Free Republic

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden said he’d like to raise the capital gains tax rate to 39.6 percent, a near doubling of the current 20 percent. Biden made the remarks on Wednesday, August 21 during an interview with Iowa Public Television: “I believe we should, in fact, the capital gains tax should be at what the highest minimum tax should be, we should raise the tax back to 39.6 percent instead of 20 percent,” Biden said yesterday.Raising the capital gains tax would harm Americans’ ability to build a nest egg and hurt the value of their homes, farms, and businesses.Biden’s comments and his...

Well, that didn't take long. Less than two years in to her first term as a U.S. House Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants a raise. The freshman congresswoman tweeted last week that because members of Congress have to secure residences in D.C. and in their district, they deserve more taxpayer money for their efforts.

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Democrats and their media are making the RAISE Act all about racism and xenophobia against immigrants while conveniently ignoring the fact that immigrating to the United States is a privilege, not a right. But what's even more amazing is that what's in the RAISE Act is not a Trump concoction created out of nowhere with provisions foreign to who we are as a nation that welcomes immigrants. It turns out some of very bullet points in the RAISE Act today were proposed before... by Democrats who led a commission to correct the very issues that unskilled, non-English speaking, welfare-dependent immigrants...

Gov. Jerry Brown and state politicians will receive a 3 percent pay hike starting in December, their fifth raise in as many years as California’s budget picture continues to improve. The raises, approved Monday by the California Citizens Compensation Commission, come on top the 4 percent salary increases that kicked in late last year. Brown’s pay will climb from $190,102 to $195,805, while rank-and-file lawmakers will go from $104,117 to $107,240. Salaries for other statewide politicians like Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Treasurer John Chiang also will rise. The raises, which came amid five years of...

Hillary Clinton called for raising taxes on the “middle class” while campaigning on Monday in Omaha, NE. Joined by left-wing Democrat billionaire Warren Buffett, she received applause from those in attendance. “Because while Warren is standing up for a fairer tax code, Trump wants to cut taxes for the super-rich,” said Clinton. “Well, we’re not going there, my friends. I’m telling you, right now - we’re going to write fairer rules for the middle class and we are going to raise taxes on the middle class!”

We are now half way through the calendar year, and for many that means mid-year performance reviews. Or even worse, for some with odd fiscal years, it can be time for talks about money. Both inside and outside of those meetings what you have been told can be confusing. You need to understand what your boss really means, not just what is said. Believe me, I’ve spent enough time in corporate America, and enough time in human resource jobs, to know the difference. This stuff applies whether you work for a massive multinational like Google , or General Motors GM...

McDonald’s announced that over 90,000 employees will receive a pay raise effective July 1, 2015. After recent employee protests and slow sales, McDonald’s appears to be raising salaries to solve employee relation problems and improve it’s image with consumers.

The holidays will be a little merrier for about 200 appointees of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other constitutional officers: They are getting raises ranging from three percent to 12 percent at an annual cost of $1.4 million. The raises were announced by Ben Barnes, who oversees the budget as the secretary of policy and management. His salary jumps by 12 percent, from $186,999 to $209,439. All the raises take effect on Dec. 26. For Barnes and most of the other top officials, including the governor's chief of staff, Mark Ojakian, the raises are the first since joining the Malloy...

A majority of U.S. military service members will receive a 1 percent pay raise in their basic pay beginning in January 2015, the Pentagon announced on Monday. However, those enlisted members further down the military totem poll will see no pay raise, according to the announcement. “Basic pay for service members will increase one percent, except for general and flag officers who will not see an increase in 2015,” the Pentagon announced. This means that an Army member with the rank of corporal or specialist will receive an additional $22.20 per month, while those service members with the rank of...

Few workers would turn down a raise. Union members, however, can have raises turned down on their behalf. Employees of a Pennsylvania grocery store learned this the hard way. Managers at the Giant Eagle grocery in Edinboro, Pa., wanted to reward hard work. So they boosted the wages of two dozen high-performing employees above their union rates. But United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23 was not pleased. The union argued the pay increases violated their contract, took Giant Eagle to court and forced it to rescind the raises. Why did Local 23 oppose higher pay for its members? Because...

Federal labor leaders are disappointed with President Obama’s proposal to raise federal employee pay by 1 percent next year. The proposal will be included in the administration’s budget, which Obama will announce next week. His spending plan also will include a 1 percent raise for members of the military. “I strongly believe that federal employees deserve more, and this amount is inadequate,” said Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “There is no question in my mind that inadequate raises will have consequences on recruitment and retention.” Kelley says a 3.3 percent increase would be “fair...

The White House says President Barack Obama will propose a 1 percent pay raise next year for federal workers.

Fifteen dollars an hour to say, "Would you like fries with that?" or "Welcome to Wal-Mart?" PLEASE. My very first position out of college in a terrible job market was as a Wal-Mart portrait studio photographer. Around the holidays, we'd have long lines; trying to get kids to smile after they've been waiting in Wal-Mart for two hours is no picnic. On my off days, I didn't dare pick up the phone because my district manager regularly called people and demanded that they fill in for employees who were sick in other locations. There was no chance of advancement because...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The CEO of the Washington state health exchange is getting a 13 percent raise. The board of the exchange voted 7-1 Wednesday to increase Richard Onizuka's salary from $157,000 per year to just over $177,400.

As many observers have noted, the dysfunction in Washington is on the verge of becoming a full-blown crisis. A handful of extremists in one political party have become so convinced of their own brilliance and rectitude — and so frustrated by their inability to persuade the rest of the country of it — that they are threatening to cause the United States of America to default if their demands aren't meant. This is extortion, plain and simple. And the Obama Administration is right not to give into it. If it becomes legitimate for a small group of politicians on either...

The lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Boehner had said he would be willing to violate the so-called Hastert Rule if necessary to pass a debt limit increase. The informal rule refers to a policy of not bringing to the floor any measure that does not have a majority of Republican votes. Other Republicans also said Thursday that they got the sense that Mr. Boehner would do whatever was necessary to ensure that the country did not default on its debt.

Big news — unless, of course, it’s disinformation, which I doubt. With attention shifting to potential consequences of not increasing the debt limit, one House Republican said Thursday that Speaker John A. Boehner had told colleagues in a meeting that he was determined to prevent a federal default and was willing to pass a measure through a combination of Republican and Democratic votes. The lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Boehner had said he would be willing to violate the so-called Hastert Rule if necessary to pass a debt limit increase. The informal rule refers to...

At the start of the Labor Day weekend, President Obama proposed Friday to raise the pay of civilian federal employees by 1 percent, which would end a three-year freeze on their wages. The president also proposed to raise the monthly basic pay for military service members by 1 percent. In a letter to congressional leaders, Mr. Obama said civilian federal employees “have already made significant sacrifices” due to the pay freeze. He said he is balancing that consideration with the reality that “we must maintain efforts to keep our nation on a sustainable fiscal course.”

Expecting to get a raise next year? It could be eaten up by your health care bill. In an effort to meet the affordability requirement of the Affordable Care Act, which kicks in next year and requires that workers spend no more than 9.5% of their income on premiums, more employers are turning to insurance plans in which premiums vary based on a person’s salary, rather than having all workers pay a flat rate. That way, employees who make more money pay bigger premiums. Some 12% of companies used salary-based premiums in 2012, up from 10% in 2011, according to...