Free Republic

While “new revenue” has triumphed as a euphemism for “tax hikes,” “loophole” has triumphed as a dysphemism for “intentional tax policy.” Our tax code is not really all that riddled with loopholes. Loopholes, properly understood, are unintentional ambiguities in a system that can be exploited to undercut the intent of the system’s designers. What we’re talking about in the tax code is not, for the most part, a collection of loopholes. The mortgage-interest deduction is not a loophole; it is the product of intentionally (and stupidly) constructed public policy, an attempt at social engineering through the tax code. Likewise, most...

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press – 8 mins ago WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed. The change would affect early retirees: A married couple could have an annual income of about $64,000 and still get Medicaid, said officials who make long-range cost estimates for the Health and Human Services department.

PHILADELPHIA - This may not sound new because we've been talking about it in Philadelphia in connection with its Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP. That has cost the pension fund millions and been abused by elected officials. But now we're looking at it happening in New Jersey. Several high-ranking political leaders found a loophole allowing them to retire and then go back to work, collecting a pension and salary at the same time. Gov. Chris Christie says he will try to close the loophole. But we don't know how many people or even who is doing this. It comes...

Hank Bangser collects a $261,681 state pension after retiring as superintendent of New Trier Township High School District. Now, he's a full-time superintendent in Southern California, earning $170,000 at a job he'd be barred from in Illinois if he wanted to keep getting retirement checks.His annual pension-salary combo: $431,681.In tony Scottsdale, Ariz., retired Wheaton Superintendent Gary Catalani is back in administration too, earning $195,000 as school superintendent on top of his $237,195 Illinois pension. His total: $432,195.A Tribune investigation has found that crossing state lines

HOUSTON – As in most states, a bar owner can be held liable if a drunken patron injures someone else. But the I-Team discovered how the big liquor lobby pushed through a legal loophole that gets bars around the law, and leaves some Texas families in anguish. Matthew Garcia was bright and talented, and at 21, too young to die, his family said. "He would sit at the piano for hours and play," recalled Laurri Garcia of her son’s affection for music. “Life is horrible without Matthew, I miss him incredibly." But amid his parents' pain, there’s something else....

A congressional document that has been posted on the Internet confirms no one – not Congress, not the states and not election officials – bothered to check Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, and in fact, that status remains undocumented to this day. It's because state and federal law did not require anyone in Congress or elsewhere to check to see if Obama was a "natural born Citizen" under the meaning of Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution, according the document. The analysis by the Congressional Research Service, a research arm of the U.S. Congress, openly admits no one...

A congressional document that has been posted on the Internet confirms no one – not Congress, not the states and not election officials – bothered to check Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, and in fact, that status remains undocumented to this day. It's because state and federal law did not require anyone in Congress or elsewhere to check to see if Obama was a "natural born Citizen" under the meaning of Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution, according the document. The analysis by the Congressional Research Service, a research arm of the U.S. Congress, openly admits no one...

Today’s column targets SEIU consigliere Craig Becker and the latest White House gift to Big Labor. So far this summer, Team Obama is fronting the SEIU-backed $8 billion Child Nutrition Act expansion and forked over the union-stamped $26 billion BigGovJobs bailout. And as I noted yesterday, the next big government/labor payoff is on the way in the form of the PBGC bailout. How many more union payoffs can we afford?! Obama’s Big Labor ethics loophole by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2010 Everything you need to know about President Obama’s fraudulent ethics pledge can be summed up in four words:...

Retired and rehiredby Will Graff & Evan Marczynski Friday, July 30, 2010 A loophole in state retirement law has allowed retired Western employees to come back to work and earn a salary while continuing to collect pensions. Seven employees who earned salary in 2009 were able to collect pensions at the same time, according to records obtained from the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems. Employees who have returned to work after retiring have been able to boost their incomes, in some cases up to 40 percent with the addition of pension benefits. Western did not violate any state laws...

L.A. County prosecutors have launched a multipronged investigation into the city of Bell, examining allegations of voter fraud as well as conflicts of interest involving city business.In an interview with The Times, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley described the investigation as “rapidly expanding and full-fledged,” saying investigators have been gathering evidence since March. Cooley’s comments indicate a larger probe than prosecutors had acknowledged up to now. Until now, the district attorney has said it was looking at what it called high salaries paid to City Council members, who earned nearly $100,000 until they cut their own salaries on...

A lawsuit filed Monday by a former Bell police officer makes a variety of serious allegations about city officials and suggests voter fraud in a 2009 election. According to the lawsuit, filed by James Corcoran, off-duty police officers in Bell distributed absentee ballots in a 2009 municipal election and told would-be voters which candidates to support. The former police sergeant alleges in the suit that he was forced out of his job of 25 years in retaliation for informing state and federal authorities about the officers’ actions and reporting alleged misconduct involving City Administrator Robert Rizzo and other city officials....

The highly paid members of the Bell City Council were able to exempt themselves from state salary limits through a little-noticed city ballot measure during a special election that attracted fewer than 400 voters. Council members in Bell earn nearly $100,000 – a salary that has prompted an inquiry by the Los Angeles County district attorney. A state law enacted in 2005 limits the pay of council members in "general law" cities, a reform prompted by the high salaries that leaders in the neighboring city of South Gate bestowed on themselves. But the year the law passed, the Bell City...

CHICAGO (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) — Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL) released the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the City of Chicago’s handgun ban. Earlier this year, Quigley spearheaded the effort of 55 Members of Congress in filing a “friend of the court” amicus brief, urging the Court to allow Chicago’s handgun ban to stand. Quigley also supports the right of state and local governments to maintain sensible restrictions on gun possession and use. “I am disappointed and disheartened by the Supreme Court’s decision today. When illegal guns flood our streets, precious lives are lost and communities are...

examiner.com — Something quietly happened over the last few years. America's free press started to report more accurately on gun rights issues as anti-gun rights voodoo-public policy incantations about "assault weapons," "private dealers," and "gun show loopholes" have been outed. . . .

More than 100 staff members appointed by three Minnesota congressmen who serve as chairman or ranking member on powerful House committees appear to be exempt from a key requirement in the controversial health care reform bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law. According to a Freedom Foundation of Minnesota (FFM) review of the state congressional delegation’s committee assignments, it appears that 115 committee staff of Congressmen James Oberstar, Collin Peterson and John Kline might be able to opt out of the requirement to purchase their health coverage through new state-run insurance exchanges.  “Forcing millions of Americans into...

The gun used to kill three people during a faculty meeting at an Alabama school was bought for the suspect's husband two decades ago when he said he was having problems with a neighbor, an investigator testified Tuesday. The investigator told a judge that an acquaintance bought the gun in New Hampshire for Amy Bishop's husband to skirt a waiting period where the couple lived in Massachusetts. Huntsville police investigator Charlie Gray also testified that Bishop denied to officers that she had anything to do with the rampage at a biology department faculty meeting Feb. 12, which also wounded three...

A proposal to require background checks on all persons buying firearms at gun shows in Minnesota failed to clear its first hurdle Wednesday before a House committee. The House Crime Victims and Criminal Records panel defeated the proposal 5-3, leaving its future in doubt. But Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, the bill's author, said he may at some point resurrect the proposal before this year's legislative session ends. "It's not over [at the Legislature] until, you know, the gavel comes down in May," he said.

From Virginia to Arizona, federal and state gun laws are loosening everywhere from national parks to Amtrak trains. But in St. Paul, a proposal that would send Minnesota in the opposite direction is headed toward its first hearing Friday -- a bill requiring background checks on the purchaser of any firearm sold at a gun show. The proposal pits its DFL sponsor, St. Paul Rep. Michael Paymar, against the mighty arsenal of gun rights advocates and lobbyists who have managed to turn back nearly every effort to tighten Minnesota's gun laws in the past. In a session dominated by pressing...

As it turns out, Senate Democrats may not be able to force healthcare legislation through the chamber on a simple majority vote. Republicans say they have found a loophole in the budget reconciliation process that could allow them to offer an indefinite number of amendments. Though it has never been done, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says he’s prepared to test the Senate’s stamina to block the Democrats from using the process to expedite changes to the healthcare bill.

December 6, 2009 Charities Rise, Costing U.S. Billions in Tax Breaks By STEPHANIE STROM The number of organizations that can offer their donors a tax break in the name of charity has grown more than 60 percent in the United States, to 1.1 million, in just a decade. Experts say nonprofits are skillfully exploiting the tax code’s broad and elastic definition of what constitutes such a charity, making it difficult for the Internal Revenue Service, which must bless them, to say no. The agency approved 99 percent of the applications for public charity status last year, according to a new...