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"Exceptional technical books for xperimenters,inventors, tinkerers, mad scientists, and "Thomas-Edison-types." I'v enjoyed these books and reading his catalog for years and today received the last catalog because he's going to retire...Solar energy, home foundry. machine shop work, metal working, house building, Radio experimenter, old industrial manuals, reprints of forgotten books. .....more... Many humorous

The looming Taxmageddon could affect how taxpayers look at their taxes. In a post by Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center, Williams presents the increasing importance of marginal tax rates (MRTs) relative to average tax rates. Williams states that “MTRs matter more than usual this year because of the impending [Taxmageddon].” Taxmageddon contains numerous tax hikes scheduled to increase MTRs, including increases on earned and investment income. In addition to the Taxmageddon tax hikes, the Obamacare law will also raise taxes on investment income. The effects of Taxmageddon and Obamacare will be devastating to taxpayers as the top MTR...

Gay minister says that he is willing to take up arms against pro-family Christians In the Brazilian Congress, gay activist calls Christians “scoundrels” By Julio Severo In a video (http://youtu.be/dg1P7osbwSQ) made originally available by Brazilian Congressman Marco Feliciano, a gay activist has declared that, to advance homosexual “marriage”, he is willing to take up arms against Christians that defend natural family. The video was recorded in a seminar promoted by homosexual Congressman Jean Wyllys, held at the House of Representatives in Brazil. In the video, Márcio Retamero, who likes to use the title of “Reverend”, says that Christians that...

Could someone help me out, please? I'm hoping to find a couple good reference sites as useful tools for the future. I'd like to be able to research the following: 1) How much revenue the US government received on a particular year. 2) What the deficit/surplus was per month or year. 3) How much was the National Debt on a particular year. So could someone please point me to any such sites? I'd appreciate it very much. Thank you.

Today’s unemployment report resembled Obama’s debate performance: poor and misleading. Wednesday, the President tried to convince the American people that they are better off than they were 4 years ago, but Americans are not buying it. When the numbers are all against you, it is hard to disguise failure. Today’s job report reflects that failure. The report showed the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent, with the economy adding only 114,000 more jobs in the month of September. This is being hailed as good news by the President and the media. It speaks to how bad the economy is if...

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The following are the top five tax increases on the middle class signed into law by the Obama-Biden administration: 1. The Obamacare Individual Mandate Non-Compliance Tax: Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance – as defined by President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services -- must pay an income surtax to the IRS. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that six million American families will be liable for the tax, and as pointed out by the Associated Press: “Most would be in the middle class.” In addition, 100 percent of Americans filing a tax return (140 million...

Internet freedom and intellectual property rights are often considered to be in conflict with each other, with a win for one cause generally seen as a loss for the other. However the newly formed Internet Association, a lobbying group whose powerful members include Google, Facebook, and Amazon, seems to differ with this notion. Michael Beckerman, the President of the group, who advocate for the protection of internet freedom and promotion of experiment and innovation, gave an interview two weeks ago in which he noted that, “I would say that no-one has done more to protect intellectual property than these Internet...

When politicians claim that they will save money by “in-sourcing” federal functions from contractors, or will respond to some new need by expanding the federal workforce, that has a cost to taxpayers. How much is that cost? In order to determine the cost of hiring a new federal bureaucrat, ATR has calculated the “all-in” cost of hiring a new federal employee. We include salary as well as benefits, pension contributions, training and other expenses, and payroll taxes. We assume a 40-year federal career. The numbers presented are both nominal and inflation-adjusted. Here are the results for a low-cost, medium-cost, and...

The Tax Policy Center (TPC) released a report in March of 2012 detailing the effects of the Romney tax reform plan on taxpayers. The conclusion reached by the Tax Policy Center stated that the Romney tax reform plan would cut taxes for high-income taxpayers and raise them for middle and lower-income earners. Since the report was released, President Obama and his team have ran with it and used it to undermine the credibility of Romney’s plan. Senior Analyst in Tax Policy at the Heritage Foundation, Curtis Dubay, released his rebuttal of the TPC report yesterday which revealed many of the...

We had previously written that with his “rate my professor.com ratings” wiped clean, no negative evaluations of President Obama’s tenure as a lecturer at the University of Chicago exist. Now, the intrepid staff at The Washington Examiner has actually dug up negative trendlines of his years there. “Within a few years, he had become a rock-star professor with hordes of devoted students,” Time magazine claimed in 2008. “Most scores on his teaching evaluations were positive to superlative,” the New York Times claimed in 2008. “Some students started referring to themselves as his groupies.” “When Barack Obama arrived at the Law...

The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) recently surveyed 236 business economists on fiscal policy issues, including the looming Taxmageddon and Obamacare. The results of the survey reflect a clear divide on taxes between economists and Democrats in Congress. According to the survey, a majority of respondents support the extension of “payroll tax cuts, current marginal income tax rates, and current tax rates for dividends and capital gains for most or all taxpayers through 2013.” Furthermore, between 35 and 45 percent favor the permanent extension of income, dividends, and capital gains at their current rate. On the issue of tax...

Not that kind As Greece takes unpopular austerity measures and talks of leasing-out 40 uninhabited islands in part of ongoing efforts to get their tattered books in order, did anybody else notice how Angela Merkel went from a previously ambivalent stand re. the Greeks leaving the EU to the most recent 'save Greece at any cost' position? And in defiance of German public opinion, exposing herself politically back home? Explanation for the sudden turn-around likely has something to do with the fact that largely-unexplored Greece sits on the western edge of a massive sub-Mediterranean oil and gas field, with Israel and Cypress at...

Well, FRiends.... The guys at work and I got into a heated debate about taxes and what Romney paid in a percentage. I told them the whole thing about what one earns they should keep, and how government wastes so much of our $$$ every year. I went through how the, "Rich," are vastly outnumbered by the middle class, and that soaking the rich does nothing toward the betterment of the nation. Here's what I am requesting from you folks on Free Republic who are smarter than I... What was Romney taxed on, and what was the dollar amount compared...

VIDEO (worth watching .. and look at the views!)

A recent survey conducted by BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager reflects growing pessimism over the looming 2013 fiscal cliff. A total of 253 panelists with $681 billion in managed assets participated in the September survey. For the month of September, 35 percent of investors surveyed listed the fiscal cliff as their biggest concern in contrast to the EU debt Crisis at 33 percent. The EU debt crisis had previously been listed as the biggest concern for investors at 48 percent for August. But as concern over the debt crisis in the EU subsides, investor focus has shifted to Congress' budget...

The Omaha City Council is currently pushing for the passage of a new ordinance that would add an occupation tax of 35 cents per pack of cigarettes purchased within the city of Omaha, Nebraska: this increase will be in addition to the 64 cents in state taxes. The annual revenue generated from this proposed ordinance is estimated at $35 million over ten years, and will go towards funding the construction of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medical Center campus. The total cost of the project is estimated at $370 million. The state of Nebraska has already agreed...

Walter Dalton, North Carolina’s current Lt. Governor and Democratic nominee to be the state’s next governor, has been stepping up his attacks on Republican nominee Pat McCrory lately. On the campaign trail in Raleigh last Thursday, Dalton sought to tie McCrory to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. But a review of Walker’s record makes one wonder why Dalton finds this comparison to be a negative. Chief Executive magazine’s annual survey of CEOs on the best and worst states for business had Wisconsin making the biggest improvement of any state following Walker’s regulatory and labor law reforms in 2011, rising to 24th...

Simpson-Bowles targets permanently higher taxes. According to the Simpson-Bowles co-chair report, the revenue target of their proposal is to “cap revenue at or below 21 percent of GDP.” The Simspon-Bowles revenue target is much higher than the historical average. Using historical data either from CBO or OMB, it’s clear that the historical tax revenue burden is closer to 18.5 percent of GDP. Simspon-Bowles is a $5 trillion net tax hike relative to historical tax levels. If Simpson-Bowles’ revenue target was in place for the whole next decade, it would raise $5 trillion more in tax revenue than if historical revenue...

On September 11, 2012, IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Steven Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee about the IRS' implementation of Obamacare. One part of his testimony was actually fairly amusing: The IRS conducted an extensive outreach and implementation program for the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit. Shortly after the ACA [Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare] was passed, the IRS determined the necessary steps to both implement the credit and track these efforts. The IRS conducted significant outreach, communication, and educational activities to inform small businesses and tax professionals about the credit. We created...