Free Republic

Illinois is still the “shut up and take it” state. You might want to ask what are the lockdown Democrats who control Illinois, Cook County, Chicago and many suburbs really telling us? They endorse the catch-and-release prosecutor of Cook County, who fancies herself a social justice warrior while allowing violent offenders out on the streets. They make their coronavirus shutdown decrees, craft their tax-and-spend-and-never-cut budgets. They push their “fair tax” and that cheap 6 mph over the limit traffic camera Chicago speed trap to grab your cash. Pritzker keeps pushing his progressive “fair tax,” which he his fellow Democrats sell...

A caravan of protesters — some wielding plastic pitchforks — descended on the Hamptons Wednesday to blast the rich and decry the nation’s rising income inequality. More than 100 drivers and about 200 marchers paid a visit to the homes of some of the world’s wealthiest people, including ex-New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “Tax the rich, not the poor!” the protesters chanted outside Bloomberg’s $20 million Southhampton mansion, with some calling the failed presidential candidate a “looter.”

If you’re a healthcare worker who went to New York to volunteer to help fight the coronavirus outbreak there, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says you owe New York state income taxes. Even if you were not working for any pay in New York, but you were still being paid in your home state. Pay that enabled you to volunteer and put your own health in danger to help New York. That’s classic taxation without representation. Americans have a history of not liking this. Health care workers that came to New York to help fight the coronavirus pandemic at its epicenter will...

For the third year in a row, NJ Gov. Phil Murphy has proposed big increases to more than a dozen gun fees in New Jersey. Murphy’s push for higher fees in his proposed state budget follows a series of bills he’s signed adding new restrictions to gun laws that were already some of the toughest in the nation. Murphy is asking lawmakers to raise the cost of a $2 gun application to $50, and a firearm ID card from $5 to $100, according to the state’s treasury department. The Democratic governor also proposed a 2.5% tax on firearms and a...

Right now the federal corporate tax is the same whether a corporation operates in high housing cost Silicon Valley or low housing cost Albany, Georgia. I would set the federal corporate rate tax to an employee housing cost calculation divided by an inflation indexing divisor, rounded up to the nearest 1%. To keep corporations from dashing out of Silicon Valley and New York City, the rate would be bounded to within 1% of the standard federal corporate rate tax in 2021 and the bounds would be expanded by 1% in each of the following four years. In five years the...

Eight months into their control of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hasn't missed many opportunities to draw a stark contrast between the two parties' policies. From defending infanticide and trying to gut the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to the job-killing New Green Deal, hardly a day passes that the Left's radicalism isn't on display. But yesterday, liberals took their extremism to new heights -- demanding a tax on Bible-believing Americans. Thursday's hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee wasn't the first time liberals have tried to use the IRS to do their dirty work -- but it might...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's nation-leading gas prices are set to climb even higher Monday, when the state gas tax increases another 5.6 cents a gallon. It's the latest increase from a 2017 law designed to raise about $5 billion a year for road and mass transit programs. A 12 cent-per-gallon boost came that November, and voters last year rejected a Republican-led effort to repeal the law. But Southern California voters did recall one Democratic lawmaker who helped pass the measure. California motorists were paying an average $3.75 per gallon as of late June, far above the national average of $2.71...

REAL PROPERTY PROTECTION AMENDMENT Governmental financial impositions of any year with respect to any residential property without water frontage shall not exceed 1/40,000 the average annual federal civilian salary as of the end of the penultimate calendar year times the sum of their square footage of finished living space and linear footage of public road frontage. EMPLOYMENT/INCOME PROTECTION AMENDMENT Federal/state employer/income taxation may be levied at no more than 24/20ths of the rates of January 1, 2019 on any person/entity having an annual income of less than the average annual federal civilian salary as of the end of the penultimate...

REAL PROPERTY PROTECTION AMENDMENT Governmental financial impositions of any year with respect to any housing unit and its curtilage without water frontage shall not exceed the value of 1/500th of an ounce of gold per square foot of finished living space and linear foot of public road frontage. EMPLOYMENT/INCOME PROTECTION AMENDMENT Federal/state employer/income taxation may be levied at no more than 24/20ths of the rates of January 1, 2019 on persons/entities having an annual income of less than the value of fifty ounces of gold. Federal/state employer/income taxation rates/rate thresholds may be changed by no more than 1/20th in any...

We do not claim that all questions of American Constitutional Law are easily settled; that there is always an easy answer to what the Constitution allows; or to what it requires, or what it forbids. But there are obvious answers on some points. There are clearly defined functions mandated; others, clearly forbidden; as well as an overriding functional purpose. Yet nothing could be clearer than the fact that a Federal tax on wealth is totally contrary to both the letter & spirit of the Constitution of the United States.

Linn County Commissioners Roger Nyquist, John Lindsey and Will Tucker were unanimous Tuesday morning in their opposition to a proposal by Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, to create a multi-county taxing district supporting construction of a bridge over the Willamette River in Salem. Evans introduced House Bill 2974 on Friday. It would create a Capital Region Special Bridge District and would exact taxes from residents from Polk, Marion, Linn and Yamhill and possibly Benton counties. The proposal is aimed at spreading the cost of bridges regionally since residents of several counties work in Salem. Nyquist was traveling and participated by telephone....

Senator Warren apparently has found her guiding spirit and has announced along with her presidential campaign a campaign of economic terror based on force, not law. Specifically, she has proposed to begin seizing a portion of the assets of some wealthy Americans, a course of action that the federal government has no constitutional power to undertake. The seizure of assets is a fundamentally different thing from the taxation of income, which itself took a constitutional amendment to implement. What Warren is proposing is essentially a federal version of the hated asset-forfeiture programs that have been so much abused by law-enforcement...

Full Title: The battle for Paris: Violence erupts in French capital as police clash with rioters leading to 60 arrests - as Yellow Vest demonstrations rage into FIFTH week They have been protesting since November 17 and, despite a range of concessions by President Emmanuel Macron including scrapping green taxes of diesel and petrol, continue to call for him to step down. 'Macron Resign', a crowd of around 1,500 chanted today in the streets around the 19th Century Opera Garnier, which is normally a huge draw for tourists. Around 8,000 police officers have been deployed ahead of a fifth consecutive...

At least 700 people were arrested in Paris as 5,000 demonstrators faced off against 8,000 police in another violent demonstration by "yellow vest" protesters.Riots broke out all over France despite the supposed cause of the violence being eliminated earlier in the week by the government of President Emmanuel Macron. The government had been claiming that a fuel tax increase was to blame for the protests, but the government rescinded the increase on Wednesday.Donald Trump believes it was Macron's climate change policies: The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France. People do...

MARTINSVILLE-How do you build Interstate 73? How would you expand U.S. 220 in either direction? The Virginia Department of Transportation is open for suggestions, for these or any other road projects in the commonwealth. To do that, the department is holding a series of “hack-a-thon” events throughout the commonwealth, setting up one in each region. For Martinsville and Henry County, the regional meeting will be this Friday and Saturday at CoLab Roanoke, 1327 Grandin Road SW. “Data and technology are changing how we do business,” saidVDOT Chief Deputy Commissioner Rob Cary in a statement. “These hackathons are opportunities for innovators...

The GOP's long-promised change is an offshoot of a tax overhaul last year that cut corporate rates and winnowed down the number of individual tax brackets. On Friday, the Treasury Department and IRS unveiled the new postcard, which will replace the current forms 1040, 1040A and 1040 EZ.

Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released newly obtained internal IRS documents, including material revealing that Sen. John McCain’s former staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner, urged top IRS officials, including then-director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner, to “audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous.” Kerner was appointed by President Trump as Special Counsel for the United States Office of Special Counsel.

SACRAMENTO - Even in the wake of previous tax windfalls, Gov. Jerry Brown's announcement on Friday was breathtaking: The state has collected an unexpected $8 billion in tax revenue in recent months, even more additional cash than reported in January. The money is the latest installment in a fiscal winning streak of historic proportions in California. And, as in previous years, the governor's newly revised budget seeks to divvy it up either on short-term spending or long-term savings by putting it into government reserves.

President Trump again brings up a "phase two" of tax cuts. The GOP law passed in December permanently chops taxes for corporations and temporarily reduces the tax rate for most individuals. Trump wants a 'phase two' of tax cuts Trump wants a 'phase two' of tax cuts 18 Hours Ago | 00:44 President Donald Trump said again Monday he wants a "phase two" of tax cuts on top of the law Republicans passed in December. Speaking as the World Series champion Houston Astros visited the White House, Trump asked Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, whether he planned to cut taxes further....

The Trump administrationÂ’s new tariffs on steel and aluminum from abroad could result in more than five jobs lost for every single job gained, according to an analysis from a group that advocates free trade.The job losses will be direct and indirect, as price hikes will hit American companies that buy international steel to make screws, wires, and machines, Laura M. Baughman, president of the Trade Partnership, said Friday during a Heritage Foundation event.The Trade Partnership anticipates a net loss of 146,000 U.S. jobs, Baughman said.On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced steel tariffs of 25 percent and aluminum tariffs of...