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President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama will use a news conference Thursday morning to push Congress to act on his jobs plan, a senior administration official said. Obama will likely endorse the so-called "millionaire's surtax" included in a jobs bill filed by Senate Democrats on Wednesday night, the official said. The surtax in the bill introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a 5.6% tax hike on earnings over $1 million -- up from the 5% initially proposed. It would raise more than enough to fully pay for the president's $447 billion jobs bill within the required 10-year window,...

Here’s a quick refresher for President Obama on the devastating impact tax hikes will have on jobs and the economy, courtesy of President Obama: Higher Taxes “Will Have the Effect of Fewer Jobs.” “US President Barack Obama on Thursday urged Congress to pass the tax deal he brokered with Republican foes, saying rejecting the compromise would hurt the economy and cost US jobs. … ‘[I]f this framework fails, the reverse is true. Americans will see it in smaller paychecks that will have the effect of fewer jobs,’ he said.” (AFP, 12/9/10) President Obama Said He Was “Absolutely Convinced” That Preventing...

President Obama is reviving his battle to kill oil-and-gas industry tax breaks and seeking billions of dollars in other energy-related revenues as part of his wider deficit-cutting and jobs proposals . The White House on Monday sent Congress a plan to pay for Obama’s $447 billion “American Jobs Act” and also cut the deficit by over $3 trillion in 10 years. Several of Obama’s energy tax proposals have sputtered in the past amid resistance from Republicans and oil-state Democrats. But they are part of a White House effort to sharpen the contrast between the president and Republicans over raising...

A rotten Easter egg for homeowners is part of the tax bill passed by the lame-duck Democrat Congress and signed into law by President Obama, Dec. 17. A provision to allow homeowners to deduct local property taxes without itemizing was let lapse. About two-thirds of Americans don't make enough money to make it worth itemizing. The provision saved homeowners about $1.6 billion per year.

Liberals find themselves in a tax trap. A tax bill trap, that is. While the recently enacted tax bill certainly has elements with which conservatives can rightfully disagree, there are far more – and far bigger – parts for liberals to dislike. Following the adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” conservatives should love this legislation. The most obvious problem for liberals with the extension of all the Bush tax cuts for an additional two years is the bipartisan mention of its positive economic effect. This has become the consensus selling point for this legislation. The question that...

As the Obama Administration continues to float the possibility of enacting a Value Added Tax (VAT) as a solution to the growing deficit problem, polls show that such a national sales tax is widely unpopular with the American people. According to a Rasmussen poll, 60% of likely voters are against a VAT if it is simply a way to raise revenue for the government, with only 20% favoring a VAT to raise money for Uncle Sam. If the VAT is used to pay specifically for healthcare, the numbers improve swith 51% of voters nationwide still opposing a national sales tax...

When conservatives like Neal Boortz proposed the "fair tax" (a levy on consumption, not on income), we should have known that the Barack Obama left would seize on the proposal not as Boortz intended it to be -- a replacement for the income tax -- but as an addition to it. Now Obama has let it be known that the value-added tax, or VAT, is "on the table" as he casts about for taxes to lock in his gigantic levels of federal spending. At stake, of course, is our free-market system. When Obama took office, federal, state and local spending...

In an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood on Wednesday, President Obama refused to rule out the imposition of a value added tax (VAT) on Americans. On Tuesday, Obama's economic adviser Austen Goolsbee refused six consecutive opportunities to do the same when repeatedly questioned by journalist Mark Halperin. In fact, the White House has never ruled out the possibility of a VAT, which may explain why the president is now attempting to alter the terms of his central campaign promise. During his campaign, the president made a “firm pledge” that no family making less than $250,000 per year would see “any...

Obama Suggests Value-Added Tax May Be An Option By CHARLES BABINGTON Apr 21 WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that a new value-added tax on Americans is still on the table, seeming to show more openness to the idea than his aides have expressed in recent days. Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the deficit and the economy, Obama said in an interview with CNBC, "I want to get a better picture of what our options are." After Obama adviser Paul Volcker recently raised the prospect of a value-added tax, or VAT, the Senate voted...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate promise to cut the deficit by almost two-thirds over the next five years, but their budget plan could threaten about 30 million people with tax increases averaging $3,700 in 2012 and after because of the alternative minimum tax. The alternative is tax increases elsewhere in the revenue code averaging up to $100 billion a year after 2011 to continue alternative minimum tax relief and also curb taxes on people inheriting large estates.

The news that the United States has become a two-class society – i.e., half of Americans pay federal income taxes and half don't – has bounced around the media and shocked Americans. Most people had no knowledge of this appalling economic fact. Obama's stimulus law will add nearly $800 billion in new means-tested welfare spending over the next decade. That means about $22,500 for every poor person in the United States, which will cost over $10,000 for each family that pays federal income taxes. According to the Tax Foundation, married taxpayers pay three-fourths of all federal income taxes, whereas two-thirds...

We already knew this was coming, of course — despite the dishonest, and sometimes preposterous, assurances from the bill's (suddenly verrry quiet) salesman-in-chief. Just in case Sen. Dick Durbin's accidental articulation of the truth wasn't enough to convince you that congressional Democrats knew full well that higher premiums are an inevitable outcome of Obamacare, this New York Times article should do the trick: Fearing that health insurance premiums may shoot up in the next few years, Senate Democrats laid a foundation on Tuesday for federal regulation of rates, four weeks after President Obama signed a law intended to rein in...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that a new value-added tax on Americans is still on the table, seeming to show more openness to the idea than his aides have expressed in recent days. Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the deficit and the economy, Obama said in an interview with CNBC, "I want to get a better picture of what our options are."

Tax Day, Election Day alignment would make sure we get our money’s worth President Barack Obama can't stop chuckling over the antics of the tea party protesters, who rallied in town squares across the land on Tax Day. "I've been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes," said the president last week. "You would think they'd be saying, ‘Thank you.' That's what you would think." Presidential sarcasm? Perhaps. But I've decided to help end all the bitterness about taxes with a new plan. It even rhymes with "yes, we...

Sixty-six percent (66%) believe that America is overtaxed. Only 25% disagree. Lower income voters are more likely than others to believe the nation is overtaxed.

A massive national broadband plan the Federal Communications Commission released last month proposes creating a national framework for the taxation of digital goods and services and imposing a fee to establish and maintain a national public safety wireless broadband network. The Obama administration has a plan to expand online innovation and boost national public safety. And it wants to do it with more taxes and higher fees. The massive national broadband plan the Federal Communications Commission released last month proposes creating a national framework for the taxation of digital goods and services and imposing a fee to establish and maintain...

Volcker: Taxes likely to rise eventually to tame deficit NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker said on Tuesday.

Pollution Control: From cars to coal mines, the imposition of economy-killing restrictions is under way. Are the new EPA regulations on auto emissions the precursor to regulating carbon dioxide by executive order? In announcing the Environmental Protection Agency's first regulations on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cars, Administrator Lisa Jackson has promised they won't be the last such rules stemming from the EPA's "endangerment finding" that carbon dioxide, six pounds of which every human being exhales every day, is a dangerous pollutant. "These are the first regulations that cover greenhouse gas emissions in the United States," Jackson told reporters in...

We've said again and again that hiking taxes on the "rich" won't increase revenue - instead, all it will do will be to retard economic growth, and hurt working families through job losses...

Property taxes are why you don't really own your wealth. The government gets to take a little bit of it every year to build high schools with Olympic size gym for disadvantaged utes. If it weren't for property taxes, a lot of people with paid off mortgages could retire, but they have to keep working to support the welfare class. Obamacare is the nail in your coffin. As long as you have a body, you owe the government money so they can give it to people they consider to be more worthy than you. There should be no property taxes...

Nancy Pelosi’s and Barack Obama’s words are ringing true: We will learn what is in the bill once it is passed. New long term care deduction on everyone's paycheck-$150-250 a month, unless you opt out. This would be in addition to your health insurance premiums, and taxes you already pay. See the video for details.

My wife informs me that the Company she works for has already announced what will be a significant change to one of the programs they offer employees, and it means that many people's taxes have already gone up, proving what a liar Premier Hussein really is. Several years ago, the company started offering a type of medical savings account to employees. The employee signs up during the annual enrollment period at year end, and chooses how much that account will be worth, let's say, $2000. As soon as the new year starts, you can begin using that account to pay...

Health Reform: As major businesses lay out the impact of ObamaCare in dollars and jobs, two things are clear: the costs will be enormous, and the president's vow to focus on "jobs, jobs, jobs" can no longer be believed. Early returns on ObamaCare are coming in, and they belie proponents' claims of job creation and cost reduction. The costs will increase. They are merely being shifted to the states and to America's businesses, large and small. AT&T, the country's largest telephone company, announced Friday it will take a $1 billion first-quarter charge related to the new health care law. The...

Health Care Reform: The Senate parliamentarian dims GOP hopes on a reconciliation bill that contains even more onerous taxes and even a financial incentive to lay people off. No wonder Speaker Pelosi is laughing. We'll acknowledge that the signing of ObamaCare into law is a historic event, but we think the Weather Channel broadcasting the signing ceremony was a bit much. On the other hand, stormy political weather and more dark clouds lay ahead. The cries of "repeal" and "remember in November" are rising, and state attorneys general are taking the feds to court over the unconstitutional mandates and usurpation...

Fiscal Policy: The latest data show a record number of people with no tax obligation. We also have the highest-earning nontaxpayers ever. With more riding the wagon and fewer pulling, it should soon break down. A record number of the 142 million tax returns filed in 2008 resulted in no taxes owed, according to the Tax Foundation's analysis of the latest IRS data. About 51.6 million returns, or 36.3%, were filed by those whose deductions, exemptions and tax credits wiped out any federal income-tax obligation. These aren't people who have overpaid their taxes or had so much withheld from their...

NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. said Friday it will take a $1 billion non-cash charge in the first quarter related to the health care overhaul. AT&T's charge is the largest announced so far. Earlier this week, AK Steel Corp., Caterpillar Inc., Deere & Co. and Valero Energy announced similar accounting charges, saying the health care law that President Barack Obama signed Tuesday will raise their expenses. AT&T said the charge is to reflect the change of the tax treatment of Medicare subsidies. Companies say the health care overhaul will make a subsidy that companies receive for retiree drug coverage taxable...

AT&T Inc. plans to take a noncash $1 billion charge in the first quarter in anticipating the impact of changes brought by the nation's health-care overhaul. AT&T follows Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc. and AK Steel Holding Corp. in taking the one-time charge. The companies are taking the charges now even though the impact of the health-care law won't be felt until 2013.

Less than a year ago, cap and trade was the policy of choice for tackling climate change. Environmental groups and their foes in industry joined hands to embrace the approach, a market-driven system that sets a ceiling on global warming pollution while allowing companies to trade permits to meet it. President Obama praised it by name in his first budget, and the authors of the House climate and energy bill passed last June largely built their measure around it. Today, the concept is in wide disrepute, with opponents effectively branding it “cap and tax,” and Tea Party followers using it...

Story #6: Obamacare Triples Tax on Seasonal Employees RUSH: I said earlier that we were not going to be distracted by all of this trumped-up, phony, used-for-cheap-political-purposes talk of Republicans inciting violence. "'With Obama's Government Takeover of Health Care, New Regulations Will Force Businesses to Pass Costs to Consumers and Hire Less Workers.'" This is from Katharine Seelye, Kit Seelye in: "'Employer Mandate Becomes Sticky Issue In Reconciling Bills,'" The New York Times's 'Prescriptions' Blog," October 31st last year. "'Those who are likely to be affected are those who work at smaller firms where coverage isn’t as comprehensive and their...

Like a drunken captain of a sinking ship who celebrates the fact that the crew was saved at the expense of the passengers, including the women and children, Nancy Pelosi hailed the approval of the final version of ObamaCare. The bill slaps heavy taxes on medical devices and prosthetics used by veterans, the elderly, the disabled, and even children. But it all was worth it, you know. It was most important that Barack Obama and the neo-Marxists in Congress get 'a win' under their belts. Republicans sought to delete these taxes but the Democrat-controlled Senate rejected that proposal, allowing the...

COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) - More than 30 million people tan indoors every year. The government expects to generate almost three billion dollars over ten years by taxing each of them 10%. This tax is part of the new Health Care law. "To have the government come in and just non-discriminately give us another tax like this is just one more blow. It is one more thing hurting our American dream," said Carla Plazas. Plazas owns New Life Tanning in Columbus and has been in the indoor tanning business for 10 years. She has been following the Health Care legislation and...

Bull markets always have to climb a wall of worry. This one also will have to climb a stairway of tax hikes. Democrats' health care overhaul (including the still-pending reconciliation bill) nearing the finish line would apply a 3.8% Medicare tax on investment gains earned by upper-income households starting in 2013. Along with a partial expiration of 2003 tax cuts at year-end, rates on long-term capital gains and dividends are due to jump in two steps from 15% to 23.8%. The big shift in tax policy is one that could raise the barrier to saving and investment in a savings-short...

In a last-minute change to the Senate bill that was agreed on Friday, a 10% tax was introduced into the legislation on all indoor tanning sessions as a way of reducing the cost of extending healthcare to many of the medically uninsured. Democratic organisers expect the levy to bring in almost $3bn over 10 years.

“So I just got a call from my health insurance provider. My family rates are going up $200/month … $2400/year per employee effective April 1st. Didn’t take long after signing to get this s**t going. So much for the “my plan will save Americans” $2500/year in Healthcare premiums. PS: One way or another the employees will be paying every single penny of that cost. Either directly through lower wages (which will do great things for consumer spending and the economy) or indirectly as people are either laid off or not hired in the first place.

Has Jon Lovitz been hired by the White House to be the President's new healthcare adviser? "Yeah That's the ticket. The initial claims by President Obama was that his newly created version of Obamacare would be revenue neutral, then it was followed up by something like...Uh, well, did I say neutral? I meant to say it would save money, cut the deficit yeah, I said cut the deficit, sure...that's the ticket.

Per Fox, Obama just said that "All ideas are on the table" regarding taxing the middle class/people making less than $200K a year. Developing...

By JACKIE CALMES President Obama, still seeking to get Congressional Republicans to join in a bipartisan commission to reduce the federal debt, suggested he would be willing to break his campaign promise against raising taxes on households with less than $250,000 annual income. “The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table,” the president said in the interview on Tuesday with Bloomberg BusinessWeek that the publication released online today. That included not only tax increases, he added, but also spending on the popular government health programs, Medicare and Medicaid, whose fast-growing costs are...

The New York Times is doing their best to cover the spending tracks left by President Obama. The op-ed, titled "The Truth About the Deficit" could win gold in mental gymnastics. They bend, twist and contort the facts into a pretty little ball of "blame Bush." I showed you yesterday that George W. Bush was part of the problem, but Obama is pressing the accelerator. The Times claims that the deficit is the result of cutting taxes on the wealthy and they offer this stern warning: "The last thing the government should do is slash spending." History tells us that...

Employing a broad-based lobbying effort, the soft drink industry has smothered a plan to tax sugared beverages — a plan advocates said would have reduced obesity and helped finance health care reform. Only months ago, public health advocates thought the tax would be a natural for congressional Democrats looking for revenues to fund expanded health insurance coverage. The soaring costs of treating ailments related to excess weight — including diabetes and heart disease — added urgency to the issue. But the White House staff reviewing funding options never embraced the idea even after President Barack Obama expressed interest last summer....

The lead story at DrudgeReport.com as of 11:30 a.m. this morning was "**REUTERS: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class." But Reuters withdrew the article last night. Drudge noted the change and wrote: "**REUTERS pulls tax story..." then added another link to the top left margin: "Largest-ever federal payroll to hit 2.15 million employees..." So what happened? According to a Reuters rep, the was withdrawn "due to significant errors of fact." "The story was wrong on multiple points and should not have gone out," she emailed us. A formal withdrawal will issued will address specific points that were incorrect later today....

It is still far from clear what the White House’s new strategy to pass health care reform will be in the face of Scott Brown’s election to the Senate. But according to Federal News Radio negotiations between the House and Senate are still ongoing, including this victory for House Democrats: Federal employees covered under some of the more expensive plans in the Federal Employees Heath

Taxes: On the eve of President Obama's first State of the Union address, two Democratic congressmen are advising him to extend the Bush tax cuts instead of letting them expire. Now that's a stimulus. We hear that the administration is considering taking a more populist tack as it sails the choppy political waters of 2010. Some of President Obama's plans reportedly include several tax tidbits for the "middle class," including a doubling of the child care tax credit for families below $85,000 in income, and $1.6 billion for child care and a cap on student loan payments. Such transparent populism...

The Hill: Two House Democrats in tough re-election races are asking Congress and President Barack Obama to extend the Bush administration tax cuts. Reps. Bobby Bright (D-Ala.) and Mike McMahon (D-N.Y.) asked members in a “Dear Colleague” letter Thursday to support extending the tax cuts, which passed in 2001 and 2003 and are set to expire this year, for at least another two years. Specifically, Bright and McMahon are asking lawmakers to sign a letter to Obama asking him to include the tax cuts in his budget plans for 2010.

Organized labor is turning to House Democrats to oppose a tax on high-cost insurance plans that is under consideration to help pay for healthcare reform. Unions are blasting the idea in the Senate Finance Committee bill, as many union members would be affected because they either have expensive insurance to cover dangerous professions or negotiated for better benefits instead of higher wages. So far, at least one union has now turned to the lower chamber to stop the proposed tax from becoming law. An e-mail accidentally sent to The Hill on Wednesday by a senior lobbyist of the International Union...

(This guest post originally appeared at the author's Facebook page. It pertains to the news that union workers received a 10-year tax exemption on so-called "Cadillac" healthcare plans, while other workers must pay up immediately.) In the latest to come out of D.C.’s backroom health care deals, President Obama yesterday cut a doozy of a deal with labor union bosses. The fed’s health care plan must be so bad that even union bosses had to go to D.C. to say they wanted out. So... to keep their support for a flawed plan they got an exemption to provisions in the...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama signaled to House Democratic leaders Wednesday that they'll have to drop their opposition to taxing high-end health insurance plans to pay for health coverage for millions of uninsured Americans. In a meeting at the White House, Obama expressed his preference for the insurance tax contained in the Senate's health overhaul bill, but largely opposed by House Democrats and organized labor, Democratic aides said. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private.

January 15, 2010 The Labor Loophole Another ugly deal in a health-care bill that already was a grotesquerie of pay offs to favored politicians and interests. By Rich Lowry What happens when the irresistible force of the Democratic urge to tax runs up against the immovable object of Democratic loyalty to the labor unions? Another ugly deal in a health-care bill that already was a grotesquerie of pay offs to favored politicians and interests. The levy in question is a 40 percent excise tax on high-end employer-provided insurance plans that — typically — has been sold as a tax on...

House and Senate Democrats have produced health care legislation whose mandates, subsidies, tax penalties, and health insurance regulations would penalize work and reward Americans who refuse to purchase health insurance. As a result, the legislation could trap many Americans in low-wage jobs and cause even higher health-insurance premiums, government spending, and taxes than are envisioned in the legislation. Those mandates and subsidies would impose effective marginal tax rates on low-wage workers that would average between 53 and 74 percent— and even reach as high as 82 percent—over broad ranges of earned income. By comparison, the wealthiest Americans would face tax...

Obama Questions the 'Audacity' of Those Who Say the Bank Fee Is Unfair January 16, 2010 6:00 AM In his weekly address, President Obama unloaded on critics of the bank fee, questioning how anyone could have the “audacity” to suggest his proposal is unfair. “Like clockwork, the banks and politicians who curry their favor are already trying to stop this fee from going into effect," he said. "The very same firms reaping billions of dollars in profits, and reportedly handing out more money in bonuses and compensation than ever before in history, are now pleading poverty. It’s a sight to...