Free Republic

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced Tuesday that he will vote on Democratic legislation to extend the Bush-era tax rates. Manchin said he will join Democrats in voting to extend the rates for income up to $250,000 a year. The Democratic legislation would allow Bush-era rates on higher annual income to expire. Republicans want to extend all the rates for another year.  The vote on the Democratic plan is expected to take place on Wednesday.  "When considering these two proposals, I kept two priorities in mind: putting our fiscal house back in order and restoring fairness to the tax code," Manchin said...

Some believe Barack Obama has run out of ideas on the economy --- like, for instance, the Washington Post, which wondered aloud about that very problem last week: Obama’s message on his two-day bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania has been twofold. First, he pointed to modest signs of progress in rebuilding the economy–the health of the auto industry is his principal case study across Ohio’s northern tier. At the same time, he warned that the medicine offered by Romney and the Republicans is exactly the wrong prescription.As he said here Friday morning, “We tried it, and didn’t work.”But it...

FREDERICK, MD - Some people in Maryland will get a surprise when they look at their tax bill. In a special session the Maryland General Assembly approved increasing taxes for people who make more than $100,000 a year and couples who make more than $150,000 a year. Those changes take effect this week. "They will go up for most people anywhere from five to 15-percent, and what they'll also see is that they'll be retroactive. I think Maryland families are suffering under the current economy and really don't need to be sending more and more to the government," said Sen....

Cavuto on now. Discussing Repubs are reportedly considering Dem proposal to pass budget through the Senate that would allow an increase in taxes now for a promise to cut a greater amount down the road. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Cavuto noted that the Dems ambushed the Repubs the same way under H.W. Bush.

There’s a plan afoot to hike your taxes after the November election. Who woulda thunk it? According to Americans for Tax Reform, President Obama has already signed 21 tax hikes into law that hammer middle class and low income taxpayers. Included are a massive tax hike on tobacco, ObamaCare individual mandate surtaxes, ObamaCare employer mandate taxes, ObamaCare taxes on indoor tanning, and something called the “economic substance doctrine” that empowers the IRS to remove tax deductions from the code without the consent of Congress. Americans are already overtaxed. Now there is widespread fear that some Republicans may go wobbly on...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a quarter-billion dollars’ worth of tax increases into law on Tuesday. The move is meant to keep the state’s ever-expanding budget on a path toward growth. “Growth” is the last thing the private-sector economy is going to see in the Free State. According to the latest Labor Department figures, Maryland lost 6,000 jobs in April, the largest such drop in the nation. Unless the General Assembly and the governor begin to rethink their free-spending ways, Maryland soon will be in the fiscal hole like California and Greece. Like a good Democrat, Mr. O'Malley has taken...

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed into law a package of tax increases Tuesday targeting six-figure earners, tobacco users and companies engaged in real estate transactions to cover record spending on education. In a two-hour ceremony, it was easily the most recognizable measure O’Malley (D) signed but hardly the most popular. Rather, union members, minorities and interest groups crowded the State House to celebrate more than 200 lesser-known and often narrowly tailored bills. They passed the General Assembly with little fanfare but, taken together, will color the state’s social and political identity a slightly deeper shade of blue. The bills included...

After voting this week to raise income tax rates on the state’s highest earners, Maryland lawmakers aren’t ruling out more tax increases next year. The General Assembly passed legislation that will raise taxes on the top 14 percent of earners in an effort to balance the state’s $35.5 billion budget and cut half of Maryland’s $1 billion structural deficit, which measures expected revenue shortfalls in the future. Lawmakers could look to eliminate the remaining $500 million deficit over the next year by methods such as expanding gambling in the state, cutting spending or passing a long-debated tax increase to fund...

After discussing and debating the state’s finances behind closed doors for the past month, the Maryland General Assembly will convene Monday to start debating a revenue package during a special session. Lawmakers will hold public hearings and consider amendments on a pair of bills meant to supplement the state’s budget largely by raising income taxes. But the details of the bills appear all but set in stone, having been finalized in recent weeks during closed-door negotiations among Democratic leaders who say the bills will likely pass with few or no changes. House and Senate leaders say they did most of...

ANNAPOLIS — The General Assembly likely will return May 14 for a two- or three-day special session on a revenue package including income-tax increases and a shift of state-paid teacher-pension costs onto counties, state officials said Wednesday. Democratic leaders say the extra revenues are needed to bolster the state’s $35.4 billion spending plan and undo more than $500 million in cuts that went into effect when last-minute bickering caused the assembly to adjourn April 9 without passing two key revenue bills. The House and Senate still have slightly differing proposals to raise taxes, but leaders said they are making progress...

With the Maryland General Assembly looking toward two possible special sessions this year, some lawmakers are calling for an expanded agenda to address long-term transportation funding. Gov. Martin O'Malley and House leaders have made clear that they want to devote a May special session exclusively to passing new revenue and income-tax increases to supplement a $35.4-billion budget that currently includes more than $500 million in cuts because of the assembly’s failure to pass a revenue package during the regular session. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, said Tuesday that is his only priority for a May special session. Other proposals would have...

Robert Reich has written an article headlined "Britain's Austerity Recession." In it he laments his own created fact that the reason for Britain slipping into a recession recently is due to their austerity; better known as Budget Cuts.But his claim is a blatant lie. Here are the numbers:The 2008 U.K. national (excluding local) Budget was £426 billion. It rose to £496 billion in 2010, and the new and current 2012 budget is £527 billion. This is a total increase of 24% within four years.Increasing your budget six percent in each of four years back-to-back is only austerity when placed against Obama...

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley emerged Tuesday from a much-anticipated meeting with the state’s two leading lawmakers and revealed that he is not only leaning toward calling a special session, but he might even call two of them. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, said he hopes to bring the General Assembly back into session by mid-May so legislators can pass a set of tax and revenue increases to erase $512 million in cuts that were put into place when the assembly adjourned April 9. The governor said he wants to focus strictly on finances and hold off on debating a gambling...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said Thursday he wants to call a special session for lawmakers to raise taxes and reverse $500 million in planned budget cuts but is waiting on House and Senate leaders to meet beforehand and work out a unified plan. During a day in which he conducted several radio and television interviews, the Democratic governor said he would call legislators back to Annapolis “a half-hour from now” but needs assurances that a special session will not include the bickering and gamesmanship that caused a revenue package to fall through Monday on the General Assembly’s last day, triggering...

ANNAPOLIS — The General Assembly adjourned Monday night after a chaotic closing session in which members failed to pass a set of proposed tax increases or a bill to expand gambling in the state. Lawmakers passed a balanced budget and hoped to pass accompanying bills raising income taxes and shifting teacher-pension costs onto counties, but they ran out of time before the assembly’s required midnight adjournment. The House attempted to extend the session by passing a resolution shortly before midnight, but the Senate did not address the measure in time. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said he was...

There goes the Buffett rule. Remember that political gambit, in which billionaire Warren Buffett pretended he was going to pay a much higher tax bill and President Obama pretended that raising rates on millionaires would make a dent in his hemorrhaging budget deficits? In one fell swoop Wednesday, Congress's tax scorekeeper punctured both phony claims. The analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation also showed less wealthy taxpayers why the Buffett ruse would eventually end up exposing them to higher taxes. With Mr. Buffett's help, Mr. Obama promoted the fairy tale that millionaires pay lower tax rates than their middle-class...

The jobs-killing Obamacare law contains 20 new or higher taxes on American families and employers. Many of these tax increases fall on families making less than $250,000--a direct violation of candidate Obama's promise not to raise "any form" of taxes on these families. In less than a week, the second anniversary of Obamacare being signed into law will take place. The Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments about the constitutionality of Obamacare next week. Out of the 20 new or higher taxes in Obamacare, here are the four that most hurt young adults and children. Every single one of...

For the fourth time, the President has proposed limiting charitable deductions. The clearly intended result would be a massive transfer of money from the voluntary sector of society into government. Tocqueville warns, "our quarrel is not about the value of freedom per se, but stems from our opinion of our fellow men … a man’s admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him"

Hot on the heels of his eight-vote Iowa-caucus landslide, Willard Mitt Romney is crisscrossing New Hampshire before Tuesday’s key primary. Romney is masquerading as a limited-government, free-market executive from next-door Massachusetts. From the Golden Gate to the Granite State, voters should greet Romney’s impersonation with a quarryful of skepticism. In fact, Romney increased taxes by $309 million, mainly on corporations. These tax hikes, described by Romney apologists as “loophole closures,” totaled $128 million in 2003, $95.5 million in 2004, and $85 million in 2005. That final year, Romney proposed $170 million in higher business taxes, the Boston Globe reports. However,...

By Todd Starnes Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said it’s not too late for someone to enter the Republican presidential race. “Things can still be shaken up,” Palin told Fox News. “Things can change in terms of candidates coming and going.” Palin said over the weekend that she was not enthusiastic about anyone in the current GOP field. “I don’t think that the field has to be considered set today – set and locked up,” she said. “Even beyond Iowa I think there is time for more shakeup.” She told Fox News that she has concerns about the current GOP...