Free Republic

Does this sound like a healthy economy to you? * In nine of the last 10 years, the economy has grown more slowly than professional forecasters had predicted. * Annual G.D.P. growth has not reached 3 percent in almost 15 years. * Median net worth for American households has declined, after adjusting for inflation, since the late 1990s. Those are all big warning signs. They show that the United States is suffering through an era of slow growth — and that the gains from that growth are flowing disproportionately to a small slice of mostly affluent households, making the gains...

Rahm Emanuel raised taxes to get city worker pension funds on a ‘path to solvency.’ The shortfall still ballooned by $7 billion. ... A record-high property tax increase. A new tax on water and sewer service. A higher 911 emergency fee on telephone lines... Emanuel’s series of tax hikes was painful, but he promised the extra money was part of a plan to get the woefully underfunded city worker pension funds on a “path to solvency.”.. in the four years since .. The pension funds are actually worse off. When Emanuel pushed through the tax hikes, the city worker retirement...

The Nashville real estate market is exploding and the reasons are outstanding! Forbes ranked Nashville the eighth-best U.S. market to buy a home, U.S. News & World Report ranked Nashville #15 of the top 125 U.S. cities to live, and Travel + Leisure ranked Nashville as the friendliest city in America as well as one of the top 50 places to visit in the world. Nashville real estate offers all of that including no state income tax and the best music scene on the planet.

The race to the zero-bound is on. That’s not an interest-rate policy development, but an investing fee trend. Charles Schwab Corp SCHW, -2.41% on Tuesday said it would no longer charge a commission on trades of U.S. and Canada-listed stocks, exchange-traded funds, and options, starting October 7. That’s just the latest volley in the incredible shrinking broker fee war. Behemoth asset managers like Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab have spent the past few years leapfrogging each other to offer lower and lower commissions. That’s thanks in part to the rise in popularity of ETFs, funds that in most cases passively follow...

Americans on average spent more on taxes in 2018 than they did on the basic necessities of food, clothing and health care combined, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey. The survey's recently published Table R-1 for 2018 lists the average "detailed expenditure" of what the BLS calls "consumer units." "Consumer units," says BLS, "include families, single persons living alone or sharing a household with others but who are financially independent, or two or more persons living together who share major expenses." In 2018, according to Table R-1, American consumer units spent an average of $9,031.93 on...

We escaped King George-rule through the Revolutionary War. We adopted rule-by-law for the best justice. Surely 20 moral and farsighted Republican senators will understand the importance of being rid of the sorry mistake that is Donald J. Trump in our White House, else too much good U.S. progress suffers deep damage. They will join Democrats in impeachment. Our planet doesn’t have time for dithering on this. Our country doesn’t have time for careless economic decisions, those costly Trump tariffs. Our states suffer neglected infrastructure needs this late in Trump’s one term. Our families didn’t get any tax cut unless they...

Tommy Christopher at Mediaite noticed this earlier today and it’s pretty interesting. Bernie Sanders hosted a Medicare for All town hall Monday. During the Q&A portion of the event, he was asked about how he would pay for his proposal. When Sanders said taxes would go need to go up (while premiums went away) he got a follow-up question.“You’re telling us you’ve got to raise taxes to do this. Why can’t we adjust the current budget, for defense, and pay for us now as opposed to making us, you know, this futuristic thing?” a woman asked. She added, “I...

A cardinal rule of government ought to be: stop wasting money before demanding taxpayers hand over more. When it comes to the Highway Trust Fund and the gas tax, Congress has failed to learn this simple lesson. The federal highway program is set to expire a year from now, but lawmakers looking to fund their pet projects are eager to get started. So the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has already approved a bill that would authorize billions more in projects than the federal gas tax will bring in. The thing is though, they don’t know how to pay...

Germany’s parliament is debating possible child exploitation of a well known environmental activist. One America’s Kristian Rouz looks into the matter.

Democratic donors on Wall Street and in big business are preparing to sit out the presidential campaign fundraising cycle — or even back President Donald Trump — if Sen. Elizabeth Warren wins the party’s nomination. In recent weeks, CNBC spoke to several high-dollar Democratic donors and fundraisers in the business community and found that this opinion was becoming widely shared as Warren, an outspoken critic of big banks and corporations, gains momentum against Joe Biden in the 2020 race. “You’re in a box because you’re a Democrat and you’re thinking, ‘I want to help the party, but she’s going to...

A tax warrant against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s failed business venture remains open over six months after her office said the unpaid state taxes would be promptly paid back. The state of New York issued a tax warrant in July 2017 against Brook Avenue Press, a Bronx-based children’s books publisher Ocasio-Cortez founded in 2012, for $1,618.36 in unpaid corporate taxes.

Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a tax on the wealthiest Americans on Tuesday as way to help underwrite his slate of ambitious — and costly — policies, offering his own version of an idea one of his toughest rivals has campaigned on aggressively and pushing it further. Sanders, a presidential candidate and independent senator from Vermont, offered his blueprint after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has surged in the polls, made a wealth tax one of her signature ideas. Her crowds regularly chant “two cents!” at her rallies when she brings up the idea, a reference to how much the wealthy...

Last week, Elizabeth Warren walked into an interview that was supposed to be easy: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The liberal talk show host made it clear long ago that he’s no supporter of President Trump. He spent most of the interview joking around with the Democratic presidential hopeful, asking softball questions. But then he asked a serious question about the cost of her proposed “Medicare For All” scheme. “How are you going to pay for it? Are you going to be raising middle-class taxes?” Colbert asked. Now she could have done what a normal person would do: answer...

We’re all used to seeing California throw its weight around, but its new law requiring a presidential candidate to provide five years of tax returns to be eligible to appear on a primary ballot is a new low. Now, however, a federal district court judge has blocked the state from enforcing it, at least temporarily. It’s the right decision. The law is nothing more than a political attack on President Donald Trump, the federal elections process, and the right of free association of citizens and all political parties. California is weighing its options, but if it chooses to appeal, the Ninth...

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” 2020 presidential candidate South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) stated that fellow 2020 candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been “extremely evasive” on whether her Medicare for all plan will raise taxes for the middle class. Buttigieg said, “Senator Warren is known for being straightforward, and was extremely evasive when asked that question, and we’ve seen that repeatedly. I think that if you are proud of your plan and it’s the right plan, you should defend it in straightforward terms. And I think it’s puzzling that when everybody knows the answer to that...

A federal judge has ordered a temporary injunction against the California law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to secure a spot on the state's presidential primary ballot -- a law aimed at President Donald Trump, who has not released his tax returns. In a ruling Thursday, US District Court Judge Morrison England, Jr., said that California cannot force candidates to disclose their tax returns as outlined in a new state law. England said he would make his final ruling on the law before October 1. Even as the temporary injunction will likely face appeals from state officials,...

On Stephen Colbert's CBS late night show, the host challenged Elizabeth Warren on the issue of single-payer healthcare, which she unequivocally supports. He attempted to nail the leftist Senator down on the question of whether or not middle class Americans' taxes would have to go up (they would, a lot) in order to fund the program she and Bernie Sanders have proposed. She ducked, he drilled down further, then she ducked again -- prompting the comedian to call her out on it, seemingly to her surprise: “You keep being asked in the debates, how are you going to pay...

This is a dangerous time for comedians who make inappropriate remarks, putting Stephen Colbert in an especially precarious position. On Tuesday Mr. Colbert welcomed presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass) to his “Late Night” television program on CBS. Mr. Colbert then engaged in a conversation which many journalists find deeply offensive when he pressed their favorite “ideas candidate” to explain how taxpayers will bear the cost of her ideas. After a pleasant several minutes of discussion Mr. Colbert told the senator that the “most radical thing that you’re proposing is Medicare for All.” The comedian then continued where friendly...

VIDEO Elizabeth Warren has been absurdly playing dodgeball in response to the question as to whether she would raise middle class income taxes in order to pay for the incredibly expensive Medicare For All program that she supports. Her constant evasions have become so noticeable as to become laughable. One interesting thing is that she usually begins her evasive answers with the word "So." It has been used so often that "So" is now the official Elizabeth Warren tell that she is about to give a forked tongue response.

Carl Icahn, the legendary investor, has told employees that he is moving his company from New York to Miami and a report said his decision to move is based on the Big Apple’s higher taxes. Icahn, 83, whose net worth is about $20.4 billion, is set to move his home and business from the city due to the taxes, sources told Bloomberg. The report said that it is not uncommon for billionaires to settle in the state which is one of seven without a personal income tax. The report pointed to New York’s 8.82 percent rate. …