Free Republic

The Joint Committee has been tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in savings over the next ten years. With government spending levels at 25 percent of GDP, this is not a difficult assignment. First, the Committee should enact a hard, nominal discretionary spending freeze at the FY2012 levels. Savings: $971 billion. Secondly, the following reforms offer multiple ways for the committee to find its way to $1.5 trillion in savings (calculated over ten years, unless otherwise noted): Revive federalism – Give states control over their Medicaid programs, remaining federal welfare programs and transportation spending. Devolving transportation to the states: Savings: $540...

On Monday, the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules were finally published in the Federal Register, starting a 60-day shot clock to kill the rules before they become law on November 20. Net Neutrality, which regulates how service providers manage network data, represents the government’s first major foray into micromanaging the Internet. And, as we’ve pointed out before, the FCC approved the rules without showing of consumer harm or legal justification. Already, the U.S. House has passed a joint resolution (H.J. Res. 37) that would nullify the regulations. The Senate now has 60 days to send the measure to President Obama’s desk....

The Fraser Institute , a free market think tank, has recently released its annual The Economic Freedom of the World Report. As the title suggests, this report measures the economic freedom of 141 countries using five categories: size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labor and business. Hong Kong remained number one on the list, a position it has held for nearly 25 years, followed by Singapore and New Zealand. The report shows a worrying trend for the United States. America’s economic freedom rank has...

There’s a new coalition that’s been formed to advocate for corporate income tax reform (lower the rates, broaden the base) called the RATE Coalition. Provided that this is done in (at worst) a tax revenue-neutral way, this is a good thing—a very good thing. But the question remains—what corporate tax rate is low enough to justify the tax reform endeavor? The United States has the highest statutory income tax rate in the developed world. According to the OECD, the U.S. has a marginal corporate tax rate of 39.2% (including state corporate tax rates, which must be done to compare apples...

Elizabeth Warren, head of the Congressional Oversight Panel tasked with overseeing disbursal of TARP funds, has refused to reveal the own panel’s financial records, raising questions about her dedication to truly open government. The panel was charged with overseeing billions of dollars worth of TARP funds. Warren, who is running to challenge Sen. Scott Brown in next year’s Massachusetts Senate election, has been touting her service on the panel as evidence of her commitment to transparency and accountability. Perhaps unsurprisingly, TARP did not specify a budget for COP, nor did it require disclosure of the panel’s expenses, including travel, salaries...

...I understand political motives behind these sorts of measures, but it makes horrible economic sense. Yet Obama has once again chosen politics over the economy. Within the President’s “American Jobs Act” lies a provision that mandates all iron, steel and other manufactured goods must be domestically produced as part of around $80 billion in infrastructure spending. Such protectionist measures raise costs for consumers and businesses. When businesses are forced to pay more for products, that increase gets passed on to consumers, who are then forced to forgo spending elsewhere. In other words, by protecting one industry, countless others are losing...

This week the notoriously dysfunctional and economically illiterate Washington, D.C. City Council rammed through an upper-income tax increase on District residents and small businesses. The measure, which passed by a 7-6 vote, raises the tax rate on incomes in excess of $350,000 by 5 percent, taking the rate from 8.5 to 8.95 percent, and leaving D.C. with the dubious distinction of having one of the highest marginal rates in the country. Foregoing normal legislative protocol, the proposal, which was hastily concocted behind closed doors, bypassed the tax and revenue committee and was approved without public input. Even the Washington Post...

Today, the Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on energy tax policy and prospective tax reform. During the hearing—which lasted nearly 4.5 hours—the most interesting debate surrounded the NAT GAS Act, legislation that would provide tax credits to consumers who purchase natural gas cars and construct natural gas infrastructure. Proponents of HR 1380, the NAT GAS Act, constructed and leaned on three straw men. The bolded sentence represents the NAT GAS Act advocates’ arguments—my rebuttal follows. Increasing demand for natural gas via the NAT GAS Act will increase American natural gas production. Unfortunately, this theory only works in a...

As the debate over plastic bags rages on, consumers and common sense managed to pull out a victory in a recent settlement between Hilex Poly, a plastic bag manufacturer, and ChicoBag, an importer of reusable bags. Hilex Poly originally filed a civil suit in response to ChicoBag’s knowing and blatant use of misinformation about ChicoBag’s own product and about the use of plastic bags. ChicoBag’s twisting of numbers and misrepresentation of facts would make former Enron accountants blush. Inaccurate information promoted by ChicoBag included a faux EPA website, fabricated NOAA data, and outdated statistics. One particularly glaring piece of misinformation...

President Obama today called on raising the capital gains tax rate: “…Explain why somebody who’s making $50 million a year in the financial markets should be paying 15 percent on their taxes, when a teacher making $50,000 a year is paying more than that — paying a higher rate.” 25% capital gains tax rate? Under one interpretation, President Obama is calling for the marginal tax rate on capital gains to be the same as the marginal tax rate on someone earning $50,000 per year. This would imply a 25% capital gains tax 28% capital gains tax rate? According to theladders.com,...

More taxes, less jobs Oil and natural gas companies are responsible for about 9.2 million jobs in this country and about 7.5 percent of its GDP. Raising taxes on this industry would force companies to delay or scrap future projects as it becomes significantly harder for them to recover their investment costs. Repealing the below deductions and credits could kill 170,000 jobs and ultimately reduce government revenue, according to a Wood-Mackenzie study. Encumbered by taxes Already paying a little over $85 million a day, the oil and natural gas industry’s earnings are taxed at an effective rate of 41 percent....

News – first reported by WND – that for the first time a law enforcement official is investigating the document Obama presented as proof of his birthplace has caught fire in the wider press, prompting questions as to whether this effort will get to the bottom of the story. As WND reported, Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio responded to concerns from tea-party activists in his county by forming a volunteer posse to investigate whether the purported Hawaiian birth certificate Obama released to the public on April 27 is a forgery. Arpaio says that since WND ran its story, he...

...Far from “balanced,” his plan falls entirely on the backs of taxpayers and fails to address the government’s real deficit problem—overspending—by proposing fake or improbable spending cuts. Spending Cut Gimmicks ($2.5 trillion) $1.1 trillion in war “savings” – The President counts money that was never going to be spent on wars that are scheduled to end. This is like claiming the government is still saving money from World War II, Korea and Vietnam simply because we are no longer engaged in them. Takes credit for debt deal savings – The President attempts to take credit for the $1 trillion in...

President Obama today endorsed a “Buffett Rule” for tax policy: “Any reform should follow another simple principle: Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that. Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it.” Obama is arguing for another “alternative minimum tax (AMT).” In this case, the “Buffett Rule” seems to imply that high income households should pay taxes (even on capital gains) at about a 25 percent rate, no matter what. That is the marginal tax rate for most...

Leo Donofrio's "Natural Born Citizen" web site has been shut down by Wordpress - without explanation (per Leo):I had just visited his site earlier today as well, and it was there. So this is fairly recent.

Small business tax hike.  President Obama is calling on higher-income households to pay their “fair share.”  The first point is that the majority of all small business profits face taxation in households making more than $200,000 per year.  To raise taxes on these households is to also raise taxes on jobs-creating small businesses The income tax is already steeply-progressive.  Most income taxes are already paid by households at the top of the income scale (Source = IRS): Earnings Min. Income Threshold % All Income Taxes Paid Top 1% $380,000 40% Lower Half $33,000 3% While the top 1% of income...

...Unfortunately, the GSP expired in December 2010 and was never reauthorized due to the actions of one Senator. In February of this year, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, refused to lift a hold on the bill because he wasn’t able to insert a provision that would increase tariffs on Bangladeshi imports in order to protect Alabama sleeping bag manufacturers from competition. As a result of the Senator’s protectionist leanings, tariffs were raised on approximately 3,400 imports, affecting $23 billion in global trade. Well, Sen. Sessions is at it again. According to Roll Call:"Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has enlisted the aid of...

– War and Taxes: 1873 to 1963– By: Larry Walker, Jr. –“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.“ ~Thomas Jefferson From Taxing the Rich In the post-Civil War years, a booming economy produced tariff surpluses for decades. However, Democratic members of Congress, not wanting to give up on the pursuit of legalized theft, introduced sixty-eight income tax bills between the years of 1874 and 1894. It...

The triumph of the Convention of 1787 is that in raising a standard to which the wise and honest could repair, it also raised one that met the threefold test of legitimacy, popularity, and viability. One reason the Convention was able to strike the right balance between the urge to lead the people and the need to obey them, and between the urge to be noble and the need to be practical, was the disposition of most delegates to be “whole men” on stern principles and “halfway men” on negotiable details. Another was the way in which it worked with...

Fabulous Franklin Speech. 1:30,000. General Washington. Gerry Speech. Anarchy. Signing. Rising Sun. In Convention. The engrossed Constitution being read, Docr. FRANKLIN rose with a speech in his hand, which he had reduced to writing for his own conveniency, [FN2] and which Mr. Wilson read in the words following. Mr. President, I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on...