Free Republic

Last week, President Obama's tax reform commission came out with their long-overdue report--buried on a Friday during the August recess. One area of the report worth exploring is the section on "return free" tax filing--a polite way of saying that the IRS would do your tax return for you, calculate your balance due or refund, and leave it up to you to take on City Hall. This is a bad idea because it puts the IRS in a conflict of interest. The IRS has an interest in maximizing the legal amount of tax owed. Taxpayers have an interest in minimizing...

Since coming into office, the Obama Administration has taken an antagonistic stance against America’s oil and natural gas producers--energy sources that power our country-- barring exploration along most of our coastline and threatening to levy job-killing tax increases. In an attempt to push back against this anti-growth agenda, the American Petroleum Institute has organized nationwide Rallies for Jobs throughout the month of September--the first of which are held today in Texas. The message of these rallies is clear: higher taxes mean fewer jobs. Responsible for more than 9.2 million well-paying jobs across the country, oil and natural gas production is...

...Obama’s fuel efficiency standards are economically burdensome. Emphasizing clean energy in the Recovery Act proved inefficient and is yet to save 700,000 jobs, as the Obama Administration said it would, or jumpstart the American economy. Subsidizing clean energy stops job growth and reduces overall economic productivity... Read more: http://www.atr.org/all-join-green-cause-a5358#ixzz0yIyYUDaU

...The Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have said that they want to raise taxes in the top two income tax rates in January 2011. Under their plan, the 33 percent rate will rise to 36 percent, and the 35 percent rate will rise to 39.6 percent automatically in January. These rates affect families and small business owners earning at least $200,000 per year Unlike corporations, small businesses usually don’t pay their own taxes. Rather, business profits flow through to the business owner. The business owner pays taxes on her small business by adding the profits to her income tax form....

First Entry-Introduction Letter to Granddaughter about Kaitlyn-9/6/2005 9/8/05-Folk Wisdom from the Storm; New Lyrics to the Battle of New Orleans 9/9/05-All Katrina Gossip-Sean Penn/Michael Jackson 9/12/05-Debit Cards/Hillary's Katrina Commission 9/14/05-Email from FEMA 9/15/05-Ophelia 9/16/05-More Sean Penn 9/20/05-Katrina Kills Natalee Holloway 9/22/05-What Will Become of New Orleans? 9/27/05-Rita!!! 10/18/05-The TRUTH About the Convention Center 10/25/05-Ray Nagin All Atwitter 11/1/05-WILMA/Katrina and Pets 11/15/10-Katrina evacuees murder Good Samaritan12/6/05-Katrina Changes Political Climate in Louisiana 1/7/06-Myths of the Hurricane Katrina now shattered 1/18/07-Major Crime Wave in New Orleans 9/17/07-Two Years AFTER Katrina...Still Not So Much 11/5/07-After Katrina Louisians Elects REPUBLICAN Governor! 9/18/08-Gustav and dig...

With the spill off the Gulf largely contained, the Administration has launched a commission to investigate the root cause of the tragedy. Now that the heated emotions surrounding the spill are beginning to subside, the presidential commission has an enormous opportunity to objectively access the failures that led up to the spill—and just as importantly—to chart a sustainable, cheap, and safe course for America’s energy production. Given the Administration’s antagonistic track record with America’s oil and natural gas producers, many Republican Members looked at the commission with weary eyes. Addressing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Senator Barrasso (R-Wyo) highlighted many of...

Freepers, I remember a live video of a group of Katrina evacuees who had come to Houston in a school bus. As the bus arrived, all the usual Media suspects were lined up waiting to interview the people as they got off the bus. The first question asked was, "What do you think of Bush abandoning you, etc." (The Media meme). The answer shocked everyone as the woman first off the bus hollered, "Bush? That Ray Nagin left us there to die! Kathleen Blanco left us there to die." (etc.) She finished by saying, "They sure sent the busses around...

...The problem, to borrow from the great Yogi Berra, is that this is just "deja vu all over again." Every few months the CBO essentially releases the same report they've been circling for the past 18 months, just with a few new numbers punched in. Even CBO's director, Doug Elmendorf, has been explicit regarding the fallacy of the CBO report, admitting that the legally-required exercise is one that is designed as a self-fulfilling prophesy to report the success of the "stimulus." This is because the numbers in the CBO reports are achieved by using models based on the same fuzzy...

The AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) recently announced that they will spend a combined $88 million during this year’s election cycle. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) plans to spend about $50 million. Organized labor’s enormous war chests are largely derived from member dues—money that is deducted from workers’ paychecks and sent directly to the “representing” union. While some states have enacted paycheck protection laws that allow a worker to decide whether or not his dues are used for political purposes, a majority of states give workers no choice in how their dues...

...The cause of this late date is government largesse—and Virginia is left footing the bill. From 2002 to 2008, state spending has grown by nearly 33% from $26.5 billion a year to $35.3 billion a year. To sustain this bloated government, Virginians have been saddled with over $3 billion in new taxes over the past eight years. This amounts to a $380.70 tax increase on every man, woman and child in the Old Dominion State in that time period. Under the leadership of the new governor, some ideas have been floated that would ease the burden suffered by Virginia taxpayers,...

The last redoubt of concern for the common man is ridiculously awash in the cash that keeps eluding the object of its affections but then, maybe that’s where it comes from. The Almanac of Higher Education shows us that colleges and universities took in about a trillion dollars this year and spent roughly that amount. Most of these institutions have multi-million dollar endowments, even some community colleges. Most parents do not. Professors make about $100,000 a year with tenure while the untenured lecturers and associates range between $45-80,000 a year. Ironically, this is where most share-the- wealth schemes originate. The...

...Government workers receive generous pensions, driving up costs A key factor in the underfunding of government employee pensions is the inflated benefits promised to individual workers. On average, government workers with defined benefit plans are owed $2.85 in retirement benefits per hour worked compared to a private sector worker with a defined benefit pension plan who receives $0.41 in pension benefits per hour worked. Reform is difficult and easily demonized The biggest opponents to pension reform are the current recipients of generous pension benefits, many of which are union members. Over 35 percent of government workers are represented by a...

This year, the national Cost of Government Day fell on August 19th—meaning that Americans had to work 231 days to pay off the cost of government this year. But President Obama’s home state spent 234 days paying off the cost of government this year, which didn’t arrive until today, August 22nd. Tied with Utah and Wyoming this year, Illinois ranks as 35th state to reach their Cost of Government Day. What’s worse, since 2003, residents have been subjected to an $8.49 billion tax hike; this equates to $657.12 for every citizen of the state...

Michigan State University professor Sharif Shakrani was read an expert's quote that appeared on the eighth page of his study the Mackinac Center says appears to be plagiarized. Shakrani said he got the two-sentence quote through his research online. But the study doesn't say where he found that quote. The two-sentence quote was part of more than 300 words that appear to have been taken virtually word-for-word from a Stateline.org March 22, 2010, article entitled, "Still too many schools?" Except for a few very minor alterations, a three-paragraph chunk of the Stateline.org piece appeared in the MSU study. Some examples...

There are two golden rules for gun safety. Rule one, never point a gun at something you don’t want to destroy. Rule two: keep your finger off the trigger until you’ve decided to destroy it. “Muzzle discipline” means more than avoiding placing hapless humans in your sights. You should also refrain from potentially destroying your non-gun hand, your right foot, your neighbor’s extremities, the plexiglass range lane divider and anything else that might cause “issues.” To that end, follow the rabbi’s advice. Imagine there’s a five-foot flame coming out of the gun’s muzzle. By the same token, “trigger control” means...

While it strives for respectability, the Muslim Students Association (MSA) has a dark side. For example, a 2007 report by the New York Police Department describes MSAs as "part of a growing trend of Salafi-based radicalization." The report lists MSAs as an example of "Salafi Influences and Incubators," stating: "Extremists have used these university-based organizations as forums for the development and recruitment of like-minded individuals - providing a receptive platform for younger, American-born imams, to present a radical message in a way that resonates with the students." But the organization's role in radicalizing other Muslims is just part of the...

This week Ars Technica played right in to the FCC’s hands when it published, “Your fears confirmed: ‘up to’ broadband speeds are bogus.” As the FCC pushes for government regulation of the Internet, they use tricky tactics to try to confuse the consumer and sway popular opinion against service providers. One of these measures is this week’s deluded FCC study “Broadband Performance,” in which the FCC measures household Internet speed and implies you’re not getting what you paid for. They found: “Therefore actual downloaded speeds experienced by US consumers appear to lag advertised speeds by roughly 50 percent.” First, the...

...The money quote: "If you're running for governor and you want to be a good governor, you've got to tell the people the truth before the election...I want to be a governor that tells the truth all the time, before and after the election." Seriously? This is coming from the guy with the secret plan to raise taxes after the election. The guy who scrambled to quash the comments of his rogue budget director who blurted out the administration's plan for a $6 billion post-election tax increase. Bill Brady is the candidate in this race who has been consistently honest...

...In 2010, Cost of Government Day falls on August 19. Working people must toil 231 days out of the year just to meet all costs imposed by government - 8 days later than last year and a full 32 days longer than 2008. In other words, in 2010 the cost of government consumes 63.41 percent of national income...

The debate about climate science, and the sloppiness with which the cost/benefit ratios of climate change and its proposed solutions are considered, are literally sucking all the air out of environmental discussion. While we argue about what global warming will or won’t mean for our New England forests 100 years from now, the emerald ash borer is out there today...