Free Republic

Last night’s cloture vote on the Obama-Reid Big Government Healthcare Bill brought an end to any discussion of fiscal conservative or “moderate” Democrats. Two so-called moderate Democrats Ben Nelson and Arlen Specter betrayed taxpayers by violating their Taxpayer Protection Pledges and voting along with 58 other Democrats in support of the healthcare bill. (For a comprehensive list of all the tax hikes in this bill, click here.) They were the only remaining Democrat Pledge Signers not to have violated their Pledges on at least one occasion. House Democrats including Brad Ellsworth, Ben Chandler, Rob Andrews, and Gene Taylor have all...

Explosive ramifications result from new evidence revealing the Muslim holy book has undergone a textual evolution Frontpage Interview’s guests today are Robert Spencer and Moorthy Muthuswamy. Moorthy Muthuswamy is an expert on terrorism in India. He grew up in India, where he had firsthand experience with political Islam and jihad. He moved to America in 1984 to pursue graduate studies. In 1992, he received a doctorate in nuclear physics from Stony Brook University, New York. Since 1999 he has extensively published ideas on neutralizing political Islam’s terror war as it is imposed on unbelievers. He is the author of the...

GOPer sets new push to oust tax-challenged RangelBy ISABEL VINCENT Last Updated: 2:54 PM, December 20, 2009 Where are Charlie Rangel's tax returns? That's the question Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) is asking as he threatens next month to lead a second attempt to strip the Harlem Democrat of his powerful post as Ways and Means Committee chairman. "Every tax attorney in the country will tell you that if a normal taxpayer committed the violations of Chairman Rangel, they would be assessed serious penalties and interest, if not charged with criminal tax evasion," Carter said. "This is about defending the rule...

When the Senate and House agree on a health care bill and if our tax money pays for ana portion directly or indirectly, I will revolt by not paying my personal taxes. I will prefer going to prison than have even one cent of my income pay for an abortion. I have been praying about this and other issues that affect my pro-life principles. If I call myself pro-life, then I must act on these principles in a way that will change my comfort level to the point of suffering. How many of us have fought with money and time...

As with many giants, it’s hard to cut Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac down to size. The government, which controls the mortgage behemoths, planned to shrink them by 10 percent in 2010. Don’t count on it. Failure is unthinkable, even though both companies still rely on a $400 billion equity life-line from taxpayers. These are institutions with a combined $1.5 trillion portfolio of mortgage-related investments. Without their supply of financing for home borrowers with good credit, house prices would be lower – and more banks would be in trouble. Yet in theory, Fannie and Freddie could still be allowed to...

The government has handed its ATM card to beleaguered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Treasury Department said Thursday it removed the $400 billion financial cap on the money it will provide to keep the companies afloat. Already, taxpayers have shelled out $111 billion to the pair, and a senior Treasury official said losses are not expected to exceed the government's estimate this summer of $170 billion over 10 years. Treasury Department officials said it will now use a flexible formula to ensure the two agencies can stand behind the billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities they sell...

[You may have to play around a bit to get the video to operate. Make sure you click "Full Program" or you might just get a 2-minute clip.] This 30 minute video (including about 17 minutes of Q & A) from several months ago is Richard Epstein's analysis of the bill proposed by the House. But the main regulatory features of that bill are the same as the one just passed by the Senate. The gist of Epstein's lecture is that the total effect of these insurance regulations is to kill private health insurance, so we will eventually all end...

The two chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could get paid as much as $6 million each for 2009, despite the companies’ dismal performance this year which cost taxpayers more than $100 billion. Fannie’s CEO, Michael Williams, and Freddie CEO Charles “Ed” Haldeman Jr. each will receive $900,000 in salary, $3.1 million in deferred payments next year and another $2 million if they meet certain performance goals, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The pay packages were approved by the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie

Any legislation that passes is bound to be costly -- but no one knows how costly it will be. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the Senate version will cost $1 trillion over the next decade. But then, when Medicare was originally passed in 1967, it was estimated that the hospital insurance (Part A) would cost about $9 billion annually by 1990. By 1990 the actual cost to the government was $67 billion! Since then, Medicare has been expanded to include catastrophic coverage and also Part D, prescription drug benefits. The point is simply that it's impossible to estimate future...

WHEELING -- Local tanning salon operators are upset over a last minute tax on their business in the health care reform bill. If the legislation passes in its current form, artificial sun worshipers would pay 10 percent more for a trip to the tanning beds.

Here are a few stories to bring holiday cheer for taxpayers. First, we have an Associated Press report that several hundred thousand federal bureaucrats have serious tax delinquencies. The Department of Housing and Urban Development always ranks high on the list of government entities that should be abolished, so it’s interesting to see that HUD bureaucrats are most likely to be dodging their taxes: More than 276,000 federal employees and retirees owed back income taxes as of Sept. 30, 2008, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service. The $3.04 billion owed was up from $2.7 billion owed by federal...

The purpose of the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution was only to limit the tax power of the Government. The words "General" and "Welfare" were not placed there to give the Government authority to spend on whatever they want (ie healthcare), they're there to simply make it known that the Government has to always spend for the country as a whole, not for some single group. The clause doesn't give the Government authority, it limits it!

RICHMOND | Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said Wednesday that a 1 percentage point increase in the state's income tax that he has proposed in his final weeks in office is the most responsible way to make up a nearly $2 billion shortfall in the state's finances. "I think the only other alternatives are draconian cuts that would squander Virginia's leadership position or kind of gimmicky 'Let's take a bunch of money out of the retirement fund' or 'Let's pull out the credit card and borrow a bunch of money.' But I think that would threaten our AAA bond rating," Mr....

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are poised to pass a landmark health care bill that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in U.S. history. Ahead lie complex talks with the House to reach final legislation in the new year. "We stand on the doorstep of history," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. "We recognize that, but much more importantly, we stand so close to making so many individual lives better." The vote Thursday on the bill extending health care coverage to some 31 million uninsured Americans brings Obama...

Do employers currently list the healthcare benefits paid to an employee on their W2s? Trying to clarify an arguement. Thank you in advance. PS, I hope I put this thread in the right place.

There is a lot of confusion out there today over how the first time home buyer tax credit extension figures into the Commerce Department's report on sales of new construction. "New Home Sales," as we call it, plummeted 11 percent, quite unexpectedly, after another rise in "Existing Home Sales" yesterday. Let's look at timing, shall we?

It has, however, been on the back burner for a while, because the Nevada Vision Stakeholders Group didn't schedule a meeting in December. But as Doug Busselman of the Farm Bureau reports today, the NVSG's first meeting will be on Jan. 8, 2010, literally right around the corner. Doug's also an alternate member of the Stakeholders Group, so be sure to read his thoughts on the process. Here's his most important takeaway. Hopefully, with a strong citizen turn-out and input for non-governmental alternatives in the quality-of-life visioning we might be able to establish more of a balanced viewpoint than what...

Taxes and fees will kick in first, most benefits come later under Dems' health care billBy RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR , Associated Press Last update: December 23, 2009 - 8:38 AM WASHINGTON - The costs of health care reform being pushed through Congress by Democrats will be felt long before the benefits. Proposed taxes and fees on upper-income earners, insurers, even tanning parlors, take effect quickly. So would Medicare cuts. Benefits, such as subsidies for lower middle-income households, consumer protections for all, and eliminating the prescription coverage gap for seniors, come gradually. "There's going to be an expectations gap, no question about...

The desperate demand for dollars expresses itself in many ways. Shane Goldmacher and Evan Halper report for LaTi: Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for deep reductions in already suffering local mass transit programs, renew his push to expand oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast and appeal to Washington for billions of dollars in federal help, according to state officials and lobbyists familiar with the plan. If Washington does not provide roughly $8 billion in new aid for the state, the governor threatens to severely cut back -- if...

The Internal Revenue Service today issued proposed regulations under a new law that will require reporting of basis and other information by stock brokers and mutual fund companies for most stock purchased in 2011 and all stock purchased in 2012 and later years. The reporting will be to investors and the IRS. This additional reporting will be optional for stock purchased prior to these dates. “This important reporting change will improve tax compliance while reducing the recordkeeping and paperwork burden for millions of investors,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “These taxpayers will now receive the information they need to more...

State Changes to Individual Income TaxesIncreasesCalifornia in May added 0.25% to each income tax bracket, retroactive to January 1, 2009 and expiring December 31, 2010. Connecticut in September added a new top bracket of 6.5% on income over $500,000, retroactive to January 1, 2009. Delaware in June added a new top rate of 6.95% on income over $60,000 retroactive to January 1, 2009. Hawaii in May added three new brackets retroactive to January 1, 2009: 9% on income over $150,000; 10% on income over $175,000; and 11% on income over $200,000. New Jersey in June added three new brackets retroactive...

President Obama praised the Senate yesterday for clearing a 60-40 procedural vote on his health plan in the dead of night and "standing up to the special interests who've prevented reform for decades and who are furiously lobbying against it now." They're furiously lobbying all right—not against ObamaCare but for the sundry preferences in the Senate bill. Start with the special tax carve-outs included in the "manager's amendment" that Harry Reid dropped Saturday morning. White House budget director Peter Orszag has claimed that the bill's 40% excise tax on high-cost insurance plans is key to reducing health costs. Yet the...

President Barack Obama told Congress Wednesday the public option would be part of an insurance exchange for last resort...

All details and information, including info on buses and hotels, will be found on the primary planning hub at http://www.TaxDayTeaParty.com

And she says this with a straight face, smiling....Claire Acorn McCaskill complains about possibly missing Christmas morning with her family because of the GOP, and says the Am. People will be please once they know what's in the Health Care Bill...(Video)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 "Democrats Ensure America Will No Longer Be the Last Best Hope of Earth" by Dennis Prager SNIPPET: "As the passage of the bill that will start the process of nationalizing health care in America becomes almost inevitable, so, too, the process of undoing America's standing as The Last Best Hope of Earth will have begun." SNIPPET: "Just as the left has waged war on America's Judeo-Christian roots, it has waged war on individual liberty and responsibility." SNIPPET: "Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are right about one thing -- they are indeed making history. But...

PDF VersionList of tax hikes in original Reid billManager's AmendmentCBO Score of Manager’s AmendmentJCT Score of Manager’s Amendment(Page numbers reference ORIGINAL REID-OBAMA BILL unless noted): .... =======> Please check out the ATR.org piece...

The story of the virgin birth--Joseph, Mary and Jesus--is told often at this time of the year. The book of Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem because Caesar Augustus decreed that a census should be taken. Mary delivered the baby after arriving in Bethlehem and "placed [baby Jesus] in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Conventional wisdom assumes that Mary and Joseph were somehow mistreated by a greedy, evil capitalist innkeeper. This hearsay is repeated in just about every play, skit or sermon on the subject, with nothing to back...

Doctors were able to surgically remove the so-called Botax from the Senate's health-care overhaul bill and replace it with a 10% tax on tanning services. "We suggested that the tanning tax would be a better alternative to the cosmetic tax and hopefully will reduce the incidence of skin cancer down the road," said David M. Pariser, president of the American Academy of Dermatology Association, which represents dermatologists. The American Medical Association had also opposed the proposed 5% tax on cosmetic procedures -- dubbed the Botax after the antiwrinkle product Botox -- which was among the issues it wanted changed by...

The Democrats are VERY happy they got the 60-40 Health Care Reform (HCR) vote, but instead of thinking that they have a political victory, the Dems should wait until... ... Until more voters notice that some Senators voted for the bill mainly because they secured special treatments for their State on the backs of others states. ... Until State taxes and fees will go up for everyone (including the poor) in most states, due to higher Health Care costs that this bill puts on most States. ... Until seniors notice that Medicare will go through very steep cuts in the...

If you are under 30, you really need to read this column and pass it on to your friends. Your elected officials are dooming you to a new sort of bondage, a form of 21st Century slavery, if you will. First, some background. On October 16, 1854, Abraham Lincoln, then a former one-term Congressman, gave a three hour speech in Peoria, Illinois in which he decried the extension of slavery into the territories. The Republican Party was barely three months old. Lincoln warned that slavery was a “monstrous injustice” based on the raw principle of “self-interest” at odds with the...

The Newest Tax in Our Brand New Lineup! Get yours today! "Consider the so-called Wall Street Tax. The label is a misnomer, because it is a tax on anyone who buys and sells securities rather than on Wall Street brokers. Obama very much wants to implement this tax, and he has the support of his liberal economists and many congressional Democrats."

Even according to Politifact (one of the most liberal "fact-checkers" in existence), Obama has already broken nine separate campaign promises since taking office less than a year ago. He has also "compromised" on 18 others. But if the "post-partisan" candidate for "change" signs this blatantly illegal, trillion-dollar health care takeover into law, he will be blatantly violating not just another campaign promise, but the one he built his entire candidacy on in 2008. Responding to allegations that he fully intended to raise taxes on regular working people, he said the following on the campaign trail: I can make a firm...

Health Care: Democrats on the take and in the dead of night pass an execrable piece of legislation that they haven't read, the public doesn't want and only socialists could love. What has happened to this country? If we hadn't stayed up past midnight Sunday, we wouldn't have known what was going on. Here we thought a vote on the proposed health care overhaul wasn't going to take place until Thursday night — Christmas Eve. But there they were, the United States Senate, at 1 a.m. Monday, rushing to vote in the middle of a snowstorm to close debate on...

The article is by a business woman with guts as we all know that this new Imperial government that we have will come down on her. She states the facts about how Obama is destroying small business and how all of his appointees seem to be Marxists, with links to videos and articles. A bit scary the Marxist links and references but most I've seen here, though not the business aspects and taxes.

Obama's Planned 400% Excise Rip Off Tax Politics / US Politics Dec 21, 2009 - 05:09 AM By: Michael_S_Rozeff The Wall Street Journal brings more bad news. A headline reads "Lawmakers Weigh a Wall Street Tax." The first mention of this was in October. The proposal has not died as Congress seeks new ways to finance its profligate spending. Both houses are considering legislation. The tax would fall on financial exchanges of all kinds. It is not a tax on Wall Street. It is a tax on anyone who buys and sells securities. James Tobin originated the notion in the...

Barack Obama's quest for historic health-care legislation has turned into a parody of leadership. We usually associate presidential leadership with the pursuit of goals that, though initially unpopular, serve America's long-term interests. Obama has reversed this. He's championing increasingly unpopular legislation that threatens the country's long-term interests. "This isn't about me," he likes to say, "I have great health insurance." But of course, it is about him: about the legacy he covets as the president who achieved "universal" health insurance. He'll be disappointed. Even if Congress passes legislation -- a good bet -- the finished product will fall far short...

My Friend Kerry Picket of the Washington Times reports that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island believes that the Republicans who are opposing Obamacare are doing so to appeal to the worst elements in the United States: They are desperate to break this president. They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist. That is one powerful reason. It is not the only one." Sorry Senator, I...

Small Business Tax & ToilSmall business owners, like myself, pay twice as much in Social Security and Medicare Taxes as regular employees. Yet when we ask for a payroll tax cut on our own pay, what we get from the government is a crackdown on regional banks to give us more loans. Aside from the fact that 140 of these banks have failed since January 16, 2009 (here), what Obama's Cluelessian economists fail to understand is that wealth is not created through amassing debt.If Obama wants to run the Federal Government based on the myth that wealth is created through...

Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback,” as the GOP is calling it, got all the attention Saturday, but other senators lined up for deals as Majority Leader Harry Reid corralled the last few votes for a health reform package. Nelson’s might be the most blatant – a deal carved out for a single state, a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska, meaning federal taxpayers have to kick in an additional $45 million in the first decade. But another Democratic holdout, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), took credit for $10 billion in new funding for community health centers, while...

President Obama returned to the White House from the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen in the wee hours of this morning, having secured a modest, non-binding, three-page deal aimed at combating global warming. After getting a wee bit of rest, Obama by early afternoon had set his sights on getting a climate bill out of the Senate that, he claims, will curb carbon emissions and, to boot, create new jobs by fostering new industries. In a statement, Obama first lauded his accomplishments in Copenhagen and then focused his attention on Capitol Hill. "For the first time in history … the...

Proposed changes to the U.S. Senate's pending healthcare reform bill include measures targeting industry profits and taxes, and a move to ensure health insurers spend a certain amount on medical care, according to a document released on Saturday. The changes, proposed as a group of amendments, must be approved by the Senate before they can be added to the massive legislation that lawmakers are struggling to finish before Christmas despite delaying tactics by Republicans and a severe snowstorm in the nation's capital. Democrats appear to have pulled together the 60 votes needed to pass a final bill. The taxes are...

For all the good that the G-20 Summit did for Pittsburgh's national image, the city's proposed tuition tax on local college students might as well be another big belch of steel mill smoke hiding Southwestern Pennsylvania from world view. The so-called "Fair Share Tax" will, according Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, help raise money needed to pay pensions for retired city employees. But while Pittsburgh does need to make good on the promise made to public employees in the past, the proposed 1% tuition tax tacked onto the substantial financial burden college students already carry won't help. At best, the revenue...

Some mortgage insurers and lenders are beginning to relax their down-payment requirements, in a sign of increased confidence in the housing market. The changes, which are being done on a market-by-market basis, mean buyers in some parts of the country can now borrow 95% instead of 90% of a property's value. Until recently, mortgage companies had tighter standards for these markets because of falling home prices "We are feeling better about the economic condition of the marketplace," said Michael Zimmerman, senior vice president of investor relations at mortgage insurer MGIC Insurance Corp. Borrowers who want to finance more than 80%...

<p>Drink, drive, crack up the car...and write off the damage on your tax return.</p> <p>For one taxpayer, that scenario became reality after he appealed a decision by the Internal Revenue Service.</p> <p>The U.S. Tax Court last week allowed the driver of a car to write off thousands of dollars of damage after he totalled it while under the influence.</p>

Propostions 66 and 67 have been put on the ballot to reverse tax increase enacted by the Oregon legislature earlier this year. The vote is in late January. A "no" vote is a vote against the taxes. I'm looking for how I can join the "No" campaign, but I can't find a website for it. The other side is much more organized. Can someone help me with this?

I just finished reading Sarah Palin's excellent book (number one on the New York Times bestseller list), "Going Rogue - An American Life." In one of the last chapters, I came across a passage in which Palin references the writings of Thomas Sowell. Thomas Sowell is a well-known syndicated columnist and academic economist. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford. Palin writes about Sowell's book "A Conflict of Visions." In this publication, Sowell explains how "visions" shape our opinions and the way we look at social and political issues. Sowell calls these visions the "unconstrained"...

Despite talk about easing burdens on businesses to encourage them to create jobs, companies in Virginia will be paying more in taxes come Jan. 1. The state unemployment tax that businesses pay on each employee will be going up, from an average of $95 per employee per year to an average of $171 a year in 2010, $234 in 2011 and $263 in 2012. The tax goes into the fund the state uses to pay unemployment benefits... When the unemployment fund gets low, it triggers an automatic increase in the tax. The increase is determined by a formula. Virginia Employment...

Updated December 18, 2009Democratic Holdout Controls Fate of Senate Health Care Bill FOXNews.com Saturday: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska is a Democratic moderate who voted to begin debate on health care legislation. (AP Photo) As Democrats race against the clock to pass a sweeping health care bill before Christmas, Sen. Ben Nelson, the only known Democratic holdout, has positioned himself to play Santa or the Grinch.The Nebraska Democrat is pushing to include air-tight restrictions on abortion funding in the bill, but that's not all he wants.Because of the $465 billion in Medicare cuts included in the Senate bill, Nelson wants...

Every you-know-who may not know it; but the truth is that the orgiastic spree of the past year notwithstanding, Washington’s appetite for taxing and spending still is and forever will be shamelessly prodigal and rapaciously insatiable. But every you and who in the nation ought to demand that taxes be painful. After all, the following statement by the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has crucially important applications far beyond medicine: “The purpose of pain is to warn you of impending injury, or injury that has already occurred.” The unhappy truths about the VAT revealed, it is now time to identify those who...