout the federal bureaucracy. Keep this in mind the next time you hear the Democrats in Congress and President Obama proposing that we raise taxes on wealthier Americans who, they say, "aren't paying their fair share." It's one of the...

They say there are two things that are certain in life: death and taxes. If you're a Democrat, you can add death taxes to that list. The death tax, which was being phased out by President Bush from 2001-2008 but revived by the Obama administration in 2009, currently sits at 40 percent. More background from Heritage: Estate tax (death tax) repeal. The Bush tax cuts phased out the death tax. It was supposed to be completely eliminated after 2009. However, after being dormant for one year in 2009, the 2010 deal between President Obama and Congress brought it back to life at...

Comedian and radio personality Adam Carolla is apparently a big fan of Sen. Ted Cruz. During a Friday morning interview with the Texas Republican, Carolla approved of the presidential candidate and personally thanked him for wanting to outright abolish the Internal Revenue Service. “Thank you so much for wanting to eliminate the IRS,” Carolla began the conversation. “It’s driving me nuts.” “I think that is a powerful populist issue and today is the day when its on people’s minds,” Cruz said, reminding listeners that Wednesday was Tax Day. Carolla argued that taxes are an important issue that gets overshadowed by...