Free Republic

Behold what a prominent politician's "CYA" instinct hath wrought:   Facing questions about why she and other top Congressional officials won’t release their tax returns, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) downplayed her previous demands for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to release his, calling the issue a distraction. As recently as Wednesday, Pelosi had strongly urged Romney to provide further disclosure of his tax returns. But today, while maintaining Romney should release more documents because of “custom” and “tradition,” Pelosi said the issue was trivial compared with economic issues. “We spent too much time on that. We should...

Obama and his fellow Democrats grow louder and more frequent for the top 5% (really the top 20%) who pay most of the federal taxes to ‘pay their fair share’ meaning even more taxes. But what about the 45 percent or so of our fellow citizens and legal residents who pay zero federal income taxes which that money is dedicated to pay for everything it does and that it gives away except retirement entitlements? With the government running the enormous deficits it is and candidates especially Dems promising more and more ‘free stuff’ to voters as Romney put it, this...

Last month’s Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare left champions of that law breathing a sigh of relief, while its opponents — a majority of the public — were left frustrated. It seemed at first glance as though the chief justice’s tortured opinion had saved the individual mandate, and with it the broader statute. But Obamacare’s champions should take a closer look at what the Court left them with, because on their own terms, the law is now set to collapse.

In a dramatic change, Republican governors — including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — are supporting sales taxes on online purchases in an attempt to send more revenue to state coffers.

Democrats are making increasingly explicit threats about their willingness to let nearly $600 billion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts take effect in January unless Republicans drop their opposition to higher taxes for the nation’s wealthiest households. Emboldened by signs that GOP resistance to new taxes may be weakening, senior Democrats say they are prepared to weather a fiscal event that could plunge the nation back into recession if the new year arrives without an acceptable compromise. In a speech Monday, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the Senate’s No. 4 Democrat and the leader of the caucus’s campaign arm, plans...

Early voting just began this week for the upcoming primary, but some metro counties are already seeing a surge of early voters. In Henry County, elections officials say they are seeing up to 500 voters a day and are now expecting a 45-50 percent turnout for the primary. Turnout has been similar in DeKalb County. "We are already seeing more people coming out than in 2008's primary... we've already voted more people in three days than we voted in the first five weeks of 2008," says the county's elections supervisor Maxine Daniels. She says the presidential race, the transportation sales...

The Supreme Court has allowed Obamacare's individual mandate as a TAX President Obama LIED to America when he told us that Obamacare was not a tax in any way. He then turned around and argued to the United States Supreme Court that the individual mandate and penalty for not getting healthcare was a tax and therefore constitutional. ObamaTAX via Obamacare ...... this might be JUST the right Slap in the face that America Needs to wake up and VOTE OUT OBAMA    WAKE UP AMERICA! We are not only DROWNING in Debt, but not we have seen Obama impose...

President Obama signaled in our interview that he was prepared to address some of the concerns raised by key Senator Jay Rockefeller, who called the Baucus bill a “big middle class tax increase” this week. That means he’ll support more subsidies for middle class families. But in our most spirited exchange, the President refused to accept the argument that a mandate to buy health insurance is equivalent to a tax. Here it is: STEPHANOPOULOS: You were against the individual mandate… OBAMA: Yes. STEPHANOPOULOS: …during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if...

The Maryland General Assembly passed a $260 million tax increase Wednesday as it adjourned from a three-day special session that ended with Gov. Martin O'Malley saying he will bring lawmakers back for another session this summer. The House gave final approval to two bills that will raise income taxes and shift a portion of teacher pension costs to counties to balance the state’s $35.5 billion budget, which is nearly $1 billion larger than last year’s spending plan.

What’s worse than dueling tax increases appearing on the November ballot? How about, dueling tax increases that find a “cooperative” way to work together on the November ballot...

Among the intended goals of higher taxes on cigarettes is that some smokers will quitrather than dealwith the increased cost. While this may happen, newly released numbers show that taxing cigarettes also drove up the sales of forms of tobacco that are taxed at lower rates. The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009 increased and equalized federal excise tax rates for cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, and small cigars. It also increased the tax rates on pipe tobacco and cigars, but not to the levelof theother items.

ANNAPOLIS — Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. is pushing for broader income-tax increases and a last-ditch attempt at expanding gambling as lawmakers look toward a possible special session, but the House appears reluctant to embrace either proposal. Mr. Miller will meet Tuesday with Gov. Martin O'Malley and House Speaker Michael E. Busch to discuss the scope of a potential special session, during which the General Assembly likely would pass several tax and revenue increases to cancel out $512 million in cuts resulting from their failure to pass the increases at the regular session’s close. Mr. Miller is waging...

Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to raise your taxes would raise less than he planned, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst. So Brown came up with another plan, caving in to union demands. Now Brown would raise your taxes even more. Does Jerry Brown have it right this time? Guess what the Legislative Analyst says about this new, improved (higher) tax plan? Just two days after the governor announced his “compromise” ballot measure to raise taxes, California’s top budget analyst said today the measure will generate $2.2 billion less next year than Brown has estimated...

ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland Senate passed a $35.9 billion budget package Thursday that would increase income-tax rates on nearly all earners and impose a flat income tax on residents making more than $500,000 a year. The spending plan would boost the state’s income-tax brackets by as much as 0.25 percentage point — a move expected to generate more than $500 million next fiscal year. The budget bill passed after senators narrowly approved an amendment Wednesday night that would allow the state to tax “half-millionaires,” who make more than $500,000 annually, at the maximum 5.75 percent rate for every dollar they...

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley told House and Senate lawmakers Wednesday that failing to raise Maryland’s gas tax could lead to crumbling roads and bridges in the future, and that they should pass his proposal despite its lack of popularity with residents. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, touted his proposed 6 percent sales tax on gas while testifying before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee and at a joint hearing of the House Ways and Means and Environmental Matters committees. Legislators have said a gas-tax hike appears unlikely during this year’s General Assembly session because of rising gas prices, public outcry...

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley will go before House and Senate committees Wednesday and ask them to raise the state’s gas tax, but he might get drowned out by the talk from constituents back in lawmakers’ home districts. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, has clung to the proposal in recent weeks even as skepticism of the plan has mounted in the face of rising gas prices and persistent objections from the public. The governor says the tax increase is a necessary investment in the state’s congested, too-long-ignored road and transit infrastructure. But with gas prices climbing toward $4 a gallon, leading...

The huge tax increases proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown are becoming much less popular as voters learn more about them. At the rate of decline in popularity over just the past two months, there may be no one left in California who will vote for the higher taxes by the time November balloting arrives, save, of course, Mr. Brown and the principal beneficiaries, public employee union members to whom he panders. Meanwhile, an analysis by the state Board of Equalization, which handles state business taxes, has weighed the impact of the governor's higher taxes and found them quite costly. The...

ANNAPOLIS —Gov. Martin O'Malley’s proposal to increase the state’s gasoline tax is looking more and more far-fetched because of rising gas prices and persistent public outcry, say state lawmakers from both parties. The Democratic governor’s bill to phase in a 6 percent sales tax on gas has been met with skepticism from Republicans and moderate Democrats in the General Assembly. Now with gas prices climbing toward $4 a gallon and lawmakers focused on fine-tuning a state budget that could include several other tax increases, some legislators say they are running low on time and political will to tack on a...

For years, we’ve been hearing from experts across the political spectrum about the need to invest more in our failing transportation infrastructure in Maryland. The D.C. region is at the top of the list of the most-congested cities in America, and Baltimore is not far behind. Almost half of Maryland’s roads and bridges are in poor or mediocre condition, and 55 percent of our urban highways are heavily congested. Maryland’s construction industry and its thousands of workers have been decimated by years of severe cuts in transportation investment. Despite what is clearly a growing need, Maryland’s transportation program is a...

This bill will increase the VA gasoline tax by indexing it to the Producer Price Index. Click on the link to see the actual results....should be posted by tomorrow. The bill passed 26 to 14. Republicans voting FOR the gas tax included Blevins, Hanger, Norment, Ruff, Stosch, Wagner and Watkins. Their emails are listed below....