Free Republic

Gummit don't work good. That conclusion, often that inelegantly expressed, seems to be more and more common, not only in the United States but around the world. It is certainly the verdict of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge in their new book "The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State," although expressed, as you might expect from the editor and business editor of the Economist, in far more urbane language. Their thesis is that the state has been reinvented three times in the last 400 years, and needs reinvention once more. The first revolution they name after Thomas...

Senate Republicans blocked a bill Thursday that would renew more than 50 expired tax breaks affecting millions of businesses and individuals. The bill has widespread bipartisan support, but Republicans were unhappy because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wouldn’t agree to vote on GOP amendments. A similar dispute derailed an energy bill earlier this week. […] Republican amendments included making some of the tax cuts permanent while adding others, including the repeal of a medical device tax that helps fund President Barack Obama’s health care law. …

It appears that Hollywood is in a lot of trouble, not to mention California as a whole. California offers a paltry amount of tax incentives for filming within the state as opposed to most other states or even a number of countries. In fact, California's tax incentive program for the film and television industry currently stands at $100 million annually while New York's program is at $420 million. Some states don't even have a cap. What this means is that Hollywood is fleeing Tinsletown to film out of state, which is costing California billions of dollars and tens of thousands...

Adam Baldwin, an actor best known for his performances in Full Metal Jacket, The Patriot and Firefly, outraged homosexual activists last week by questioning why marriage redefinition should not apply to single fathers who love their sons and want to enjoy all the tax benefits of marriage. “What's wrong, now, with a father marrying his son for love & to avoid tax penalties?” Baldwin wrote on Twitter. The actor has earned a spot on many liberal ‘enemies lists’ by using the micro-blogging site to share his outspokenly conservative opinions on pro-life, family and second amendment issues. Baldwin received an avalanche...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will on Sunday submit for Cabinet approval a 166 million shekel plan for economic benefits for Sderot and the area adjacent to Gaza. The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that the goal of the plan is to strengthen residents, local authorities and the regional economy in light of the security situation and the difficulties regarding daily life. The 2014 plan includes a series of benefits for residents of the area: Tax benefits, local property tax benefits, exemptions from leasing fees, daycare benefits, investments in infrastructures and local authorities, benefits for industry, agriculture, trade and...

Despite the gubernatorial election being more than a year away, Michigan voters already are being inundated with campaign promises and statements that often aren't tied to reality. Democratic challenger Mark Schauer, for example, launched his campaign with comments directed at stopping "special interests." "It's time to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the special interests,” Schauer was quoted as saying in an MLive story in May. Rallying against special interests is a common political theme and a bipartisan complaint made by candidates. Gov. Snyder campaigned on extensively curtailing the state's economic development tools, many of which dole...

A new Congressional Budget Office report shows that the rich get most of the benefit from various deductions and credits in the tax code, music to the ears of the soak-the-rich crowd. But since the wealthy pay nearly all the nation's income taxes, this is hardly a sign of unfairness. According to the CBO report, the government "spends" about $900 billion through deductions, exclusions, special tax rates and tax credits, with more than half going to the wealthiest 20% of households, while just 8% goes to the bottom fifth. Democrats, who ordered the report, celebrated the news, since it appears...

The EEOC ignored that judicial thrashing and pressed on. Last April, the agency unveiled its "Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions," declaring that "criminal record exclusions have a disparate impact based on race and national origin."

A New York Times investigation has uncovered a shocking scandal they would have you believe involves big corporations blackmailing your state government and stealing tax dollars that should be spent on public education. This scandal, though not identified as such in the article, is called federalism. It finds its roots in the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Granted, the statistical research The Times provides in the piece is invaluable, but the article is confused as to the conclusions that flow from the numbers. The most glaring statistic is the dollar amount of “gifts” (to use Mitt Romney’s phrase)...

Scanning my newspaper over coffee this morning, an Associated Press story from the campaign trail leapt off the page: >>>SEMINOLE, Fla. -- Eager to change the subject after a dismal jobs report, President Barack Obama tried to rekindle some of the enthusiasm of his 2008 campaign Saturday with a bus tour through a must-win swath of Florida, urging supporters not to "buy into the cynicism that somehow the change we fought for isn't possible." Republican candidate Mitt Romney faulted both his own party in Congress and Obama for exposing the armed forces to huge spending cuts.<<< Obama, speaking to a...

A group of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives has introduced new legislation that would extend a number of incentives for wind power and other forms of renewable energy while stripping subsidies for fossil fuels. The bill - Investing to Modernize the Production of American Clean Energy and Technology (IMPACT Act) - introduced by Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; John Larson, D-Conn.; Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.; and Bill Pascrell Jr.; D-N.J. - proposes an eight-year extension to the production tax credit (PTC) for wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, hydropower, and marine and hydrokinetic power production. Notably, however,...

President Obama on Thursday called for Congress to jettison $4 billion in annual subsidies to oil and gas companies, but minutes later the Senate blocked just such a proposal. The 51-47 vote, which fell nine shy of the 60 needed to advance in the Senate, likely shelves the plan for this year, but gives both parties a political issue heading into November’s elections. Mr. Obama, in a Rose Garden speech, said the oil subsidies should be cut so the money can be put into his priorities. “We should be using that money to double down on clean-energy technologies that have...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's corporate tax reform plan will end "dozens and dozens" of tax breaks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday as he defended the White House's election-year call for higher taxes on the wealthy. Within days, the administration is set to unveil a blueprint for revamping the corporate tax system aimed at leveling the playing field for all companies, which pay wildly differing levels of taxes, while lowering the top corporate tax rate. Companies are clamoring for a cut in the top 35 percent corporate tax rate but disagree about how to how eliminate...

Among five specific economic proposals, both Republicans and Democrats are in favor of giving tax breaks to corporations that bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas and pressuring China for fairer trade. They are sharply divided about increasing federal income taxes on upper-income Americans, increasing federal spending to help the long-term unemployed find jobs, and increasing federal spending on the development of alternative energy sources. The majority of independents favor all proposals. The findings are from a Gallup poll conducted Jan. 23, 2012, to gauge support for specific economic proposals Obama was expected to raise during his State of the Union...

— NBC Sports has agreed to move from New York City to Stamford to take advantage of tax breaks, adding to a growing film and TV presence in the southwestern Connecticut city, a state official said Friday. The agreement, which could bring hundreds of jobs, would be part of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's signature economic development program, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Malloy and Democratic leaders of the legislature hope to announce a deal next week. ... A city of 117,000 people, Stamford breathed a sigh of relief in August when financial services giant...

A huge, one-time tax break to lure back about half of the $1.4 trillion in earnings held abroad by U.S. companies would produce nearly 3 million jobs nationwide over two years, according to a study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. A so-called repatriation tax break, which would temporarily reduce the tax rate on foreign earnings to 5.25% from 35%, has been pushed by the chamber and major U.S. corporations, including Cisco Systems Inc. and Oracle Corp. Many Republicans support the move, as do some Democrats, who have been pushing President Obama to include such a proposal in the $300-billion...

.....The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 was the budget agreement by which President Bush broke his "read-my-lips" vow not to agree to new taxes. The act was, as omnibus bills tend to be, an eye-of-newt-and-hair-of-toad brew of this and that and some other things, and it included--in the name of fairness, of course--a stern tax on "luxury items." Those items included automobiles, aircraft, jewelry and furs over certain prices. And yachts costing more than $100,000. In 1990 there were no luxury excise taxes, all of them having been repealed in 1965. But perhaps every quarter-century or so government--it cannot...

President Obama frequently says Americans "need to end our $4 billion in annual taxpayer subsidies to oil companies." The latest Democrat bill would have repealed some $2 billion of what Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and others call "subsidies" and "special tax breaks" for Big Oil. That’s baloney – shameless demagoguery that will inflict further damage on our struggling economy. Subsidies are cash payments from government to the private sector. Money is taken from the 51% of Americans who still pay income taxes – and transferred by legislators and bureaucrats to companies and activities that "deserve" or "require" these wealth transfers,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate blocked a bill Tuesday that would repeal about $2 billion a year in tax breaks for the five biggest oil companies, a Democratic response to $4-a-gallon gasoline that might fare better when Congress and the White House negotiate a deal later this year to increase the government's ability to borrow.

We’re still seeing a flood of calls from both sides of the aisle to cut subsidies as part of an overall strategy to reduce spending in Washington. While there is plenty available to cut, there has been a steady and disingenuous conflation being promoted by the White House which seeks to describe certain tax benefits received by companies in all manner of industries as “subsidies for big oil.” Just last week Tim Pawlenty was taking to the stump in an attempt to call out these warped descriptions. MANCHESTER, N.H. – Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called a White House proposal...