Free Republic

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Fourteen people have been charged with illegally purchasing 77 million contraband cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia and smuggling the cigarettes to New York. Two are also accused of paying an agent posing as a hit man to kill a husband and wife whom they believed had stolen from them. The indictments handed up Thursday in federal court in Alexandria are the culmination of a yearlong investigation. Authorities say the smuggling ring paid $8 million plus guns and drugs to the undercover agents for the cigarettes. Cigarette smuggling has increased in recent years as high taxes...

(11-03) 15:20 PST OAKLAND -- Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and his wife failed to pay more than $239,000 in taxes over a three-year period and have had a lien slapped on their property by the Internal Revenue Service, public records show. ... Yeah yeah yeah, another Democrat politician didn’t pay all his taxes. But Dellums isn’t your typical “the rich aren’t paying their fair share!” Democrat. He was among the luminaries of the 60’s New Left and was the first traveled in April to Cuba to meet with their hero Fidel Castro. Now that’s its been discovered that Dellums has...

Reporting from Los Angeles and Sacramento - Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners -- holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear. Technically, it's not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers' annual tax bills won't change. Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan:...

The current Mayor Daley behaves as if Chicago was located in Death Valley where every drop of water must be conserved and accounted for. I am not sure if Coleridge‘s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is the incumbent mayor’s favorite poem, but sometimes I think that it ought to be. “Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink…” Under the present, enlightened regime, public buildings are being refitted, at great material expense and union labor costs, with automatic plumbing fixtures that will scrupulously dole out water each time a visitor goes to rinse his or her hands. Toilets...

Bill and Melinda Gates will make a personal appeal to Washington officials Tuesday, asking them to continue funding global health initiatives despite the recession and to commit to nearly halve the number of child deaths worldwide by 2025...The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world. But Gates said that even with its great wealth, the fund is focused on being a catalyst for much larger government-funded projects..."We have put about $11.9 billion in global health since the inception of this," she said..."Our money is tiny." The U.S. government's annual contribution to global health initiatives...

If you define "socialist" as advocating government ownership of the "means of production," which is what I've always understood socialist to mean, then, no, modern leftists (or progressives or whatever they want to be called) no longer believe that, right now at least, widespread government ownership of economic enterprises is a good strategy. As a sketch of that now-obsolete view of socialism, consider Lenin in State and Revolution: "The development of capitalism ... creates the preconditions that enable really "all" to take part in the administration of the state. Some of these preconditions are: universal literacy, which has already been...

?Tax the rich, Feed the poor, ‘Til there are no Rich no more." - "I'd Love to Change the World" Ten Years After (1971) Over the Columbus Day weekend, my wife and I traveled to Brooklyn, N.Y. to visit our daughter and her boyfriend. I was strictly admonished by my wife not to talk politics during the visit, since my daughter's boyfriend is a radical leftist. He, being a well-educated social science buff, and I, being who I am (a well-educated "right-wing nut job"), we had created many spectacular fireworks during past political debate sessions.

Democrats in the House know that they can't tax Cadillac insurance plans because the unions have those Cadillac insurance plans. Just what do you think you have been paying for every time you buy an American-made automobile! That means the unions don't particularly like this Democrat idea ... and if the unions don't like it, the idea is all but dead. Democrats would throw kittens into chipper-shredders before they would ever do anything to really upset their precious unions. So now, Princess Nancy and her minions are scrounging to find other ideas to generate revenue. The latest one in the...

This sure does not sound "warm and fuzzy" in those who do not buy health insurance they could be sent to jail. Nancy Skinner is a Democratic Strategist and I now Democrats are warm and fuzzy. They care. That’s why they get elected.But tell me please, how is sending someone to jail because they choose not to buy health insurance warm and fuzzy? This is the party of the people.

It was a startling admission. Prior to passage of "Cap-and-Trade" legislation by the House of Representatives, Mr. Henry Waxman (D, CA), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman and co-sponsor of the bill, in responding to a question from Mr. Joe Barton (R, TX) at a May 22 hearing, admitted the following: "I certainly don't claim that I know everything that's in this bill. I know we left it to ....we relied very heavily on the scientists on the IPCC and others and the consensus they have that there is a problem with global warming, it's having an impact, and that...

I don’t sing in my videos (much to the relief of every living creature). I don’t dance either (there is a limit to self-deprecation). But Tim Hawkins does sing and dance, and he uses those skills to great effect in this video. Enjoy.

President Barack Obama can return the U.S. budget situation to a sustainable one without breaking his pledge to not raise taxes on Americans making less than $250,000, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday. "We can get our fiscal house in order. We can go back, as a country, to the point where we're living within our means without violating that basic commitment," Geithner told ABC's "Good Morning America" program. "It's his (Obama's) commitment and he's very committed to that." Geithner also said the government would work to unwind its investments in financial institutions and other companies as quickly...

Facebook friend Tara, who blogs at A Little Red Rooster, posted this inspiring video at a rally in Philadelphia last week. It features an 11-year-old boy named Quentin Cody who read an open letter to President Hope&Change.

Reform: The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee wants levies on insurers to pay for ObamaCare and fines for families who don't sign up. We can cut costs and expand coverage without sacrificing freedom.To keep ObamaCare alive, Montana Democrat Max Baucus has proposed a Rube Goldberg scheme of fees and fines on insurers and the uninsured designed to forcibly bring everyone into the loving and protective arms of the nanny state. To help finance his Plan B, Baucus would impose annual fees of $6 billion on health insurers, $4 billion on medical-device makers, $2.3 billion on drug manufacturers and $750...

Now Charlie’s in trouble! Yesterday the Washington Post dedicated an editorial consisting of four whopping paragraphs demanding Rangel resign. For what it’s worth, the piece is here, outlining the laundry list of alleged infractions: Thursday, September 3, 2009 Sorry, Charlie Rep. Rangel must step aside as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.... We called on Mr. Rangel to resign his coveted post last November while the House ethics committee probed his contact with a potential donor to a pet project who also had business before the committee. Mind you, that committee already was looking into his using official...

President Obama is desperate to pass sweeping healthcare reform and now has resorted to pure socialist rhetoric to encourage Americans to support his plan. In his Saturday radio and internet address, President Obama encouraged Americans to call upon "what's best in each of us to make life better for all of us." Fortunately, an accurate account of history and a long line of great thinkers point out the contradiction in the President's remark, which is an obvious appeal for Socialism. The most notable of these thinkers is F.A. Hayek who educated readers about the unintended consequences of government planning in...

The message from Washington is clear and getting louder by the day. If you run a successful business you face excessive government regulations and higher levels of taxation for years to come. The more productive and profitable you become, the more you will be forced to pay for the privilege of operating in this country. This threat is real and it appears that many companies and business owners are taking steps to protect themselves. President Obama's anti-business and anti-competitive campaign messages made executives and business owners apprehensive even before the January 2009 presidential inauguration and the Democrats obtaining control of...

If Congress cannot use the power of appropriation to do things “not authorised in the Constitution, either expressly or by fair implication,” then where would one look to find a basic blueprint so this rule can be followed? Ironically, that would be a Federalist Essay written by James Madison. In Essay No. 45, he distinguished the external powers granted to the federal government from the domestic powers reserved to the States: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The...

Now you can see why President Obama was in such a rush to have his way with your health care. “Angry protesters shouted down Democrats at public events from Texas to Pennsylvania over the weekend, leaving the party only one real hope for getting its message out over recess: a backlash,” Politico reports: In Austin, Texas, Rep. Lloyd Doggett was drowned out by a group of noisy, sign-waving demonstrators who shouted, “Just say no” as he tried to talk about health care reform. In an e-mail to Politico Monday, Doggett called the group a “mob, sent by the local Republican...

First, for all of you who still believe that your private health care will not be deliberately and systematically destroyed by Obama by means of his government-run program, watch this clip from Breitbart TV via Drudge:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview aired Sunday that the administration will do "what's necessary" to revive the economy, and didn't rule out new taxes as a means to do so. “We’re going to have to look at – we’re going to have to do what’s necessary,” Geithner told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, host of “This Week.” “Remember the critical thing is people understand that when we have recovery established, led by the private sector, then we have to bring these deficits down very dramatically. We have to bring them down to a level where the amount we’re borrowing...

Merely four days out of production, the proudly touted government program “Cash for Clunkers” came to a screeching halt Thursday amid worries of an empty tank......... Clearly, the lack of planning for a simple three month government program resulting in a temporary shutdown four days in due to depleted funds and red tape, demands the question, Why should Americans feel any comfort in a Government run health care system?

On MSNBC, Kelly O'Donnell reports the White House is open to taxing soda and booze to pay for health care. Hmmm . . ."I can make a firm pledge," he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. "Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."Obama just poured grain alcohol on that promise and set it alight. MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall refers to "food deserts" where soda is the only beverage, claiming that...

WASHINGTON – In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation's first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy. The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs. The House's action fulfilled Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow to clear...

Fiscal Policy: New York proposes taxing everything that moves and most things that don't. It's one of 22 states that increased spending this year while running a deficit. So how do you like taxation with representation?A midyear report released this week by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers shows that 36 of the 50 states are facing budget deficits in fiscal 2009. Twenty-two of those states — New York among them — nonetheless have proposed increased spending. In all, 32 states plan increased spending in hard times. In New York, Gov. David Paterson warns...

The total price tag for federal support stemming from the financial crisis could reach $23.7 trillion in the long run, the government's top bailout watchdog says in a new report to Congress. The total price tag for federal support stemming from the financial crisis could reach $23.7 trillion in the long run, the government's top bailout watchdog says in a new report to Congress. Neil Barofsky, the inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, plans to deliver his report Tuesday to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The $23.7 trillion figure is admittedly a high-ball number and...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Friday acknowledged the tough going for his health care overhaul in Congress but rejected the notion the legislation is doomed if lawmakers fail to act by August. "I never believe anything is do or die," Obama said. "We're closer to that significant reform than at any time in recent history," Obama told reporters at a news conference in Italy. "That doesn't make it easy. It's hard. And we are having a whole series of constant negotiations." Conservative Democrats are demanding significant changes before they will support a sweeping health care overhaul, forcing the House...

I received a letter from the PA Department of Revenue stating that I had not paid Use Tax in 3 years and they were allowing me to catch up without penalty. They included a brochure explaining what Use Tax is. I had never read anything that had led me to believe I owed this tax. I thought it was a tax on rentals & leases. Boy was I wrong. Use tax is tax on anything you purchase that is normally taxable and that you did not pay tax on. For example, let's say you purchase something off the Internet for...

WASHINGTON – House Democrats at work on health legislation are narrowing in on an income tax surcharge on the highest-paid wage earners to help pay the cost of subsidizing insurance for the 50 million who lack it. Pushing to complete a comprehensive health care bill by Friday and bring it up for committee votes next week, House Democrats abandoned earlier money-raising proposals, including a payroll tax. They planned to meet behind closed doors Thursday to fine-tune the details. The action in the House stood in contrast to the Senate, where Democrats edged away from their goal of passing health care...

Albuquerque Tea Party was due to start at 4 pm and run until 6. By 2 pm we had lots of people there signing petitions, filling out postcards and 'notices of termination' to their elected officials and waving homemade signs! We had a few speeches - nothing major (no big names were on hand). There was a band, some lively music, many renditions of the Star Spangled Banner and God Bless the USA, some good barbecue and fun had by all. Not sure how many people showed up but there were large crowds for most of the time we were...

O.K., Thursday’s jobs report settles it. We’re going to need a bigger stimulus. But does the president know that? Let’s do the math. Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs — and as that grim employment report confirmed, it’s continuing to lose jobs at a rapid pace. Once you take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole. And the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will be to dig ourselves out. The...

For five months of the year, Marj Rawls and Janice Pollack make New Hampshire their home. After selling their house in Harpersville, Ala., 12 years ago and using the money to buy an RV, the two have been traveling all across country – and stop at a little campground in Brookline each summer to enjoy the Granite State. But after making New Hampshire their home for so many summers, they may start rethinking their travel plans due to the state's newly revised rooms and meals tax. "We love this area and we love coming here," Rawls said. "But now we...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday declared a fiscal emergency to force lawmakers into a special session to tackle a state budget gap that has widened to $26.3 billion from $24.3 billion after they failed to close it on Tuesday. Lawmakers debated late into the night Tuesday but could not agree on a plan to balance California's budget for its new fiscal year, which began early Wednesday morning. That cleared the way for state officials to suspend payments owed to vendors and local agencies, who instead will get "IOU" notes promising payment. The notes would mark...

WASHINGTON – Hours after the House passed landmark legislation meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions and create an energy-efficient economy, President Barack Obama on Saturday urged senators to show courage and follow suit. The sharply debated bill's fate is unclear in the Senate, and Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address to ratchet up pressure on the 100-seat chamber. "My call to every senator, as well as to every American, is this," he said. "We cannot be afraid of the future. And we must not be prisoners of the past. Don't believe the misinformation out there that suggests there...

The House churned toward a showdown vote Friday on historic legislation to reduce pollution linked to global warming and power the nation with cleaner but more expensive energy. Democrats struggled to solidify a fragile coalition needed to pass the bill -- firmly opposed by Republicans who called the measure a "job killer" that would push families' energy bills higher and drive businesses overseas. The White House and congressional Democrats argued the bill would create millions of "green jobs" as the nation shifts to greater reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and development of more fuel efficient...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrat lawmakers on Friday proposed guaranteeing health coverage for nearly every American, despite mounting concerns the cost of doing so could torpedo the Obama administration's healthcare reform effort. In the latest draft of the healthcare bill, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives suggested all citizens should be able to get insurance regardless of medical history and that coverage should be mandatory for individuals and businesses. The proposal would create a new government plan to help cover the uninsured -- a move backed by President Barack Obama but resisted by Republicans and some centrist Democrats who fear...

LEE COUNTY — The Lee County School District is supported with taxes but is now on the list of property owners who have failed to pay 2008 taxes on time. According to the Lee County Tax Collector Web site, the district has not paid taxes on five of the 126 properties it owns, the largest of which is a $34,000 bill for 2008 taxes on an undeveloped property in Cape Coral. The taxes owed are non-ad valorem taxes — for services such as wastewater treatment — and not the same kind of taxes at the heart of a discussion in...

The federal kitty used to fix and build highways runs dry in August. It will be the second time in two years that the Highway Trust Fund, which was started in 1956 to build the Interstate system, hasn't collected enough gas-tax revenues to pay for critical needs in transport. The reasons for the money shortfall are simple: With Americans driving less in a recession and also buying more-fuel-efficient vehicles, revenues from the gas tax are down. And it doesn't help that the federal fee of 18.4 cents per gallon hasn't been raised since 1993, despite inflation and more transport projects....

Sweden's high tax regime is counterproductive: rather than focusing on the improvement of core services, it has led to a bloated bureaucracy and an inefficient welfare state... Sweden is a nation with extraordinarily high tax rates. The average worker not only pays 30 percent of income in visible taxes, but also close to 30 percent in hidden taxes... Some level of taxation is of course required to fund the public sector. At the same time, a high level of taxation does not necessarily translate into an equally high level of welfare: - High taxes do not always mean high tax...

It was the problem 230 years ago... and it's still the problem.

Thursday, May 14, 2009 Californians will vote next Tuesday on a series of budget-related propositions, and one thing is clear from new Rasmussen Reports telephone polling in the state: Voters aren’t in the mood for tax increases to ease California’s budget woes. Seventy-three percent (73%) of California voters oppose raising state income taxes to eliminate the budget deficit. Raising the state sales tax is opposed by 69%. At the same time, 69% favor major cuts in government spending to eliminate the budget deficit. Just 16% oppose the spending cuts. There is strong support for one concept that will be on...

"Whoopi Goldberg Rails Against Her Taxes." Now if only she can convince Obama to stop proposing ever new taxes, like today's Sugar Tax, yesterday's estate tax hike proposal and the grandaddy of them all - the Global Warming Tax.

The Super Bowl XLIII Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the only team to win six titles, will soon be loosing half of those trophies. After a meeting between NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodel and President Barack Hussein Obama, Obama decided to redistribute half of their Steelers' Super Bowl victories and trophies to less fortunate teams in the league. “We live everyday in the country that invented the Super Bowl.” said Obama. “We are not about to lose this Great American tradition in the wake of these difficult times.” Obama’s plan calls for the Steelers, who are a successful NFL team, to give half...

One heck of a dog fight is about to break out on the floor of the Oregon Legislature and for very good reason. Here are some of the more onerous sections of HB 2186 as it stands: Section 3 (1) The Environmental Quality Commission may adopt by rule standards and requirements described in this section to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (2)(a) The commission may adopt low carbon fuel standards for Gasoline, diesel and fuels used as a substitute for gasoline or diesel. This translates to Ethanol folks. It means converting food items like corn into fuel, increasing the cost of...

Can states secede? There are three levels on which this question can be answered: the inalienable right of secession, the international law of secession, and the US law of secession. All three say yes.

The opinion polls have uttered. The country loves the new 50 per cent top rate of income tax. Soak the rich. Smash the bankers. So Government spin doctors are in second heaven. The Conservatives' silence redefines a tomb. And I suppose there'd be quite a turnout for the public flogging of Sir Fred the Shred. But before you book your tickets, hold hard. And before you lynch me as a rich b*****d flying a kite for my own cause, let me beg you to believe that I am not. I believe that this new top rate of tax could be...

Debt Day comes early this year. Unfortunately, it's nothing to celebrate. The symbolic "holiday," which falls on Sunday, marks the point in the fiscal year when government spending exceeds revenue. In other words, the government will stop making money and start borrowing on Sunday. And it's coming earlier than ever, according to House Minority Leader John Boehner, who's pointing to Debt Day as yet another symptom of a government he says is spending too much, borrowing too much and taxing too much. Last year's Debt Day fell more than three months later, on Aug. 5. "All the revenue for this...

Even under the best of economic circumstances, tax season is a tense time for American households. The number of hours we collectively spend working on our returns is probably a lot more than government agencies claim. The burden in financial terms is even greater: A recent independent survey found that the average American's total federal, state and local tax bill roughly equals his or her entire earnings from January 1 up until right before tax day. Now imagine that tax bill doubling over time......

Yesterday was an historic day. It truly was. I attended two tea parties, one in Roswell, Georgia and the other in Marietta, Georgia. I chose not to go to Atlanta's Tea Party. I will expound on that later. First things first. The media coverage. By now, most everyone saw the CNN reporter try to create news by reporting her take on the Chicago event. She said it wasn't family viewing. I also read about the incident in Washington where a box of tea was thrown over the White House fence onto the lawn. That was amateurish. There is no confirmation...

A number of ne'er-do-well lefties have asserted today that the premise of the tea parties is flawed in that current tax laws were implemented through elected representatives. Hence, these weasels argue, there is indeed taxation with representation. Their argument is, speaking charitably, specious beyond belief. In Wisconsin, for example, there are numerous taxing authorities comprised of unelected officials. There is the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Waukesha Area Technical College, and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority, and the Healthy Wisconsin Authority, to name a few. These bodies impose millions and millions in taxes on taxpayers (mostly...