Free Republic

n March 15, ABC News, in cooperation with the Washington Post, released the results of a new survey done by Langer Research Associates. One of the questions asked about the level of confidence that US citizens have in our system of government today.

I spent last week in Massachusetts and broke my "driving on the right" cherry at last, but then I got the shock of my life... No cats' eyes, on any road, anywhere.When I arrived in the country, it was dark, raining and slightly misty, and once I got out onto the I-93 northbound and had stopped putting the wipers on when indicating my turns, if anything it got even harder to drive. This was because I had a real job working out where the lane markings were. Even the cruddy Garmin sat-nav in the hire car didn't seem to know...

In a recent testimony from Treasury Secretary Geithner to the Senate Finance Committee one major point was that when considering corporate tax reform: “Congress has to revisit this basic question about whether it makes sense for us as a country to allow certain businesses to choose whether they’re treated as corporations for tax purposes or not.” Secretary Geithner later went on to reference non-corporate businesses specifically. Essentially, this means that Secretary Geithner is considering ending the pass-through tax treatment of businesses. This refers to partnerships, limited liability companies, S-Corporations, and any other type of business entity where individuals will report...

As the government enters its sixth month without a spending plan for the 2011 Fiscal Year, Democrat lawmakers are wearing taxpayers’ patience thin on their resolutions of seriousness about federal spending. A look at how they’ve dragged their feet shows why: October 1, 2010: The beginning of the FY 2011 Fiscal Year. Not a single appropriations bill for the year has been passed, and a budget has not even been proposed. The House and Senate pass Continuing Resolution (CR) #1 a few days earlier, kicking the can down the road on spending decisions for FY 2011. December 3, 2010: The...

On Wednesday evening, Wisconsin state senators finally voted to end collective bargaining for government employees, bringing to a close three weeks of protests and public controversy. Upon hearing the news, leftist demonstrators outside the state capitol went berserk, forcing the Republican senators to leave the capitol. The vote sidestepped Senate Democrats’ much-reported stalling tactic of fleeing the state to prevent a quorum. Instead of waiting until their absent colleagues deigned to do their jobs, last night the Republicans removed fiscal provisions within the bill, enabling passage without a 20 member quorum. The final vote was 18 Republicans in favor, 1...

Today, Illinois became the forth state to impose an affiliate nexus Internet tax. After some deliberation, Gov. Pat Quinn continued his streak of enacting economically damaging tax measures by signing House Bill 3659 into law. The so-called “Main Street Fairness Act” attempts to force online retailers that aren’t based in the state to collect sales tax if they use in-state advertisers or other affiliates. The measure is a legally dubious run-around of current U.S. Supreme Court law under Quill v. North Dakota, which only permits a state to force a company to collect tax if they have a physical presence....

... In his reports, Gov. Walker provides a laundry list of needless taxpayer-funded benefits and projects brought about by public-sector collective bargaining. Those looking to save Wisconsin from fiscal ruin would do well to arm themselves with some of these astonishing facts: •Only three years ago, the Milwaukee school district cut Viagra from its health-benefit plan for teachers: the move saved $786,000 a year. The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association went to court over the matter. •The Madison Emeritus Program doles out almost $10,000 to participating public school teachers. Required days of work? Zero. •Certain Wisconsin employees, due to the nature...

Recently, the Heritage Foundation hosted Bulgaria’s Minister of Finance/Deputy Prime Minister to talk about some of the astounding reforms that have helped Bulgaria through the financial crisis. Dr. Djankov outlined the achievements and goals of Bulgaria since his self-described “center-right” government took control of the country in late 2009. Amid a fiscal crisis and rising debt and deficits, Bulgaria has dramatically decreased their deficits and produced major economic growth in a very short period of time. Minister of Finance Dr. Djankov directly attributes these gains to major reforms that have take place that include: - Reducing minimum capital investment required...

During a debate (see pg. 2791) regarding a certain Dr. Houard, who had been incarcerated in Spain, the issue was raised on the floor of the House of Representatives as to whether the man was a US citizen. Representative Bingham (of Ohio), stated on the floor: “As to the question of citizenship I am willing to resolve all doubts in favor of a citizen of the United States. That Dr. Houard is a natural-born citizen of the United States there is not room for the shadow of a doubt. He was born of naturalized parents within the jurisdiction of the...

...Similarly, government workforces have health benefits that are on average greater than those received by many in the private sector: “The average government worker earns $4.65 per hour in health benefits, compared with $2.10 per hour in the private sector. Part of that difference is attributable to higher coverage rates in the public sector (73 percent of state and local government workers receive health insurance through work, compared with 51 percent of private-sector workers). But part is attributable to the higher value of benefits per employee.” Added all together, Barro says, 43% of state and local spending goes to 19.4...

...This morning, Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said in a radio interview that President Obama's political team is directly involved in burgeoning efforts to recall Republican elected officials (emphasis on the word "elected," as in chosen by the people of Wisconsin in a democratic vote four months ago): "There's many people that are beginning to believe this is a delay tactic by the Democrats in the Senate so that these recall elections can be organized by the Obama team out of Chicago, which they are, as we start to do the research on the people that have filed the...

Yesterday didn’t go so well for Gov. Jerry Brown, who has spent the past week courting a handful of GOP legislators in an attempt to get them on board with his budget - which calls on the General Assembly to refer an extension of the 2009 Schwarzenegger tax hikes to the ballot. Five of the GOP senators whose votes Gov. Brown has been seeking to buy sent a letter to Brown yesterday informing him that negotiations had reached an impasse, reflecting the fact that Brown really doesn’t have anything to offer GOP legislators in exchange for their votes. In their...

Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee released its Continuing Resolution that would fund government through the end of the 2011 Fiscal Year, ending September 30. While Democrats have pledged to meet House Republicans "halfway," their version of a seven month funding measure comes nowhere close. The House-passed CR cuts over $60 billion in spending – the Senate Democrat version cuts a paltry $10 billion, preserving the bloated spending status quo. It is particularly unbelievable that, after refusing to pass a budget and forcing government to operate on stop-gap funding measures for the first five months of the fiscal year, Senate Democrats...

http://vimeo.com/20451029 This is NOT a GOOOH Video.. but it sure makes the case that the GOOOH process MUST succeed in 2012 ! Wake up America !..... Please !

A generation ago, it wasn’t that easy to keep track of what our Senators and Representatives in Washington were doing. Newspapers, interest groups or the legislators themselves would inform the public about certain votes. Or you could go to a library and pore over thousands of pages of the Congressional Record. All of that changed in 1995. Voters had elected Republican majorities to both the House and Senate, and with new political policies came new ideas. Incoming Speaker Newt Gingrich realized that knowledge was power, and wanted to increase the power of voters.

...It was at the behest of the her organization that the NMB threw out over 75 years worth of precedent last year in instituting a "minority rule" for union elections: now that a tiny minority of employees can force collective bargaining upon their peers as long as an opposing majority remains silent, it's no wonder that Delta would make every effort for its employees to be cognizant of the election (which in no way violates the law). It seems that AFA's president explicitly opposes workers participating in the democratic process, if the results are not to her liking. The meat...

The federal budget – whether it’s the continuing resolution to finish the current fiscal year or President Obama’s FY ’12 budget and the forthcoming counterproposal from House Republicans – remains the issue of the day in Washington and despite extensive debate, misinformation remains abound in the media. Yesterday on Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell volleyed calls for higher taxes. Brzezinski talked about the need to “spread the pain,” in reference to raising taxes on “the rich” (read: the majority of small business profits and workers). According to IRS data, here’s where “the pain” is...

...For all those who claim that the education of our children is simply too priceless to worry about cost and that we should throw more money at the problem, there is this next tidbit. According to the video, MPS “has been listed as a district identified for improvement for four years under No Child Left Behind.” The system graduates a measly 68% of its students. Winning The Future will certainly take much stronger performance on the part of our nation’s teachers unions, especially at the price of $100,000. The exorbitant salaries and benefits paid to public sector workers when compared...

In a report released today, GAO confirmed what many Americans already know: the government has no idea what it is doing. The report, commissioned by Senator Tom Coburn who amended the request into last year’s debt limit increase, shows that overlap of responsibilities amongst government agencies costs taxpayers billions a year, with more waste and abuse still likely to be uncovered. The report’s findings are astounding: it shows at least $100 billion is wasted each year in redundant missions and spending; responsibilities are conflated across various agencies and programs, providing little reason to believe any of these programs are serving...

The White House recently announced it will shift debt from the Federal Reserve to the Treasury in an attempt to “buy time” on raising the debt limit ceiling. Rather than sly accounting, the federal government should dispose of the billions in assets it holds, stop the spending binge to acquire and maintain those assets and rescind the failed “stimulus.” Get out of the bailout business. Simply by selling the remainder of its General Motors shares, the government could net $18 billion in savings. The government should also demand GM pay back the $30 billion in outstanding assistance from TARP. Days...