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Obama promised not to raise taxes. If he signed this bill into law, he would break his promise...

There's something the Democratic lawmakers who are pushing cap-and-trade legislation don't want the public to know. The controversial climate-change legislation winding its way through Congress will impose a massive new national gas tax on the American people. We discovered this by analyzing what the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill would do to gas prices and what Americans spend on gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. We found that cap-and-trade legislation will levy a $3.6 trillion gas-tax increase that will impact every American and important segments of our economy. Americans travel more than 200 million vehicle miles each month, and annually we spend nearly...

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...

(CNSNews.com) - Appearing on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” yesterday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner floated President Obama’s next big move: a tax increase on middle-class Americans. Geithner made it clear during the interview that the administration believes that new federal revenues are needed and he declined to rule out raising taxes on Americans earning less than $250,000 per year to get those revenues. During the interview, host George Stephanopoulos pointed out to Geithner that the “Congressional Budget Office estimates that your budget will add $9 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.” Stephanopoulos also noted that former...

President Barack Obama has insisted that comprehensive health care reform be passed this year, but the administration’s chief spokesman would not say on Monday whether Obama supports a House Democratic proposal to increase income taxes by $540 billion to pay for the “deficit-neutral” health reform plan the president wants. “I have been asked virtually every week since taking this job to comment on individual tax proposals,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told CNSNews.com. “I’ll begin whatever week of my tenure this is by saying that the president has laid out what he thinks the best proposals are. You know...

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump...As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million. Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once...

More tax insanity. This time it's from Oregon.

Some (many?) Massachusetts politicians simply refuse to leave your money alone. State Senators Sonia Chang-Diaz and Jamie Eldridge now say it’s time to consider an increase in the state income tax. “It’s a difficult situation, and there are no easy solutions,” Chang-Diaz and Eldridge state. “But the tool to solve this budget crisis does exist, if we are willing to show the political leadership (emphasis mine) to use it: an increase in the personal income tax. “Of course, reforms are still necessary, and it’s up to the Legislature to examine every expenditure and measure it against our priorities for public...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration proposed on Monday to raise nearly $60 billion by closing loopholes including those related to the estate tax, and also revived a bid to cap deductions wealthy individuals can claim. Funds raised from the estate tax and other changes would go to beef up a healthcare reserve fund, a $634 billion pot of money President Barack Obama wants to use to revamp the healthcare system and expand insurance to tens of millions of Americans who lack it. The proposals "take on what we believe are a series of unjustifiable loopholes, unjustifiable tax breaks that...

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich today blasted his successor Pat Quinn's tax plans as "predictable", part of what he alleges was a scheme cooked up with legislative leaders before he was "hijacked from office." The appearance on WLS radio's "Don Wade and Roma Show" marked Blagojevich's first foray into the world of political commentary, since he was ousted in disgrace in January. "He doesn't have to raise taxes, and he can cut taxes," Blagojevich declared, saying there are enough savings to be found in state spending to balance the budget without going directly to taxpayers for more money.

Complaining that they already have been hit hard by the ailing economy, many Inland bar owners are upset by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to raise taxes on cocktails, beer and wine purchased at bars. "It's awful," said Paula Jones, owner of Arts Bar & Grill in downtown Riverside. Business has dropped 30 percent the past year, the worst decline Jones has seen in 25 years of owning the bar, she said. The nickel-a-drink tax is part of Schwarzenegger's plan to solve a nearly $40 billion state budget shortfall projected through June 2010. If approved by the Legislature in the coming...

Runaway borrowing to trigger tax rises By Chris Giles and George Parker Published: November 20 2008 23:45 | Last updated: November 20 2008 23:45 Annual public borrowing is set to rocket towards £120bn over the next two years – far higher than City forecasts – forcing Alistair Darling to announce plans for deferred tax rises and public spending curbs when he presents his pre-Budget report next week. Treasury officials say the “mammoth shock” to the economy will cause tax revenues to fall far below previous government forecasts, even before the chancellor announces what is promised to be a “decisive” temporary...

McCain, Obama, Lieberman, and Biden have voted for the bailout. No word yet on Graham.

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County's mass transit agency this month will likely ask county supervisors to put a half-cent sales tax increase measure on November's ballot, a move aimed at raising tens of billions of dollars to build a Los Angeles subway extension and other projects. While a recent poll shows general voter support for the transportation tax hike, the five county supervisors, who are members of the 13-member Metro board, are not advocating the increase. And the whole thing could go up in smoke if a related bill by Assemblyman Mark Feuer doesn't make it past state lawmakers....

Official testifies in TABOR lawsuit that more money collected as a result of mill levy freeze. State treasurer Cary Kennedy conceded today on the witness stand that a bill passed last year by the legislature alters the way taxes are calculated with the net result that many property owners pay more. But Kennedy continued to insist the 2007 law, SB 199, does not violate Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Kennedy's testimony came on the second day of a lawsuit brought by opponents of the 2007 law. They say SB 199 should have been referred to voters under TABOR provisions. The...

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) recently sent out an email which highlights one area where the difference between Republicans and Democrats still remains stark: raising taxes. As Congressman Cantor relates: Before adjourning for recess, House Democrats passed the largest tax-hike in American history; a rate hike that will soak an average of $3,120 from every family. In an economy reeling from a slowing housing and job market, this is a burden that American families and small business owners simply cannot afford. Let’s be clear – this Democrat tax hike raises the tax burden of every American, particularly the middle-class. Cantor then...

OAKLAND (BCN) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that "everything is on the table," including tax hikes, to help the state deal with its budget crisis and try to minimize or eliminate reductions in spending on education. Speaking to reporters in Oakland, where he announced $394 million in funding for transit projects statewide, Schwarzenegger said that when he announced his proposed budget in January, "I was the first one who said the worst idea is to cut any money from education and we must do everything we can to learn from mistakes that were made in the past." Schwarzenegger said...

Senate Democrats say California should raise taxes instead of adopting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to cut billions from education spending next year. Senate leader Don Perata suggests a temporary sales tax boost and ending some tax breaks for businesses. The Democrats say they will not approve classroom cuts even if it stalls efforts to trim the state's multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Education is facing an estimated $4.3 billion cut for the budget year that begins in July. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear says the Republican governor does not like cutting schools but thinks taxes already are high enough. Perata and other Democratic...

"It was not Groundhog Day at Gov. Jon S. Corzine's latest town hall meeting in Ocean County - it was Flying Pig Day. While not forced to endlessly repeat the events of last month's town-hall meeting in Cape May County - no protesters were arrested this time - the governor received plenty of heckles and catcalls at Saturday's event at the Toms River North High School in Toms River Township, including one protest by a group calling itself the Ocean County Flying Pigs Club. Just like in his other stops, Corzine tried to ramp up support for his Financial Restructuring...

A Democratic lawmaker in New Mexico wants to tax televisions and video games to raise funds to fight childhood obesity and improve education in the state, officials said Friday. "I have asked our legislative council service to prepare the "Leave No Child Inside" bill and am hopeful that it will be ready for me to introduce on Monday," educator-turned-lawmaker Gail Chasey told AFP. "Leave No Child Inside" -- a play on the federal education initiative "No Child Left Behind" -- is backed by grassroots environmental group, the Sierra Club. "The bill proposes levying a one-percent excise tax on the purchase...

Hillary Clinton said that if she became president, the federal government would take a more active role in the economy, in an effort to address what she said were the excesses of the market and the Bush administration. She told the New York Times she would put her emphasis on issues like inequality and the role of institutions like government, rather than market forces, in addressing them. She said that economic excesses -- including executive-pay packages she characterized as often "offensive" and "wrong" and a tax code that had become "so far out of whack" in favoring the wealthy --...

Gov. Tim Kaine yesterday announced a plan to expand health care coverage to thousands of uninsured, low-income Virginians as the state faces a projected $641 million budget shortfall. "One in seven Virginians still lack health insurance because their employers don"t provide it or because they cannot afford it," Mr. Kaine said. "As more citizens rely on our health care safety net for their most basic health needs, we must strengthen that system." Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, said the two-year budget that he plans to present to the General Assembly on Monday will include about $25.5 million in new health care...

Charles Rangel has offered up his prescription for tax reform. He refers to it as “The Mother of All Tax Bills.” He claims that his bill restores tax fairness and makes the wealthy pay “their fair share.” This congressional balloon juice is not only disingenuous, it is also wrong. What Charlie Rangel proposes is the Mother of all unjustified pay cuts. By repealing the tax cuts passed by George W. Bush, Charles Rangel takes thousands of dollars out of the pockets of the average American wage earner. In the State of Virginia, Rangle’s Bill will cost the average family $2,487....

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani ruled out a tax increase Wednesday to help shore up Social Security, a slight shift in position designed to reassure anti-tax conservatives. The former New York mayor also said the best remedy for the current housing slump would be for Congress to make President Bush's tax cuts permanent, adding that would "do much much more for the economy than a tailored bailout." In an appearance before the Club for Growth, he said that as mayor of New York, he had cut spending by more than "any contemporary of mine in the 1990s" in...

When Republicans passed major tax relief packages in 2001 and 2003, we predicted that a booming economy, new jobs for millions of Americans, and an increase in investment and innovation would result. The past several years have proved our theory correct: When government gets out of the way, the American people will get to work. The 2001 and 2003 tax reductions have spurred more than five years of uninterrupted growth. The economy grew at a robust 3.4 percent in the second quarter of 2007. Productivity growth has averaged 2.8 percent since 2001, considerably above the average of each of the...

An unelected body, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, (NVTA) is set to implement completely unprecedented and controversial taxing powers for road projects, two thirds of which will not be identified until late November or early December. The NVTA wants more taxing power from the General Assembly in 2008, eminent domain authority to take homes, businesses, and land, and power to relocate utilities. Proposed Taxes and Fee Increases: - Tax on home sales will increase an additional 40 cents per $100 bringing the total state and local grantor/recordation taxes to 86.66 cents per $100, up from 46.66 cents per $100 ($3,467...

The average American family will have to pay an extra $2,641 a year if President Bush's 2003 tax cuts are allowed to expire -- but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats have given no indication they plan to extend the cuts. "The mugging will lift $3.3 trillion from purses and wallets because the 2003 cuts will begin expiring soon," Ernest Istook – a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation – writes in the Washington Post. "The budget resolution moving through Congress is the blueprint for what's coming. Higher spending – by...

Gov. Tim (Eyebrow) Kaine was protested by a group of Roanoke-area taxpayers today, as he attended Raleigh Court Elementary School on his "easy listening" tour. He was apparently listening to school kids, rather than taxpayers and voters. The group took issue with Kaine's campaign promise to not raise taxes, a promise he immediately broke during his first year in office. Also, one member of the group sat in the Tim Kaine Rocking Chair. The group objects to the fact that Kaine has done nothing while the General Assembly hammered out a Transportation Plan. Kaine now plans radical changes to it...

New taxes fuel Rendell's $27.3 billion budget By PETER JACKSON Associated Press Writer HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Gov. Ed Rendell asked Pennsylvania lawmakers Tuesday to approve higher taxes for consumers, employers, tobacco users and waste haulers to help finance a $27.3 billion budget that includes initiatives in health care, energy and property-tax relief. Rendell also suggested the possibility of leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private operator and levying a new tax on oil-company profits to raise the necessary $1.7 billion for highway and bridge improvements and mass transportation. The budget, the first of Rendell's second term, also calls for...

HARRISBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell is expected to outline a state spending plan today that will boost an array of taxes to fund health care reforms, property-tax reductions and other programs. Though the governor has been tight-lipped on details, in recent days he has revealed plans to: # Increase the 6 percent sales tax, perhaps to 7 percent, to fund property tax cuts for homeowners. These cuts would be in addition to any property-tax relief expected to come from slot-machine revenues. # Boost the state’s $1.35-a-pack cigarette tax by 10 or 11 cents and put a new tax on cigars...

President George W. Bush's proposed health insurance tax deduction plan would cost the federal government $30 billion to $40 billion annually in the near term, but would turn revenue positive around 2013, U.S. Treasury officials said on Tuesday....

...Specifically, Bush proposed changing how spending on health insurance is taxed, and reallocating federal funds to help those states with affordable insurance subsidize low-income and hard-to-insure people. "When it comes to healthcare, government has an obligation to care for the elderly, the disabled, and poor children," the president said. "We will meet those responsibilities. For all other Americans, private health insurance is the best way to meet their needs. But many Americans cannot afford a health insurance policy."... Initially, only 20 percent of those who are covered through work will see a tax increase, according to White House estimates. But...

Last night, the House passed a tax hike for the first time in 13 years. It was a bill that specifically sticks it to oil companies. As noted in the previous post, the final tally was 264-163, with 36 Republicans siding with the Democrats to vote YES, and 4 Democrats siding with the Republicans to vote NO. Meanwhile, Dan Clifton at Americans for Tax Reform sent me the following list of congressmen who broke their pledge never to raise taxes by voting YES on the bill. Those in italics are Democrats.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- The House voted this evening to rescind $14 billion worth of tax breaks and subsidies for oil drillers and channel the money into a fund that would finance renewable energy projects and new technologies for conserving energy. Despite opposition from the oil industry and the Bush administration, which contended that the bill would unfairly single out oil companies for higher taxes and could increase the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, the measure passed, 264 to 163, with overwhelming support from Democrats and a considerable number of Republicans as well. But the measure may face a tougher...

Texas' gasoline tax has been stuck at 20 cents per gallon since 1991. Unfortunately, the cost of building new roads and expanding existing ones is no longer anywhere near the levels of 1991. Fifteen years of inflation have sharply increased the cost of building new highways, as well as expanding and maintaining existing ones. In terms of purchasing power, the 20-cent gas tax is now worth only about 14 cents when adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, Texas' need for more roads is greatly expanding because of the population explosion that has occurred over the past 15 years and is expected to...

WASHINGTON – Just 56 days before crucial congressional elections, Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich yesterday repeated his call for a temporary tax increase, a position that places him at odds with Senate and House Republicans fighting for re-election. At a Senate hearing where Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff testified, Voinovich said Congress should approve "a temporary increase in our taxes" to pay for the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to defend the nation against terrorist attacks. Christopher Paulitz, a Voinovich spokesman, said the senator has not introduced a bill to raise taxes and "doesn’t have anything specific in...

TRENTON, N.J. - Republican Tom Kean Jr. can thank New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's unpopular budget proposals for his slight edge over Democrat Robert Menendez in the 2006 U.S. Senate race, according to a poll released Thursday. A Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll gives Kean Jr., a state senator, a 42-38 percent lead over Menendez, who was appointed by Corzine to serve out the remaining year of his U.S. Senate term. Last month, Menendez led Kean by five points in a PublicMind poll, 42-37 percent. Poll director Peter Woolley said that right now voters' preferences for the candidates are being...

(This announcement is from the liberal Senate Republicans) Senator Marty Williams ............ News Release ..... Virginia Senate Advances Transportation Finance Bill Part of a larger package of transportation initiatives including reform Richmond, VA - Feb. 17, 2006 Senator Marty Williams (R- Newport News), Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, praised the Senate vote of 34 - 6 which advanced the financing of the Senate's plan to overhaul the state's ailing transportation system. Following Friday morning's vote, he issued the following statement: Statement by Senator Williams With the passage of SB708 the Senate of Virginia has advanced a common sense plan...

The proposed budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled Tuesday is an election-year document that seeks to appease his enemies while doing as little as possible to offend his allies. The problem is that Schwarzenegger is out of political capital. He has little clout to impose his will on anyone, even if he cared to do so. And clearly, at least when it comes to the budget, he does not even want to try. Although the governor likes to talk about how so much of the budget is out of his control because of state laws and constitutional provisions, he did have...

Meet Edward G. Rendell, former Democratic National Committee chairman and a tax-and-spend liberal clone of Hillary Clinton. Is the governor of Pennsylvania subject to random drug testing? I'm beginning to worry about Ed Rendell. I think he's on something. How else do you explain his recent end-of-the-year news conference where he proclaimed a successful 2005 for his administration? I'm not sure Rendell is living on the same planet as 12 million other Pennsylvanians. Rendell appears to be the governor of the state of dementia. Rendell, the former Philadelphia mayor, Democratic National Committee chairman and supporter of Hillary Clinton, has completed...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top education advisor said the administration is prepared to consider raising taxes as part of a long-term solution to the problems plaguing California schools. The statement by California Education Secretary Alan Bersin came in a Dec. 1 speech to the California School Boards Assn. It was posted on the group's website Friday. His comments mark the first time any top administration official has acknowledged that new taxes could be needed to restore the quality of state services. "No one can look at the history of California education over the last generation and not notice we...

Opponents of Referendum C counted on voters rejecting a bigger tax bite, $3,100 for the average family in the next five years, under the pressure of high prices for gasoline, home heating, health care and housing. We appealed to people's skepticism that the Democrat-led legislature would use the new money responsibly. Polling even last weekend suggested proponents hadn't made the sale. But they surged to victory with the help of respected Republicans like Gov. Bill Owens, former party chairman Bruce Benson and University of Colorado president Hank Brown. Those heavy hitters outweighed the more numerous antitax Republican voices, including the...

WALNUT CREEK – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last night insisted his spending-control initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot is not a gubernatorial power grab that would produce draconian budget cuts, as opponents contend, and that it could actually lead to a tax increase. Struggling to gain traction for his four-part ballot agenda with two weeks to go until the special election, Schwarzenegger fielded questions for the first time during the campaign from voters not selected by his campaign. He and two of the most persistent critics of his agenda made separate appearances during a 90-minute forum. His opponents – state Senate...

President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut. "You bet it will cost money, but I'm confident we can handle it," he said. "It's going to cost whatever it's going to cost, and we're going to be wise about the money we spend," Bush said a day after laying out an expensive plan for rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast without spelling out how he would pay for it. Bush spoke at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin hours after attending a prayer service...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state's largest teachers union has dropped an initiative that would have poured billions of dollars into schools by raising property taxes on businesses, union officials said Thursday. Instead, the California Teachers Association will work with the opponents of the "Tax Fairness Act" to craft long-term solutions to school funding in the state, CTA president Barbara Kerr said. The CTA had gathered enough signatures - more than 900,000 - to qualify the initiative for the June 2006 ballot, Kerr said. It would have exempted California commercial and business properties from Proposition 13's rule that property value, upon...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A poll released Friday says that more Ohioans disapproved of the job Gov. Bob Taft is doing than any governor in the poll's 24-year history. The Ohio Poll, sponsored and conducted by the University of Cincinnati, found that 55 percent of those surveyed disapproved of the way Taft, a Cincinnati Republican, was handling his job. Thirty-four percent approved of Taft's job performance and 11 percent neither approved or disapproved. Taft's previous disapproval rating in the poll was 43 percent in February 2004. The telephone poll was taken March 21-April 10 among 846 adults statewide. It had a...

Some of those watching Gov. Mitch Daniels’ State of the State address Tuesday night seem to agree that Daniels did a fine job expressing himself, but they expect some of his proposals to be met with debate and controversy. Daniels’ focal points were the modernization of the government and improving the state’s financial situation, but he remained vague in his plans, said Dr. Doug Nelson, a professor of political science at Anderson University. “His first priority is deal with the budget deficit. It mostly was that and economic recovery in Indiana, which are pretty closely related,” Nelson said. “His plans...

President rules out increase in payroll taxes to pay for reforming 64-year-old retirement program. WASHINGTON (CNN) - Following a meeting with key advisers, President Bush promised Thursday he would not raise payroll taxes to help pay for overhauling Social Security."We will not raise payroll taxes to solve this problem," Bush told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Social Security experts."The problem is America is getting older and that there are fewer people to pay into the system to support a baby boomer generation which is about to retire," the president said.He again reassured retired Americans and those about...

Group has $1 million to help re-elections of tax-increase backers BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 17, 2004 Pro-tax business leaders have raised $1 million to help friends and afflict enemies in the 2005 legislative elections. Leadership for Virginia will be among the richest political action committees in the state, pumping money to centrist candidates for the House of Delegates in both parties - incumbents as well as challengers... ...Rhodes also dismissed suggestions by anti-tax Republicans that the growing surplus - perhaps $1 billion or more, according to the Warner administration - is evidence new taxes were unnecessary....

San Francisco voters rejected local sales and business tax increases, while two bond measures that would have raised property taxes to finance homeless and affordable housing development and preserve historic buildings failed to garner the two-thirds of the vote needed to pass, according to late election returns. Mayor Gavin Newsom had campaigned vigorously for the sales and business tax increases, calling them necessary to keep local government services intact.