Free Republic

Participants in a recent shale gas energy conference held in Hobbs, New Mexico, referred to a whirlwind trip to Lea County, NM, as “exhausting” but “enlightening.” Bradford County Commissioners Doug McLinko, Mark Smith, and Daryl Miller, Susquehanna County Commissioner Mary Ann Warren and Pennsylvania state Rep. Tina Pickett were among local elected officials to partake in discussions and serve as guests on informative panels.

TOWANDA - While Bradford County has experienced extensive gas drilling for a few years, what will it be like after the drilling has gone on for decades? The three Bradford County commissioners and other local officials had a chance to get a sense of what could happen when they traveled last week to participate in a two-day conference in Lea County, N.M.

If Mitt Romney's 2010 tax bill were merely his pretax income, he'd still be a member of the 1%—in other words, the government takes more of his wealth every year than 99% of Americans earn. But what the world really learned from the tax returns the GOP candidate released yesterday is that he is a walking argument for pro-growth tax reform. The details of Mr. Romney's six IRS schedules, eight forms and 69 income statements—totaling some 547 pages—are by now familiar. The Bain Capitalist made $21.7 million in 2010 and an estimated $20.9 million last year. He doesn't merely belong...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's jobs council called on Tuesday for a corporate tax overhaul, expanded domestic drilling and new regulatory reforms, a set of proposals unlikely to provide a quick fix for high unemployment or gain much traction in an election year. A panel of top U.S. business leaders advising Obama - whose re-election chances could hinge on whether he can boost the fragile economy - offered its latest job-creation prescriptions at a meeting with him at the White House. Obama pledged to "push as hard as possible" on their recommendations but also sought to temper expectations. "Obviously...

Herman Cain tells National Review Online that he will launch a new political-action committee in January. The outfit, whose final name remains under wraps, will be Cain’s main project next year. Its mission will be to enact his “9-9-9” economic plan. “We continue the campaign without a candidate,” says Cain, who hinted at the endeavor during his departure speech. “There are a lot of people who are willing to support the campaign for solutions without the end objective being my election as president of the United States.” As Cain transitions to private life, “Friends of Herman Cain,” the financial force...

U.S. Government Plans Tax-Reform Initiative... ... in Armenia!The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said this week that it expects to award an estimated $5-10 million, four-year contract to assist the Armenian government in the areas of: (a) revenue policy formulation, strategic planning, revenue analysis and tax policy review and simplification; and the appeals policies, procedures and implementation carried out by the Ministry of Finance and (b) improving the SRC strategic planning, human resource management and internal control processes to better administer taxes and to enhance taxpayer trust and compliance. [emphasis added] USAID intends to release a more detailed Request...

Tax reform proposals are the political equivalent of science fiction: entertaining but imaginary. No tax proposal ever passes through Congress unscathed. There are too many interests that believe their survival depends on tax preferences — hence the tax code's immutable tendency to accumulate complexities as a ship collects barnacles. Still, presidential candidates' tax proposals are useful windows into their philosophies. Should income taxes on the wealthy go up or down? Should income from investments be taxed at a different rate than income from labor? And should "tax reform," a goal everyone embraces, be used as a tool to shrink the...

With Rick Perry’s call for a 20% Flat Tax, the movement for fundamental, pro-growth tax reform became unstoppable. Perry, Herman Cain, and Mitt Romney are now the only viable candidates for the Republican presidential nomination remaining. With both Cain and Perry now offering dramatic pro-growth tax reform proposals, Romney will either jump on the tax reform bandwagon or be left in the dust (or possibly both). The only pro-growth tax cuts in Romney’s 59-point economic plan are a reduction in the corporate income tax rate to 25% (from 35% today) and the elimination of the death tax. However, both Perry...

According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 25% of Republican primary voters currently favor Businessman Herman Cain as the potential GOP presidential nominee, 21% prefer former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and the rest of the field is at 10% or less. But the real headline is that 80% of respondents say they have yet to make up their minds. While the hopes for an exciting late entry (Chris Christie, Sarah Palin, etc.) have been dashed, that 80% who have yet to give their final answer offer a huge opportunity for existing candidates near the back of the pack...

I can’t imagine a true patriot proposing a new tax, a national consumption tax which would tax every necessity of life, in addition to keeping corporate taxes and taxes on the working person’s wage. I also can’t imagine a true patriot proposing a new general tax among the States [Herman’s national sales tax] to feed the beast in Washington, and ignoring the rule of apportioning that tax among the States as required by our founding fathers clear intentions. The rule of apportioning any general tax among the States was adopted by our founders to cure a vicious evil of democracy....

Paul Ryan does a good job of offering a Republican tax reform response to Obama's jobs bill monster.

Anybody have an opinion on Herman Cain’s 999 tax reform plan? - It ends the Payroll Tax completely - Business Flat Tax – 9% - Gross income less all investments, all purchases from other businesses and all dividends paid to shareholders - Empowerment Zones will offer additional deductions for payroll employed in the zone - Individual Flat Tax – 9% - Gross income less charitable deductions - Empowerment Zones will offer additional deductions for those living and/or working in the zone - National Sales Tax – 9% I don’t like it. This puts into effect both an income tax and...

Despite the recent gains made in the debt limit negotiations, there is no amount of debt-shuffling that doesn't leave taxpayers footing the bill for Washington's spending problem. In its annual Cost of Government Day report, Americans for Tax Reform Foundation calculated that Americans worked until August 12 this year to pay for the full costs of government spending and regulation. The 'Cost of Government Day' report determines the day of the year on which the average Americans has made enough income to pay off the local, state and federal regulatory and spending burdens. This year, Americans work a full 224...

Every year, Americans for Tax Reform Foundation publishes its Cost of Government Day report, which calculates the day on the calendar year until which the average American must work to pay for the full costs of government spending and regulation. The study is available online at www.CostOfGovernmentDay.com “Highlights” of the report are as follows: Overall government burden: This year, Cost of Government Day falls on August 12, meaning Americans labor a full 224 days into the year to pay for local, state and federal government spending and regulations. Impact of Obama overspending: Americans have lost 29 days of the calendar...

The tax code has morphed from a device to fund essential government services into a tool to redistribute wealth. If we are going to redistribute wealth, everyone wants to be a winner, so it is no surprise that lobbyists are employed to gather more preferences and defend existing preferences. Effective tax rates on corporate income vary widely by industry, with petroleum, utilities and construction among the highest (30 percent to 33 percent) and some industries in single digits. The higher the statutory rate, the more valuable the preferences, and preferences breed complexity.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), arguably the most prominent fiscal conservative in the Senate, is declaring his independence from one of the country's leading anti-tax groups, Americans for Tax Reform - and its fiery founder, Grover Norquist.

One of the more intriguing new websites on the political blogoshere is POPVOX. POPVOX is an interactive site that enables individual citizens to weigh in on bills introduced into congress. You can vote for/against bills in the house or senate and you can also make a comment that will be displayed on the respective Bill Report page and forwarded to your respective representative/senator. POPVOX also has a mapping facility which shows where support\opposition to a bill is coming from geographically. You can drill down to CD level all the way up to state and national. HR 25 (The FairTax) made...

Washington, DC—On Wednesday, January 5, 2011, Congressman Rob Woodall (GA-07) introduced H.R. 25, the FairTax. The FairTax legislation eliminates the current income tax paradigm and replaces it with a system of taxation based on consumption. The bill was introduced on Wednesday with 47 original co-sponsors—the most original co-sponsors the bill has ever had for its initial introduction. “I committed to the Seventh District of Georgia that my efforts in Congress would focus on reclaiming freedom for the American people. It is for that reason that I am proud to make the FairTax—the only bill that restores transparency and simplicity to...

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s debt reduction task force led by Pete Domenici and Alice Rivlin has performed a public service by trying to build a consensus and for offering some worthy ideas to steer the nation away from a fiscal cliff. But here’s one set of statistics that sticks out like a sore thumb. The highest marginal income tax rate at the federal level would be about 42%, including the employer portion of payroll taxes, paid by individuals earning from $51,000 to the top of the raised ceiling for Social Security’s 12.4% payroll tax. That ceiling is now $106,800, but...

"Cuba has set income tax rates at 25 to 50 percent for its soon to be expanded private sector, with the biggest earners paying the most taxes," reported Reuters last week. It is telling that the tax rates of Cuban communists are now comparable with those in many so-called free countries. Below, for comparison, are individual tax rates for selected Western democracies: Denmark                     36.57 - 51.5% United Kingdom          0 - 50% Belgium                      25 - 50% Germany                     0 - 45% France                         5.5 - 40% Austria                        21 - 50% Germany                     0 - 45% Japan                           5- 40% High as they...

After months of work and anticipation, [Puerto Rico] Gov. [Luis] Fortuño finally unveiled his administration’s comprehensive tax reform. At the center of the measure is an across-the-board reduction in the individual tax bracket that would result in a 49-percent overall savings in six years. Corporate reductions are slated to reach 30 percent. The cornerstone of the tax modification is the reduction of the income tax brackets. People making less than $20,000 would not pay any tax. The bracket of those making $20,001 to $30,000 would be taxed 7 percent. From $30,001 to $70,000, the allocation would be 14 percent. The...

Here’s the pitch: The FairTax — a plan to replace the federal income tax and payroll tax with a national sales tax — will get rid of the IRS forever. It will let workers keep their entire paychecks and retirees keep their entire pensions. It will raise just as much money as the current tax code. It will promote economic growth. It won’t hurt the middle class, and it won’t cause prices to rise. It will even end our illegal-immigration problem. These claims are drawn from the leading proponents of the plan: a group called Americans for Fair Taxation, former...

We are speeding toward an economic cliff because our government can't practice restraint. We spend so much more than we take in because politicians at every level use the public treasury to win elections. The public mostly accepts lavish promises of more and more federal spending because the cost of government has been so effectively divorced from what actually comes out of our paychecks. Ask almost anyone how they did on their taxes and you're likely to hear a happy exclamation that the taxpayer got a little money back! But ask the same person how much they paid the government...

Some people are fighting for a fair tax, replacing our income tax structure with a VAT, a Value Added Tax(country wide sales tax). Others argue for a Flat tax, one tax rate on income for everybody, no deductions etc. Both sides are fighting for the same basic concept. simplify the way the federal government collects taxes. America's Tax Structure is just so complicated and is getting more complicated every day. The best proof for this argument was made by IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman on C-Span (video at bottom of post).

SHANGHAI — China has overtaken the U.S. as the world's biggest market for automobiles, the first time any other country has bought more vehicles than the nation that produced Henry Ford, the Cadillac and the minivan. Now that the Chinese buy more cars and trucks than Americans, the shift could produce ripples for the environment, gas prices and even the kinds of cars automakers design. More than 12.7 million cars and trucks will be sold in China this year, up 44 percent from the previous year and surpassing the 10.3 million forecast in the U.S., according to J.D. Power and...

Tolerance is the mother who softens the harshness of father’s strict adherence to the rules. Since nobody’s perfect, lawmakers and judges should guard against legal surprises never anticipated by lawmakers. This isn’t rewriting the decrees but interpretation in the highest sense of the word so the law can accomplish its original intent. “Who can say “I have purified my heart, I am free of sin? There is no man on earth so righteous that he never sins!” Proverbs 20:9 Below are some suggestions for lawmakers and judges to bring about a more just country: Intolerance-Justice should be based on each...

The Tax Preparation Industry Allie Winegar Duzett, October 15, 2009 Can you believe that it can cost you more to pay your taxes than you actually pay in taxes? “Last year, Americans spent more than $250 billion on tax preparation,” Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com told the audience at the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) summit on Defending the American Dream, held on October 3, 2009. “It costs us twice as much to comply with the tax code as it costs us in taxes, total,” Morrissey asserted, illustrating his point that our current tax system is “ridiculous.” “Ironically, what prompted our Founding...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2009 AT 5:59 AM Streaming at 12:30: PERAB Meeting on Tax Reform Posted by Austan Goolsbee Today, the tax subgroup of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) will hold a meeting to gather ideas on tax reform. It will be the first of several such meetings. The meeting will center on tax simplification and will be live streamed at www.whitehouse.gov/live. I wanted to take the opportunity to explain why we assembled this subgroup, what areas the PERAB tax reform subgroup will focus on...

RUSH: You want to hear the table of contents in the Max Baucus bill? This is the one everybody's all excited about now, Gang of Six in there, three Republicans, three Democrats. Remember, now, Baucus announced yesterday part of his plan is a fine of up to 3,800 bucks on citizens via the IRS if you don't have health insurance. It's going to be mandatory just like automobile insurance is. ... "Section I: Health systems savings." There are four chapters. "Ensuring appropriate payment. Capturing productivity gains. Reducing geographic variation in spending, and modifying beneficiary contributions." "Section II: Options for Modifying...

Mansfield North Central Ohio Take Back America! Tea Party Saturday, July 4, 2009, NOON-2:00 PM Central Park GAZEBO, Downtown Mansfield Corner of Main Street & Park Avenue Join patriots in our area and across the country who will be participating inTea Party rallies in front of their city halls.Featured Speakers: Lt. Col. Gene Berger, USAF Retired, Combat Pilot, Vietnam Thom Collier, Former State Rep. Dist. 93 & 90, State Senate Candidate Dist. 19 Maureen Collins, Concerned Citizen Dr. Patricia Lydy, D.C., Lydy Chiropractic Clinic Dennis Oleksa, USAF Veteran Pastor Brian Phillips, Cornerstone Freewill Baptist Church Dean Shoup, Shoup’s Plumbing and...

In today’s Washington Post, the White House floats a really scary trial balloon—a new national Value-Added Tax (VAT) to pay for out-of-control spending and a Washington take over of health care. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad appears to be on board. So does Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel, who has been hired by the White House budget office to help design the health care plan and whose book on health care uses a VAT to fund the new government program. Obama economic adviser Paul Volcker is also on-board the VAT-train. ————— "We need to draw...

WASHINGTON – Social Security and Medicare are fading even faster under the weight of the recession, heading for insolvency years sooner than previously expected, the government warned Tuesday. Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, a year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner, trustees reported. Medicare is in even worse shape.

JUST as the econ omy begins show ing glimmers of a turnaround, here comes President Obama with a "tax-reform" effort that's sure to sock the stock prices and after-tax profits of many of the biggest US employers. Obama's $190 billion business-tax hike will hit Americans whose jobs and pensions depend on these companies doing well, and will increase pressure on already struggling colleges and hospitals. Why? Because millions of individual investors hold the companies' stocks in their portfolios, mutual funds and pension funds, as do many colleges, hospitals, museums and other institutions in their endowments. Among the important employers in...

Do you know what the word "income" means? My large Webster's dictionary is able to provide a clear and comprehensive definition in a mere 52 words. The shortest definition the Internal Revenue Service could provide in response to my request for its definition was 140 words - but the word income was included 10 times, missing the point that you do not include the word to be defined as part of the definition. You may have read that President Obama has just appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker to head a panel to make recommendations for tax reform....

A ny American who's fretted through filling out his or her income tax returns, churned through the confusing TurboTax online maze or plopped their shoe boxes of receipts down on their H&R Block representatives' desk has to be mumbling today, "There's got to be a better way." A predicted half million frustrated taxpayers will hit the streets nationwide today - the day that tax returns are due - to vent about increasing tax rates, wasteful spending, trillion dollar bailouts and debt being thrust onto our kids and grandkids. But after all the spouting, will anything change in the way we...

Our current income tax system, inaugurated in 1913 with the adoption of the 16th Amendment, began with a 1 percent tax on taxable income above $3,000 ($4,000 for married couples). A series of surcharges of up to 6 percent were applied to higher incomes, with the maximum rate being 7 percent on taxable income over $500,000. Less than 0.5 percent of the population ended up paying income tax. From these humble beginnings, the income tax soon blossomed, thanks to World War I, into a tax with a minimum rate that doubled and a maximum rate that reached 77 percent on...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the people named this week to President Obama's new Task Force on Tax Reform is a member of the AIG board of directors. Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University, has been on the board of American International Group since 1988. He also was a prominent economic adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Asked about the AIG connection, a senior administration official said Friday that the White House declined to comment on the story. Like the others named to the tax reform task force, Feldstein also serves on Obama's Economic...

Iowa Congressman Steve King hosted a "Special Order" on the House floor on March 17 to discuss the FairTax. For an hour, Members of Congress discussed how our legislation can save the U.S. economy. Several H.R. 25 co-sponsors spoke about the FairTax during this historic session. Watch The Video Learn More

SEC. 401. ELIMINATION OF SALES TAX IF SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT NOT REPEALED. If the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is not repealed before the end of the 7-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, then all provisions of, and amendments made by, this Act shall not apply to any use or consumption in any year beginning after December 31 of the calendar year in which or with which such period ends, except that the Sales Tax Bureau of the Department of the Treasury shall not be terminated until 6 months after such...

WASHINGTON -- The No. 1 problem facing U.S. taxpayers? A tax code so complex that Americans spend $193 billion per year just trying to figure out how much they owe, said Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, in her annual report to Congress on Wednesday. That amounts to 14% of all income taxes collected, according to Ms. Olson. Tax-code changes have averaged one per day over the past eight years -- with 500 changes in 2008 alone, she said.

“The opaque earmarking process paired with a series of examples of corruption and self-aggrandizement has left taxpayers frustrated.”

From the producers of Wordplay and the studio that brought you Supersize Me, the must-see documentary I.O.U.S.A. uncovers the source of critical economic concerns that touch the lives of every American. A tapestry of archival footage, hard data and candid interviews woven together, it paints an authentic profile of today’s economic condition. Solutions for how we can impact this nationwide crisis and evolve into a more fiscally sound nation for future generations are offered by the documentary’s powerful conclusion. “May be to the U.S. Economy what An Inconvenient Truth was to the environment.” - Reuters

Below is the FairTax resolution I submitted to the Platform & Resolutions Committee of the Illinois GOP Party Convention. Marilyn Rickert, Illinois FairTax, President The FairTax reflects the values, ideals and principals of the people of Illinois and the nation. I respectfully submit this resolution to be adopted as part of the Illinois Republican Party platform. FairTax Resolution background: The resolution was adopted by the ...

This is the latest tax reform poll that I have seen. This is from an interesting website in which members develop their own polls.

Dan Mitchell requests that interested parties send in e-mail responses to his proposal to 1. pass the flat tax 2. repeal the 16th 3. pass the FairTax

An alleged tax-fraud scheme involving donations of overvalued art to four local museums is part of a larger, unchecked problem with inflated art appraisals that has cost the federal government untold millions, a Times analysis has found. Each year, the Internal Revenue Service audits donations claimed on only a handful of the 100,000 or more tax returns that allow art donors to reap nearly $1 billion in tax write-offs. Half of the donations checked over the last 20 years had been appraised at nearly double their actual value.

Feb. 10--One of Mike Huckabee's most attractive qualities -- at least for conservatives -- is his all-out support for something called the FairTax, which would do away with the Internal Revenue Service and focus on the collection of sales taxes. The FairTax Book, co-authored by Neal Boortz and John Linder, was published on Aug. 2, 2005, as a tool to increase public support for and understanding of the FairTax plan. The Fair Tax Act was introduced as a bill in the United States Congress some time back for changing tax laws to replace the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and all...

The Americans For Fair Taxation welcomes Congressman Rob Wittman to The Fair Tax movement. He joined The Fair Tax movement on February 14th. Representative Wittman is the 74th cosponsor. His signing is the second in February. Clearly the grassroots momentum for The Fair Tax is growing! Please keep up your enthusiasm for Fair Tax! Congratulations Representative Wittman for joining The Fair Tax movement!

In his December 24, 2007 Tax Notes article, “Why the Fair Tax Won’t Work,” Bruce Bartlett purports to critique the FairTax, a proposal to replace almost all federal taxes with a retail sales tax plus a rebate. In fact, Barlett’s article has little to say about the FairTax and even less to say that’s accurate. Instead, most of his article misstates research on the FairTax, criticizes unnamed proponents of the FairTax, lambasts unattributed views of the FairTax, and engages in political punditry. This paper takes a close look at Bartlett’s “analysis,” exposing his repeated use of straw men for what...

One solution to the nation's long-term fiscal problems that has gained support in recent years is the idea of replacing all federal taxes with a 23 percent national retail sales tax called the FairTax. Unfortunately, the administrative problems inherent in this proposal make it impossible to take seriously, says Bruce Bartlett, former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Treasury Department. For example, under a FairTax scheme: A worker now netting $800 per week would immediately get a $200 raise and start taking home the full $1,000 gross wage that he is paid; instead of paying income and...