Free Republic

Current Law A number of tax credits on the books today are deemed “refundable,” because they can reduce filers’ tax liabilities below zero (when this occurs, the IRS sends the filer a check, rather than the other way around). One such refundable provision is the American Opportunity tax credit (AOTC), enacted as a temporary measure under the 2009 stimulus. The AOTC, modeled after the earlier Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning credits, is a four year, dollar-for-dollar tax reduction of up to $2,500 for the first $4,000 in eligible educational expenses (tuition, fees, course-related supplies, etc.). Up to 40% of the...

Just yesterday the Energy Information Administration (EIA) put out a new study on the major reserves of shale gas and tight oil. Hydraulic fracturing has led energy producers and scientists to completely reassess America’s oil and natural gas reserves. In North Dakota, the Bakken Shale is a huge source of this tight oil; however, it is only the third biggest in the entire country. In North Dakota they have seen unemployment drop to 3 percent due to the large effort to explore oil options in the Bakken Shale. If this is only the third largest source in the country, imagine...

Social Security was created in 1935 in order to provide a safety net to Americans without the ability to earn income. Over the past decades, the program has proliferated to the point of insolvency. In particular, Social Security’s Disability Insurance (DI) component has grown out of control and threatens the nation’s finances as well as the fundamental principle that citizens should not be reliant on government. Like many government programs, DI grew rapidly in the years preceding the Reagan presidency. While benefits were collected by less than 800,000 individuals in 1960, 5.22 million people participated in the program in the...

SNIPPET: "I. When considering the matter of jihadis online, remember that most of what we think we know is based on analyses of the comments made by an handful of vocal activists. The vast majority of jihadis online, be they on forums or social networking sites[i], say nothing. Skillful translations and insightful analyses by definition tell us little about this potentially lethal yet silent majority."

Seeking revenge, author of gay Green Lantern will give Brazilian boyfriend to his heroBy Julio Severo DC Comics writer James Robinson declared that he has received many messages criticizing him for having homosexualized the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who now is forced to be a homosexual. The strongest opposition, the bitter scriptwriter says, came from Brazil. James Robinson: seeking revenge from Brazilian fans of Green Lantern “The most hostile criticism I’ve received was hostile tweets from Brazil. I had been out and the next morning I was like ‘all right, my liver is murdering me’ and someone was...

While taxpayers celebrated the Cost of Government Day, Nanny state regulators continued to add to the burden of government over the past two weeks, banning everything from baby formula in hospitals to feeding homeless people in public. On the federal level, 2,695 pages were added to the federal register along with 165 new rules regulating everything from this year’s cherry harvest to hearing aid compatible cell phones. Happy Cost of Government Day! Last Thursday, the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation and the Cost of Government Center released their annual Cost of Government Day report, which calculates the day of the...

May not governments be properly divided, according to their predominant spirit and principles, into three species of which the following are examples? First. A government operating by a permanent military force, which at once maintains the government and is maintained by it; which is at once the cause of burdens on the people and of submission in the people to their burdens. Such have been the governments under which human nature has groaned through every age. Such are the governments which still oppress it in almost every country of Europe, the quarter of the globe which calls itself the pattern...

In an article published by the Washington Post this week, reporter Chris Cillizza commented on the percentage of voters who favor a tax increase on incomes over $250,000. Cillizza writes that Democrats have publicly proclaimed their willingness to jump off the fiscal cliff this year in defiance of Republicans refusal to end tax cuts for those making over $250,000, and that "the public is on their side." However, according to a recent McClatchy-Marist poll it is clear this is not the case. As evidenced by the poll results, the majority of voters support extending tax cuts for everyone, including those...

Current Law The 2001 tax relief bill (EGTRRA), drastically reduced the impact of the death tax over the course of a decade, so that it was eliminated entirely for one year in 2010 — a good year to die, joked a number of pundits. The bill lowered marginal rates and increased the applicable exclusion amount, but it also included a provision allowing individuals to carry over exclusion dollars that were unused by their spouse at the time of his or her death. This “portability” measure effectively increased the applicable exclusion for many households, in some instances putting millions of dollars...

Jeremy Lin took the NBA by storm in 2012, rising from undrafted Harvard grad to one of the most popular New York Knicks players in a decade. Lin led the Knicks to wins in his first six starts, and became the first player in NBA history to score 20 points and record seven assists in each of his first five starts. After a last-second game-winning three pointer against the Toronto Raptors, his rise to stardom was known ubiquitously as “Linsanity.” After signing a three year, $25.1 million contract with the Houston Rockets, Lin moves from one of the highest taxed...

Hello. This is not a solicited advertisement. But this is a plug by HiTech RedNeck for a job board for tech jobs that actually sees a lot of action. Corp-Corp.Com I only found it by Google searching for tech jobs (OK, so Google is evil -- it's still useful for something). Never saw an ad for it in my life. I was already signed up for Dice and Monster, but that wasn't helping much. So I signed up thinking it was rinky dink, but thought I might see a handful of job listings. Well my inbox began to bulge with...

Military Strategy: What are the optimal siege tactics for taking Magic Kingdom's Cinderella Castle? What if the Mouse House rises up as an evil totalitarianism government, enslaving the masses and dooming us all to a life of hand-stitching Pluto plushies? Something would have to be done. And one pack of folks has outlined the perfect plan of attack on Magic Kingdom's Cinderella Castle. The story originates at Quora.com as follows ... Cinderella Castle is the the worldwide-recognized icon of the Disney empire. Physical representations of it stand at the center of two Disney Parks: Walt Disney World in Florida, and...

Paul Kengor's book, "The Communist" about Obama's mentor Frank Marshall Davis is out in bookstores today. The book is published by Glenn Beck's emporium. There have been other FR articles about Kengor's book, but none of them have this link to his 3 minute video about the book. It's worth a quick look. Obama's speeches are parrot repetitions of Davis's communist orations. Davis thought that monopolies like GM needed to be controlled by the government. He hated big business and the "tentacled" rich men who ran them. He felt all Americans had the right to a "decent home." He wanted...

[Last week], the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology dragged all five FCC commissioners up to Capitol Hill to oversee the agency on a wide range of issues. As to be expected, there were some notable takeaways on regulation, taxes, spectrum, and more. First, Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) managed to get FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to commit to maintaining a “light touch” approach and not enact new regulations on fiber networks, including price controls. The FCC adopted the policy back in late 2003, noting that such requirements “tend to undermine the incentives of both incumbent LECs and...

President Obama’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, infamously said, “We have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” The statement was widely seen as a gaffe that hurt the President politically. Yet the data show that the Obama administration has had success doing precisely that, to the detriment of American citizens. Many Americans correctly recall an era not too long ago when energy prices were seemingly orders of magnitude lower than they are today. Indeed, the numbers show this perception to be firmly anchored in reality. When President Reagan took office, gasoline prices...

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush was promised two dollars in spending cuts for every one dollar in tax hikes. He fell for the bait and violated his Pledge to not raise taxes. After a $137 billion tax hike, spending actually rose by $22 billion. As a reminder, he regretted breaking his Pledge to oppose higher taxes after he realized he got tricked into letting it happen.

Every year, the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation and the Cost of Government Center calculate the Cost of Government Day. This is the day on which the average American has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burdens imposed by government at the federal, state, and local levels. In 2012, Cost of Government Day falls on July 15. Working people must toil 197 days out of the year just to meet all costs imposed by government. 2012 marks the fourth consecutive year COGD has fallen in July. From a different perspective,...

A USAF chaplain and the promise of God “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12 ESV)By Julio Severo In 1987, Dr. Arthur Vincent, a Lutheran minister and theology professor, visited Brazil for a ministers’ meeting. Even with his advanced age, he traveled the whole world, from Nigeria to Philippines, to encourage and build the people of God in the important mission of taking the Gospel to a lost world. He even participated in the Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization. His passion...

Over the last couple of months, Americans for Tax Reform has highlighted the 20 new or higher taxes on American families and employers created by Obamacare. The significance of these tax increases is that they are a direct violation of candidate Obama’s promise not to raise “any form” of taxes on these families. In an attempt to justify this widely unpopular piece of legislation, the Obama campaign released their own sort of “Fact Check” today. The response, however, missed the mark by ignoring hard numbers and common sense. They chose 5 of the 20 overall new or higher taxes to...

Current Law Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs) are tax-privileged accounts available to employees through an employer “cafeteria” health plan. Employees agree to make a fixed annual contribution to the account which will be deducted from their pre-tax salary. This exempts the contribution from income and payroll taxes. That money can then be used to pay for “qualified medical expenses” incurred by the account holder, his or her spouse, and any other dependents under the age of 27. The contribution amount is currently unlimited, but money left in the account is forfeited every calendar year under the so-called “use it or lose...