Free Republic

...Stopping Tax Increases on Families and Small BusinessesFirst, let's look at the level. Keeping taxes at 18-19 percent of GDP is what Americans have been paying for all of living memory. Raising this level would result in record and sustained tax hikes on families and small business owners. It should be the job of any budget to bring federal spending DOWN to the tax level, not bring the tax level UP to whatever level of spending Washington wants. Three plans that fail in this regard are the Obama budget, the Simpson-Bowles commission report, and the "Gang of Six" rumors. All...

...The Upton-Inhofe proposal was specifically tailored to pre-empt Agency overreach by returning authority over the America’s climate policy to Congress. Constitutional issues aside, an unchecked EPA is expected to lose billions in revenue and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide. Congratulations are due to the Democrat members of both chambers who had enough sense to buck their party’s Big Green Government ideology. In the senate, only four Democrats voted for the McConnell amendment: Mary Landrieu, Joe Manchin, Ben Nelson, and Mark Pryor. Apparently seeking to return the favor, Susan Collins (R-Maine) went turncoat and deprived her party of a...

The respected Irish columnist Richard Waghorne has come out against “gay marriage” again – but this time it’s more personal. In his own words: I am not a big believer in people making arguments on the back of who or what they happen to be. When I last made the case in these pages against gay marriage, about a year ago, I didn’t feel the need to mention that I am gay myself. Arguments stand on their own two feet, or don’t, but not on the strength of who happens to be making them. Nor, I don’t mind adding, did...

This analysis of data collected over 12 months proves conclusively that with this mad rush to construction and use or renewable power, emissions of CO2 are in fact increasing, which is the opposite of what we are told will happen. Total electrical power consumption increased by 4.7%, and yet CO2 emissions increased by 7%, in both the coal fired sector, and the natural gas fired sector as well. With the huge ramping up in construction of wind plants, renewable power only increased from 1.89% to 2.32%. Emissions rose by 201 million tons to 3.27 Billion tons.

This week, Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Dan Coats (R-Ind.) introduced S. 727, the "Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2011." It has one key advantage--namely, lowering the corporate rate from 35 to 24 percent. This is a big deal. Unfortunately, the bill is riddled with many other problems, to the point that it has to rank among the most disappointing of these efforts we've seen. Among the issues: There's not yet a score from the Joint Committee on Taxation. As a result, it's impossible to judge whether this bill is a net tax increase, a net tax cut,...

Today, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) released his FY 2012 budget resolution. It is a no-tax-increase budget which stands in stark contrast to the Simpson-Bowles (Obama) commission (and the Coburn-Chambliss “Gang of Six” which is introducing legislation modeled after Simpson-Bowles). The Ryan approach is the conservative one... Read more: http://www.atr.org/paul-ryans-budget-real-conservative-looks-a6023#ixzz1Ir3F0fkk

For my Catholic viewers and friends: The solution to the catholic sex scandal and how to protect novices and altar boys from paedophiles and perverts. As Shown by Father Curtis Staring Emily Mortimer as the Novice Michael Cochrane as Sir Henry Simmerson the disgusting pervert John Kavanagh as Father Curtis From the TV show Sharpe's Sword.

...It's easy to see why single cigarette purchases are popular and profitable in Manhattan. Lonnie Warner, the black market salesman mentioned above, buys cartons of cigarette shipped to New York City (cigarette tax: $5.85 per pack) from Virginia (cigarette tax: 30 cents per pack) illegally and sells them for a profit a couple cigarettes at a time. It's not legal, but it's lucrative. The NYT story reads like an episode of The Wire, with Warner shuffling from block to block in search of action, retreating to Harlem to replenish his stash via a network of suppliers. The constant struggle for...

...2) Amendment No. 18 (Federal Employee Accountability Act) Status: failed. Designed to prevent government employees from conducting union-related activities while on the clock. Had it passed, Rep. Gingrey’s (R-Ga.) amendment would have preserved “official time” from “the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement, if commenced before suchdate of enactment; any proceeding before the Federal Labor Relations Authority, if commenced before such date of enactment; or any other matter pending on such date of enactment, in connection with which any official time has been used or granted before such date.” According to the Office of Personnel Management, FY 2008 saw union...

Tim Wu, the coiner of the term "network neutrality", and a senior adviser to the FTC, has an interesting solution to solve the non-existent problems plaguing the tech industry. As The Chronicle of Higher Education reports: "In the class at MIT, Wu floats some hypothetical ways you could fight abuse... "something like term limits for monopolists. In theory, the government could say, 'Well, this company has clearly shown it's corrupt. ... So let's just nationalize their source code.'"

Video of Washington Congressman Jim McDermott saying he's tired of reading the U.S. Constitution...

*MP3 audio dP20101223 Hr 3 THU.mp3 of the interview by Dennis Prager of Professor Bruce Herschensohn’s new book on the Vietnam War, “An American Amnesia” Does being on the left mean never having to say that you are sorry?—If you are talking about the Vietnam War and who won it 35 years later, that very well may be the case. Regarding the real truth of the Vietnam War after the fall of Saigon, Laos and Cambodia, Senator Fulbright, D-AK, who was also the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee summed up the sentiment of the 94th Congress, “I am no...

...The list also includes spending programs that are less well known, like public engineering spending and spending on the National Science Foundation. One receipt shows that the average taxpayer in California making $45,000 per year pays $8,442.85 in federal taxes. From that amount $1,610.73 is spent on social security, $44.46 on NASA, and so on. While the website operates in general terms, this brief look into where taxpayers’ money is actually spent is an interesting breakdown that is not seen very often. Anything that promotes more transparency in government and allows taxpayers to track roughly where their money goes should...

...Now the Obama administration is faced with the FAA bill's Title IX provision, which stands to reverse the NMB's hard work on behalf of Big Labor. The administration's memorandum claims "by treating non-votes as “no” votes, the provision would prohibit workers in the airline and railroad industries from voting whether to join a union on the same basis – majority rule – as most other industries." Of course it does, Mr. President, precisely because the transportation sector is so radically vital and different from other industries. In addition, unionization should not be a thing against which workers must constantly defend...

...If on any given day you find yourself walking through the hallowed halls of ATR, you will find the staff pining away for the sweet taste of “Mexican Coca-Cola” or any other bottle of Coke not produced in the U.S. and thus not tainted with sticky un-refreshing taste of corn syrup. The reason for the difference lies in the U.S. Government’s efforts to keep sugar prices artificially high by restricting the amount of sugar that can be imported to the U.S. This result is the price of sugar in the U.S. being one-half to two-thirds higher than in other countries...

Here’s some honesty for you: “Children are selfish, self-centred, egotistical little monsters. They are also, and often at the same time, gorgeous, loving, wonderful creatures,” writes Irish columnist, Sinead Ryan. Nor is corporal punishment evil, or ineffective, she concludes. “Finally, it is its very rarity that makes it work. It shocks a child (and indeed, many a parent), and that is the point.” Of the don’t-smack-your-darling camp Ryan states: “Smacking has been hijacked by the PC-parenting brigade, who probably frown upon the naughty step, too. They are very possibly the same parents who regularly get notes home from teacher about...

Let me set the stage with "Propaganda: A Primer by Mark Levin" (1 min 8 sec) [audio http://constitutionallyspeaking.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/levin03292011b.mp3] While the rest of the lame stream media & blogoshere have been trotting out Donald Trump and his birth certificate, they have failed/purposefully glossed over the immediate Constitutional issue . . . "natural born citizen". Now don't get me wrong, I think it is great that Trump has elevated this issue into the lame stream alphabet media, however that media is still pulling one over you. Rewind to last Saturday night. Mike Huckabee formally discloses, with a rather flippant attitude, the fact...

It has been widely reported that The Obama Administration and SOS Clinton have okayed The Muslim Brotherhood, Obama has even stated that they are well organized. Even promoting them in a innocuous/ non secular way; only admitting a small fraction may be anti-American. Then why are they on a terrorist network in America map?

Donald Trump has released a copy of his original birth certificate…which is something every single Republican should do…and not just ones running for president. But Trump does not understand the real issue here: Obama is hiding something written on the “name” line of the certificate. Obama was indeed born in Hawaii in 1961…but he was adopted in Indonesia in the late-60s or early 70s. At the time of his adoption, his name was legally changed to something like Soetorabakh Soetoro…because Indonesian naming convention is so unusual, there are many possibilities for how his adopted name could be spelled (like all...