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House Democrats introduced legislation Friday that would place a 1,000 percent excise tax on AR-15s and other firearms they refer to as “assault weapons.” FOX News reported the tax would also apply to “high capacity” magazines. Rep. Don Beyer (D) and 24 other Democrats are behind the tax which they also pushed last year. The imposition would force the price of a $500 firearm to jump to $5,000 and “a weapon that normally costs $2,000 would force customers to pay more than $20,000.”

Jason Rantz of Seattle’s KTTH explained Sunday that the “excess compensation tax” comes from SB 5767, “Funding health care access by imposing an excise tax on the annual compensation paid to certain highly compensated hospital employees,” which was introduced last Tuesday and referred to the Ways & Means committee. Rantz noted that “Democrats hope to tax specific job salaries at the behest of healthcare workers’ unions. But you’d be naïve to think they’ll stop there.” Of course they won’t stop there. This bill is one of the most open acknowledgments yet that Leftists are pursuing an avowedly socialist agenda, in...

Excise taxes, often referred to as a nuisance or sin taxes, are typically implemented to raise revenues and deter certain “unhealthy” behaviors. In 2014, state governments collected approximately $32 billion by taxing so-called sinful products and activities, including gambling, smoking, and alcohol. As Clement Freud noted, “If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking, and loving, you don't actually live longer; it just seems longer.” Several states recently held ballot initiatives to increase taxes on all nicotine products including vape products. Not shockingly, many of these referendums passed, even though e-cigarettes are used as harm reduction tools and have a positive...

The House on Monday gave final legislative approval to a bill that would allow states to use more money they receive from federal excise taxes on guns and ammunition to upgrade and create public shooting ranges. HR 1222, the “Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act,” was co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah and Democratic Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin. House passage followed last month’s Senate approval of the bill, according to TheBlaze. In the Senate, the bill was sponsored by Sens. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, and Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican. The bill, which...

---snip--- The saga of Philadelphia’s soda tax war is about more than arcane tax policy, and it’s about more than who may be up and who may be down in this year’s mayoral election. It really gets to a big philosophical question: Just what does it mean to be progressive nowadays? Mayor Kenney and his allies speak the lingua franca of progressivism, but when what you hold up as your signature accomplishment is a tax, as opposed to the program it might fund, and when that leads to the expansion of a food desert in a city with the worst...

The Democrats are attempting to con President Trump into a decision that could end his bid for re-election. It’s a horrible idea! The main reason you know it’s a horrible idea is that you are the one they are expecting to pay for it. And when’s the last time that Democrats ever forced you to pay for something you actually wanted? Through politispeak-gobbledygook they have whispered to one another that they can convince President Trump to deliver them a multi-fold win—and, they think to themselves—we can crucify his re-election chances in 2020. They are not wrong. What they are seeking...

In Oregon, a state known for its avid bicycling culture, the state Legislature’s approval of the first bike tax in the nation has fallen flat with riders. Democratic Gov. Kate Brown is expected to sign the sweeping $5.3 billion transportation package, which includes a $15 excise tax on the sale of bicycles costing more than $200 with a wheel diameter of at least 26 inches. Even though the funding has been earmarked for improvements that will benefit cyclists, the tax has managed to irk both anti-tax Republicans and environmentally conscious bikers. BikePortland publisher Jonathan Maus called it “an unprecedented step...

The Texas Legislature’s point man [Drew Darby] on transportation funding says Texas motorists need to understand that a higher gas tax would be a more 'open and transparent' way of dealing head on with the state's transportation crisis than the 'congestion tax' that motorists are currently paying every day. "I think we need to revert to pay as your go," State Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo) told the San Antonio Mobility Coalition."Nine times members of the Legislature have raised the gasoline tax to pay for our transportation infrastructure, but that hasn't happened since 1991. Lawmakers over the past several years...

In the coming weeks, Americans will spend an average of 13 hours and $210 to prepare their federal taxes. Beyond the compliance burden the federal tax code imposes, it also distorts economic activity and discriminates against some taxpayers in favor of others. But one of its most egregiously unfair provisions is also among its most popular - the mortgage interest deduction. In theory, the mortgage interest deduction is supposed to encourage home ownership, a questionable goal for government to begin with. The purpose of taxes is to raise money to finance government services, not to manipulate human behavior or economic...

Many people smoke after they've eaten. Lindell Harvey smokes because he hasn't. "You smoke out of anxiety because you don't have the food you need," said Harvey, 54, who lives alone in Crum Lynne, Pa. He receives disability checks from the Navy that keep him $2,000 below the poverty line. Harvey relies on his Newports to see him through his hard days. "In my mind, the smoking becomes a comfort as I try to create ways to get food."

To conservatives like me, the following proposal for raising taxes on Hollywood celebrities goes against my DNA. However, two facts are indisputable: (1) Hollywood is perhaps Obama's biggest booster club, giving him donations in kind and in dollars, and (2) Congress' stated goal is to raise taxes on the wealthy, although they will actually raise them on everyone. Therefore, with a bit of irony in mind, I propose the following for debate. After listening to Democrats argue that the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share of taxes, it’s time for Americans to take an empirical view of the massive wealth...

The president’s health care overhaul includes a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices that will send the durable medical equipment industry into intensive care, eliminate 43,000 jobs, and whack $3.5 billion from local shops and communities, according to a new study by two free market economists. The 30-page report, released on Wednesday by the Advanced Medical Technology Association, a trade group, also concludes that the tax on medical equipment may prompt the closure of high-tech research facilities in several states. That trade group released its report predicting massive job losses ... The new tax is expected to generate $20...

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 payoffs 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 "the rich." It's called the "Cadillac tax," a name redolent of corporate executives cackling in their Escalades over their cushy benefits. The unions, which make it a point to negotiate...

An excise tax on high-priced insurance policies might violate President Obama's pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class, House Democratic Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said last night. "I do not want to see anything jeopardize the president's promise not to raise taxes on the middle-class," Clyburn told MSNBC last night. "And that could very well get us there." The House healthcare bill to be unveiled today will not include such a tax, but the Senate bill does. Under the Senate bill, an excise tax on so-called "Cadillac" insurance policies would help pay for subsidies and expanded coverage. President...

Lawmakers will be in a bind next year to balance the state's books, and tobacco buyers and natural gas producers may be asked to pay up. While Gov. Ed Rendell has said he's against hiking income or sales taxes next year, he has mentioned new taxes on smokeless tobacco, cigars and natural gas production. Smokeless tobacco and cigars are now subject to the state's 6-percent sales tax, but unlike cigarettes, are not subject to an extra excise tax. For cigarettes, the state adds a per-pack excise tax of $1.35, and Rendell has longed backed an excise tax for smokeless tobacco...

Good Money After Bad by: Bethany Stotts, July 28, 2008 When gas prices are at record highs and American families are feeling the economic pinch, Congress may just decide to boost gas prices even higher. Their reason will be to save jobs. As the Washington Post reported on July 20, “Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.” The discussion arose out of a presentation by Congressmen James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who calculate that states will lose millions...

*MEDIA RELEASE* DAVID CARR FOR STATE SENATE SOMERSET, KY - Local broadcaster, small businessman and Senate candidate David Carr called on Frankfort today to take all steps necessary to repeal or suspend the automatic gas tax to be paid by Kentucky's drivers. With gas prices approaching nearly $2.00 per gallon, David Carr said now is not the time for a new hike in gas taxes. A law passed by the General Assembly in the 1980's triggers automatic tax increases when gas prices rise above $1.11 per gallon in a selected month. Its purpose is to force consumers to curb their...

<p>Whiskey means the "water of life." With that in mind, one should discuss the subject of distilled spirits deferentially.</p> <p>With a special license granted, the great names -- including Jack Daniels, Maker's Mark, Jim Beam and Wild Turkey -- gathered at George Washington's Mt. Vernon farm on the Potomac. Their mission: to cook a batch the old-fashioned way, according to Washington's rye recipe, and donate the proceeds to Mt. Vernon's educational programs. Sweet.</p>