Free Republic

The Obama administration is trying to strong-arm America’s colleges and universities into complying with a bill that hasn’t been signed into law yet. The bill, which would replace current subsidized-student-loan programs with a government-run system, passed the House last month, but its fate in the Senate is far from clear. Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Education Committee, plans to use the budget-reconciliation process to pass the contentious bill with a simple majority, but The Hill newspaper reports that it might not even have 51 votes. The bill is far from a fait accompli, making the administration’s pressure campaign all...

Tuesday night the citizens of Indiana's Senate District 17 got to hear from the candidates. Huntington County Commissioner Tom Wall, Coffee D'Vine owner Ron Fusselman, and Whitley County Councilman Jim Banks faced off in a debate at Huntington University. The event was sponsored by.....

An excise tax on high-priced insurance policies might violate President Obama's pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class, House Democratic Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said last night. "I do not want to see anything jeopardize the president's promise not to raise taxes on the middle-class," Clyburn told MSNBC last night. "And that could very well get us there." The House healthcare bill to be unveiled today will not include such a tax, but the Senate bill does. Under the Senate bill, an excise tax on so-called "Cadillac" insurance policies would help pay for subsidies and expanded coverage. President...

The current debate over Social Security reform is reminiscent of the discussions that occurred in Galveston County, Texas, in 1980, when county workers were offered a retirement alternative to Social Security: At the time they reacted with keen interest and some knee-jerk fear of the unknown. But after 24 years, folks here can say unequivocally that when Galveston County pulled out of the Social Security system in 1981, we were on the road to providing our workers with a better deal than Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The Problem with Social Security. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system under which taxes...

One of Europe's solutions to the perceived global warming threat is trying to regulate carbon emissions through Carbon Credits The way it works is the government sets a or cap on the total amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of credits. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed....

Domestic oil refiners kept up their attack of climate legislation, saying a Senate bill under consideration could increase gas prices. Domestic oil refiners kept up their attack Wednesday of climate legislation, saying a Senate bill under consideration could increase gas prices. The group, among the fiercest critics of the measure, said the proposal could add 77 cents a gallon, or around 30 percent above today’s prices. Democrats on a key Senate panel shot back, saying the industry’s estimate is based on an inflated projection of the price of permits companies will have to hold to cover their carbon emissions. A...

We have previously discussed the dangers of increasing taxation in places like New York city. Now it appears that the city is facing a tax-version of the China Syndrome where over-taxation may be causing wealthier families to flee, which increases the need for higher taxes on those remaining. I remain concerned about the incredible spending in Congress and rising taxes in the states as politicians seem to have lost any sense of proportion or balance in buyouts, recovery bills, and public spending. Even the Washington Post is now warning of a “debt tsunami” as the Administration drives up the deficit...

Does HIV mean certain death? In the quarter century since the world was introduced to the idea that a new sexually transmitted virus was the cause of Aids, HIV has been generally regarded as one of the biggest killers of our time. HIV/Aids has not been the mass disease in Britain that people were led to believe in the 1980s, but the death toll from immune deficiency diseases ascribed to HIV in Africa has been staggering. The scale of death there is an ongoing tragedy that tests the moral resolve of the rich world. How much do we care? Enough...

GMAC, the former lending arm of General Motors Co., is in talks with the Treasury Department for a third injection of taxpayer aid, a further sign of the U.S. government's entrenchment in the U.S. auto industry. The Treasury Department mandated earlier this year that GMAC Financial Services raise an additional $11.5 billion in capital after undergoing a "stress test" along with 18 other banks. While other banks deemed undercapitalized have been able to raise funds from private investors, GMAC has been forced to go back to the government.

The war on conservative speech has moved from the White House to your neighborhood pews. Left-wing church leaders want the Federal Communications Commission to crack down on "hate speech" over cable TV and right-leaning talk-radio airwaves. President Obama's speech-stifling bureaucrats seem all too happy to oblige. Over the last week, an outfit called "So We Might See" has conducted a nationwide fast to protest "media violence" -- specifically, "anti-immigrant hate speech, which employs flawed arguments to appeal to fears rather than facts." Their ire is currently aimed at Fox News and conservative talk-show giants. But how long before they target...

Washington is captivated by the Senate melodrama over the so-called public option, salivating at the ring of Harry Reid's political bell (see below). But the most important health-care questions continue to be about the policy substance—particularly those that Democrats don't want asked. Foremost among them is: How will ObamaCare affect insurance premiums in the private health-care markets? Despite indignant Democratic denials, the near-certainty is that their plan will cause costs to rise across the board. The latest data on this score come from a series of state-level studies from the insurance company WellPoint Inc. At the request of Congressional delegations...

"More than 500 officers smashed their way into thousands of safety-deposit boxes to retrieve guns, drugs and millions of pounds of criminal assets. At least, that's what was supposed to happen. Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark investigate" Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1222777/The-raid-rocked-Met-Why-gun-drugs-op-6-717-safety-deposit-boxes-cost-taxpayer-fortune.html#ixzz0VDacv0T6

US bill aims to crack down on overseas tax cheatsSTEPHEN OHLEMACHER October 27, 2009 By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Key lawmakers unveiled a bill Tuesday aiming to crack down on wealthy U.S. tax dodgers hiding money overseas. The bill would impose new reporting requirements on foreign financial institutions doing business in the U.S., and on American advisers who help U.S. residents make investments overseas. Foreign firms that don't comply would be hit with a 30 percent withholding tax on income from their U.S. assets. The bill, which would raise an estimated $8.5 billion over the next 10 years,...

UPDATE: I was told this is a done deal, but I haven't seen an announcement yet - so it might still change. The tax credit was expanded to move-up and higher income buyers. The amount of the credit was reduced to a maximum of $7,290. Continue reading »

A new study says taxes are driving people away. An old saying goes that the time to live in New York is when you're young and poor, or old and rich—otherwise, you're better off somewhere else. That wisdom is getting an update this week from a study by the Empire Center for New York State Policy that shows middle-class people leaving the state in droves. Between 2000 and 2008, the Empire State had a net domestic outflow of more than 1.5 million, the biggest exodus of any state, with most hailing from New York City. The departures also have perilous...

The Obama administration, from time to time, keeps saying that x number of jobs are being "saved or created" and yet we keep seeing more and more people losing their jobs. It seems as if the Obama administration is saying that despite there being a net number of jobs lost, that x number of jobs are still being "saved or created." If so, then where is the proof? Where is the quantifiable evidence of where these jobs are being "saved or created" and when they were "saved or created" to back up the veracity of the so-called x number of...

Harris County taxpayers may have to inject up to $7 million a year into the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority for the next two years due to a financial crisis sparked by the souring of bonds used to build Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium and the Toyota Center. Facing balloon payments on $117 million in variable-rate bonds, the authority now is obliged to pay off the debt in five years instead of 23 years. That would require $24 million a year — a figure that, together with more than $30 million in additional obligations, would push the authority to the brink...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Max Baucus said Tuesday he has "serious reservations" about climate legislation newly unveiled by his Democratic colleagues, signaling that lawmakers may have to pull back from some ambitious goals in order to line up needed votes. "I have some concerns about the overall direction of the bill," Mr. Baucus (D., Mont.) said at the start of hearings in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "I have serious reservations with the depth of the mid-term reduction target in the bill and the lack of preemption of the Clean Air Act." Mr. Baucus -- who's also chairman of...

After King County Superior Court Judge Gregory Canova awarded Microsoft an $8.7 million judgment in a 2008 lawsuit involving unpaid software licenses, he might have been surprised to learn that Microsoft isn’t actually in the software licensing business in Washington – or at least that’s what it reports to the state Department of Revenue. For tax purposes, Microsoft reports that it’s earned its estimated $143 billion in software licensing revenue in Nevada, where there is no licensing tax. However, for legal purposes, Microsoft executes its licensing contracts so they are governed by and rely on the protections of Washington law...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Senate committee on Tuesday launches three long days of hearings on a Democratic climate bill in a bid to further convince an international summit in December that Washington is serious about tackling global warming. The Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee will kick off Tuesday's hearing at 9:30 a.m. EDT with a panel of heavy-hitters from President Barack Obama's Cabinet: the secretaries of energy, transportation and interior and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Joining them will be the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. According to an EPA statement, the officials will focus...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators tussled over the cost of climate legislation Tuesday with the leading author of the bill maintaining that while energy prices will increase, inaction on global warming would cause even worse economic and security problems. "Are there some costs? Yes sir, there are some costs," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. But of the array of studies that show restricting greenhouse gases will lead to higher energy prices, he said, "none of them factor in the cost of doing nothing." Kerry was the leadoff witness as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began a series of marathon...

ACRAMENTO — As oil companies continue to reap record profits amid strained state revenues, a pair of Democratic lawmakers are hoping to tap into their deep pockets by installing an oil severance tax that could relieve growing pressures to cut more state services. Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Long Beach, introduced a bill Monday called the Fair Share Act, that would impose a 10 percent oil severance fee on extractions from California wells to bring in $1.5 billion to the state's coffers. A similar bill that has already cleared one committee, by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, would impose a 9.9 percent fee,...

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent? Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish? Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about...

Congressional Democrats are set to announce Tuesday legislation aimed at squeezing more information from foreign banks and U.S. citizens with offshore accounts to ferret out tax evaders. The bill from Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), includes some of President Barack Obama's proposals to fight offshore tax cheating. According to a summary of the bill obtained by Dow Jones Newswires, it is expected to raise $8.5 billion for the U.S. government over 10 years. Foreign banks with U.S. customers would face a 30% withholding tax on income from...

New Yorkers are fleeing the state and city in alarming numbers -- and costing a fortune in lost tax dollars, a new study shows. More than 1.5 million state residents left for other parts of the United States from 2000 to 2008, according to the report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy. It was the biggest out-of-state migration in the country. The vast majority of the migrants, 1.1 million, were former residents of New York City -- meaning one out of seven city taxpayers moved out. "The Empire State is being drained of an invaluable resource --...

...The U.S. (federal and states) will spend about $47 billion this year on drug enforcement, clogging our court systems and overcrowding our prisons, in many cases dooming young men to a life in the underclass...And I don’t think we’re getting a good value for our $47 billion. In fact, I think our efforts may be counterproductive, and that we should explore a more sensible route, the same one we use for alcohol and tobacco. In short, legalize it, regulate it and tax it. Legalization would quickly shrink that $47 billion annual cost of law enforcement to a small fraction of...

... The economy remains unsteady 22 months after the recession began, with banks restricting credit and consumers hunkering down. For these small businesses, and many others across the country, there's an additional dark cloud: uncertainty created by Washington's bid to reorganize a wide swath of the U.S. economy. The economic contraction is of course the prime force driving companies to lay off workers. But a health-care overhaul grinding through Congress could bring unknown new obligations to insure employees. Bush-era tax cuts are set to end next year, and their fate is unclear. Legislation aimed at tackling climate change might raise...

In Boston, the livin’ is never easy. A new report from Northeastern University finds we’re one of the priciest housing markets in America. Only San Francisco has higher rents, for example. Massachusetts has the highest energy costs in the country. Our roads are very expensive (only New Jersey spends more per state road mile) and are generally crappy - even when they’re not covered with sides of beef. And now Bay Staters face yet another challenge, according to the liberal group ONE Massachusetts: You’re UNDER taxed. In fact, ONE Massachusetts is so certain you want to pay higher taxes, they’re...

In what could prove to be bad news for local oil producers and those seeking employment in the West Kern County oil patch, California Assemblymen Pedro Nava (D - Santa Barbara) has called for a 10 percent oil severance tax on all oil produced in California. "California oil companies are getting a free ride," said Nava. "California is the only major oil producing state that does not charge a severance tax on oil extraction. California has been giving away public assets to Big Oil for far too long." Nava, who is a democrat candidate for California Attorney General next year,...

While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama said his cap-and-trade tax plans would "bankrupt" anyone building a coal-fired power plant. Although those taxes haven't materialized, the Environmental Protection Agency has put the brakes on 79 surface mining permits in four states since he was elected. The EPA says these permits could violate the Clean Water Act and warrant "enhanced" review. But the agency went even further last week, announcing plans to revoke a permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in West Virginia - a move that has caused anxiety among coal-state Democrats about the future of the...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned Senate Democratic leaders not to include a tax on high-cost healthcare plans in a bill that is expected to reach the floor in coming days. Trumka dismissed the notion that Democratic leaders could placate the powerful union by raising the threshold on plans that would be subject to the tax. Under the Senate Finance Committee’s bill, plans costing more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families would be hit with a 40-percent excise tax. “Working families struggling to pay for healthcare should not be required to pay even more in the form of a...

Illinois Senator James Clayborne wants to raise the Illinois State Income tax a whopping 67 percent on the citizenry and 33 percent on businesses. It amounts to thievery by the state and has earned Clayborne the title of "Tax Villain" for the month of October from the watchdog group National Taxpayers United of Illinois. In this day when Illinois is almost bankrupt from its profligate spending, Clayborne wants to give this irresponsible government even more of the taxpayer's money to waste. Of course, the out-of-control spending isn;t Illinois' only problem... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

Paul Kroenke wrote a great piece on the empty bravado of Mayor Richard Daley and his populist claims that he won't raise property taxes. Kroenke pretty much shows that because of the tax zones that Daley has set up across the city, he really can't raise property taxes even if he wanted to do so. Back on October 14, Daley played the populist by claiming that he was ruling out property tax hikes. "You can't [raise property taxes] ... That would hurt people tremendously," Daley said. "You can only take so much. People are being laid off on a daily...

(snip) U.S. leadership is crucial. That is why I am encouraged by the spirit of compromise shown in the bipartisan initiative announced last week by John Kerry and Lindsey Graham. Here was a pair of U.S. senators — one Republican, the other Democratic — coming together to bridge their parties’ differences to address climate change in a spirit of genuine give-and-take. We cannot afford another period where the United States stands on the sidelines. An engaged United States can lead the world to seal a deal to combat climate change in Copenhagen. An indecisive or insufficiently engaged United States will...

Anyone who has had an eye on getting a new Tesla Roadster, but has been waiting for the sale price of the car to drop from its $109,900 price point to a more reasonably $70k-ish will have a really good day after hearing this news (assuming you live in Colorado). The state of Colorado is offering a special tax credit that is designed to allow purchasers of electric vehicles to save big on the purchase price.

Federal income tax rates would have to be nearly tripled across the income spectrum if Congress were to close the deficit in fiscal year 2010, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. Instead of taxing joint filers with rates ranging from 10 percent to 35 percent, tax rates would have to start at 27.2 percent and reach up to 95.2 percent. "Federal government spending levels are so high that even if policymakers were willing to stop debt-financing government services, the federal tax system in its current form wouldn't be able to raise that much," said Tax Foundation...

Carter lapse won't slow Rangel huntBy JOHN BRESNAHAN & JONATHAN ALLEN 10/23/09 4:38 AM EDT House Republicans say they’ll press on with their efforts to dethrone House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel — despite the fact that the Republican leading their charge now faces ethical issues of his own. Rep. John Carter failed to disclose nearly $300,000 in profits from oil stock sales in 2006-07, Roll Call reported Thursday. Carter and the Republicans, though, insisted that they have no intention of backing off their anti-Rangel drive. They note that Carter had paid all the taxes on his stock...

BERLIN — Germany's newly elected government unveiled its plans for the next four years on Saturday, spearheaded by 24 billion euros of tax cuts in spite of the country's mammoth debt mountain. "It is all geared to creating jobs," Chancellor Angela Merkel said, calling the coalition pact, finalised after three weeks of tough negotiations in the early hours of Saturday, Germany's "answer to the crisis." "We have agreed a coalition programme showing that we want to advance courageously into the future," she said. "We are aiming for growth, for the creation of an education republic and social cohesion." "The burden...

California, you may have heard, is an apocalyptic mess of raging wildfires, soaring unemployment, mass foreclosures and political paralysis. It's dysfunctional. It's ungovernable. Its bond rating is barely above junk. It's so broke, it had to hand out IOUs while its leaders debated how many prisoners to release and parks to close. Nevada aired ads mocking California's business climate to lure its entrepreneurs. The media portray California as a noir fantasyland of overcrowded schools, perpetual droughts, celebrity breakdowns, illegal immigration, hellish congestion and general malaise, captured in headlines like "Meltdown on the Ocean" and "California's Wipeout Economy" and "Will California...

We can finally understand what Candidate Barack Obama meant by Hope and Change, because in nine short months, with the help of his teams in congress, he has totally destroyed Public Opinion of his Democratic party. Rasmussen regularly tracks voters opinion on 10 key issues including Health Care, Education, Social Security, Taxes, Economy, Abortion, Immigration, National Security, Iraq and Government Ethics. The latest version of this study shows that for the first time in recent history voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 key electoral issues, and the lead has grown to double-digit levels in half of them.

The “stimulus” bill included an $8,000 tax break for first-time home owners. Now comes news that the program is wracked with fraud, but some politicians still want to extend the benefit. Yesterday, the Treasury’s Inspector General told congress that 580 kids, some as young as four, had qualified as homeowners. There were 19,300 claims for houses that hadn't actually been purchased. 74,000 claims where the applicant appeared to have owned a home within the last three years, hardly making them “first time” homebuyers. The IRS is now auditing over 100,000 of the credit claims. But the Inspector General isn’t confident...

Turns out more than four-year olds were getting checks. Seems like everyone was in on this deal. Even Americans who shouldn't have been. Even those who weren't…Americans. And the government all but saying, you want the candy, you got the candy!! the fraud was so rampant, so widespread, so un-checked, and so under-reported that ... Fraud on such a massive scale, that if Mr. George is right, had IRS agents themselves, among the abusers. And this is about a lending program that was supposed to help first-time buyers get a home. and administered by a bureaucrats clearly far from even...

Government watchdogs are blasting taxpayer-funded grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities that send college professors on free vacations and pay for programs on topics like the "cultural significance of the circus poster" -- just a few items on an eye-popping list of questionable NEH projects.

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes. The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery. Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say. The petition has 44 signatories so far, and will be presented to newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel. The group say the financial crisis is leading to an increase in unemployment, poverty and social inequality. Simply...

Obama's Stash--Part Three or How Many Zeros in a Trillion? http://www.wiseandfrugalgovernment.blogspot.com/ When Gray Davis was still governor of California--before the recall effort and the election of the Governator--he gave an interview to the media to explain why the state was in deficit. At the time, I had taken over the management of a company struggling with profitability. Reporting to my board was a chore. And then I heard the melodious voice of Gray Davis explaining away the state's problems. It's not that we spent too much money, it's that we didn't have enough revenue. Would my board fall for that?...

We are all used to hearing political candidates make campaign trail promises. Usually the promises are benign enough, big on rhetoric and lacking on details. Candidates announce public policy ideas that most anyone can agree with at some level. This is understandable; they want to attract as many voters as possible and don’t want to alienate any voting block. Rarely, if ever, would a politician promise something detrimental, like a tax hike. Just don’t tell Illinois Comptroller and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Dan Hynes that... ===============> Read the important info alert at ATR.org...

Obama's Stash--Part Three or How Many Zeros in a Trillion? http://www.wiseandfrugalgovernment.blogspot.com/ When Gray Davis was still governor of California--before the recall effort and the election of the Governator--he gave an interview to the media to explain why the state was in deficit. At the time, I had taken over the management of a company struggling with profitability. Reporting to my board was a chore. And then I heard the melodious voice of Gray Davis explaining away the state's problems. It's not that we spent too much money, it's that we didn't have enough revenue. Would my board fall for that?...

With the US government now having taken over the functions of such pristine subprime lenders as New Century, with the provision that it not only is not checking borrowers' credit scores, income potential, or other "facts" that the mortgage lenders at least pretended to care about, but also giving away massive incentives to promote housing bubble V2, it was only a matter of time before the taxpayer's balance sheet would start looking like an Angelo Mozilo wet dream. Today, Freddie Mac released its September Monthly Volume Summary and, as expected, it is beginning to look just like the subprime debacle...

Latin music ‘tends to make us move a little bit ourselves,’ says ObamaWASHINGTON - The White House became "La Casa Blanca" on Tuesday, celebrating Hispanic musical heritage with a South Lawn concert and such guests as Gloria Estefan, George Lopez, the Bachata music group Aventura, Jose Feliciano and more. President Barack Obama said Latin music, while hard to define because it comes in so many forms — from salsa to merengue and Bachata to reggaeton — speaks to everyone in a language they can all understand. "It moves us, and it tends to make us move a little bit ourselves,"...