Free Republic

Democrats claimed the Inflation Reduction Act would help ordinary Americans, but new analysis suggests people making less than $400,000 a year could end up paying $20 billion of the new tax revenue it brings in. President Joe Biden signed the act into law in August, injecting $473 billion of new spending on climate and healthcare, yet there are strong concerns it will do little to reduce inflation. In fact, middle class Americans will pay new taxes - directly contradicting Biden's promise to not raise penalties on people earning under $400,000.

If you watch the news, chances are you’ve heard about the recent spending and tax bills making their way through the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate. These bills could have a direct impact on your bottom line, so they garner considerable attention. But are you keeping track of the laws Colorado’s General Assembly is passing? If not, you might want to start. Indeed, during the 2021 legislative session, Colorado legislators passed $1.8 billion in new taxes and fees. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As a result of tax bills and laws passed since 2019, direct...

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday clarified that President Biden’s proposed tax hike would apply to people who earn $200,000 per year if they are married to someone who makes the amount. Psaki said at her daily press briefing that the proposed $400,000 threshold for tax increases applies to “families” rather than individuals. The clarification significantly lowers the tax-hike threshold announced by Biden in an ABC News interview that aired Wednesday. Biden’s interview statement appeared to indicate the cutoff would be $400,000 in individual income. “Yes, anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant...

Tax season opens in 26 days. And here's my big prediction: a lot of taxpayers will be taken by surprise. Despite all of those "no new taxes" type promises, tax bills are expected to edge higher for a number of taxpayers for the 2013 tax year. And 2014 holds even more surprises. Here's a quick look at what to expect:

Obamacare contains 18 specific tax hikes, mandates, or penalties that cost Americans money, and three new ones take effect in 2014. This is only the beginning—watch how two of these taxes get worse in the years to come. The individual mandate is designed to strong-arm individuals into purchasing government-approved health insurance or facing a tax penalty....The mandate increases drastically in coming years, rising to $325 or 2 percent of income in 2015, and $695 or 2.5 percent of income in 2016—whichever is greater. ... We need health reform that works for Americans — not against them

The Senate sided with traditional retailers and financially strapped state and local governments Monday by passing a bill that would widely subject online shopping — for many a largely tax-free frontier — to state sales taxes. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 69 to 27, getting support from Republicans and Democrats alike. But opposition from some conservatives who view it as a tax increase will make it a tougher sell in the House. President Barack Obama has conveyed his support for the measure. Under current law, states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the...

After a series of poor debate performances in the early months of his presidential campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is backing off the upcoming GOP debate schedule, committing to just one of the next three events between now and Nov. 15. Perry has struggled in the five debates he has attended since he joined the race in mid-August. At one, he fumbled an attempt to cast rival Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper. At another, bickering between Romney and Perry drew criticism that the candidates were acting juvenile. Perry hinted at his frustration with the debates earlier this week when he...

An avalanche of media scrutiny and an uneven debate performance have done little to drag down Herman Cain's momentum in the GOP race for president, a new poll shows. A CBS/New York Times survey of Republicans nationally finds the former pizza chain executive leading the field with 25% of the vote, 4 percentage points ahead of Mitt Romney. Newt Gingrich places third at 10%, followed by Ron Paul at 8% and Rick Perry at 6%. Cain and Romney were tied at 17% each in the previous survey; Perry had placed at 12%. One reason for Cain's continued strength: he now...

Taking aim at minimum wage laws, union protections, and even local building codes, Herman Cain has put the finishing touches on the last missing piece of his signature “9-9-9” plan – an elaborate proposal to create “opportunity zones” in inner-city America that the GOP presidential candidate will unveil during a major campaign appearance in Detroit on Friday morning. Cain hinted at the move during Tuesday night’s GOP debate in Las Vegas. He and his aides hope the details they provide about their plans to encourage growth in impoverished areas will deflect the surge of recent criticism branding “9-9-9” as unfair...

Herman Cain deserves credit for proposing a tax-reform plan that is specific, promotes economic growth, and has captured the imagination of conservatives nationwide. His 9-9-9 plan builds on the insight that one of the chief defects of the current tax code is its bias toward consumption over savings. But his plan’s peculiarities of design, substantive weaknesses, and political naïveté render it unworthy of conservative support. Cain’s ultimate objective is a 30 percent national sales tax, but his interim plan is to replace the current income, payroll, and corporate tax codes with three new taxes. A 9 percent income tax would...

The anti-tax Club for Growth is rising to Herman Cain's defense amid growing scrutiny of - and questions about - his "9-9-9" economic plan: “Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan is both pro-growth and a good starting point on the way to a flat or fair tax,” said Club president Chris Chocola. “Eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends and combining that with huge rate cuts in both corporate and income taxes would create an unparalleled economic boom. 9-9-9 also eliminates the regulatory and compliance costs from the current tax code that suck billions out of the economy each year. It is...

Reagan Economist Breaks Down Cain's 999 Plan (Art Laffer)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Drawing a bright line with congressional Republicans, President Barack Obama is proposing $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue as part of his long-term deficit reduction plan, according to senior administration officials. The president on Monday will announce a proposal that includes repeal of Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers, nearly $250 billion in reductions in Medicare spending, $330 billion in cuts in other mandatory benefit programs, and savings of $1 trillion from the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the officials said. The plan includes no changes in Social Security and does not include an...

The founder of Jimmy John’s sandwich shops says he’s considering moving his company’s headquarters from Champaign to Florida because of Illinois’ new tax increase. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the income tax increase last week to help address billions of dollars in state budget shortfalls. The corporate tax rate increased from 4.8 to 7 percent.

Pelosi's CLEAR Act adds billions in new taxes, a federal takeover of a state's authority to issue pertinent permits within their state, and builds a $500 million annually, slush fund for the Interior Secretary. That slush fund is provided by $22 billion in new taxes over ten years, which settles at $3 billion-per-year after the ten years. The vote is expected Friday. Pelosi has also refused to allow an independent, bipartisan investigation into the BP oil spill - and according to sources this move is to protect Obama.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) revealed that a package of amendments to the Senate-passed health care bill would include a new tax on unearned income. Pelosi said this tax would cover all unearned income, “whatever category that is.” Pelosi, speaking at a press conference on Thursday, said the new Medicare tax was inserted to make up for a reduction in the proposed tax on high-cost health insurance plans. The tax was opposed by House Democrats because it would have largely fallen on the generous health care plans enjoyed by labor union members, who are generally supportive of the Democratic Party....

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, speaking to reporters this morning, sounded extraordinarily optimistic about the prospects for bipartisan support of the health care reform bill that his committee will begin writing in mid-June. "Very high." he said, saying he puts the odds at 75-80%. ... 1. Will the bill provide universal coverage? It has to come pretty close, Baucus said, .By "nearly everybody," Baucus added he was talking about something like 96% of all Americans. ... 2. Will the bill have a government-financed "public option"? ...While Baucus said that "a version will be there," he also hinted strongly that...

This year, Halloween could be a bit more hair-raising for American consumers, especially if they have an Internet connection. October 31st is the last day Congress can act to extend or make permanent the Internet Tax Moratorium. If Congress chooses to do nothing (not always a bad thing in my view), the tax moratorium will expire and on November 1st, state and local jurisdictions would be allowed to impose taxes on broadband and Internet access. This would also represent the first major tax increase on consumers in almost eight years. There are about 15,000 different taxing jurisdictions, so American consumers...

Colorado Department of Transportation Director Russ George wants to see an “absolute, irrevocable” start to a mass transit system along Interstate 70 to come out of an ongoing transportation needs study. George told a seminar Friday he hopes a blue-ribbon panel on which he sits will ask lawmakers to allow his department to use mass transportation to confront the state’s transportation needs. “They will likely say (the department) can do highways, but it can do other things, too,” he said. “Yes, we need to have rail, we need more trails and transit. There’s no question in my mind that we...

Denver is gearing up to fight global warming, and residents may soon be asked to make personal sacrifices to help save the planet. snip But the proposal also contains some ideas that may be unpopular, such as penalizing heavy users of electricity and natural gas and basing auto insurance premiums on the number of miles traveled.