Free Republic

State Sen. Frank Wagner, a Republican candidate for governor, said Monday he'd like to turn much of U.S. 58 into an interstate as part of his plan to juice transportation construction in Virginia with an increase in the gas tax. The increase, part of a tiered plan that would charge more per gallon when prices are low, then roll back the rate when prices rise, wouldn't just affect rates in Hampton Roads or Northern Virginia, which have regional taxes. It would be statewide in implementation and effect, Wagner said. Wagner is charting an unusual course in this GOP primary: running...

Republicans in the House of Representatives are inadvertently setting a nasty political and economic trap for Donald Trump. Yes, it’s the Republicans, not the Democrats, who are ready to administer an unnecessary black eye to the new President. That’s not their intention, but it manifestly will be the result. There has been virtually no debate or public discussion about this new, horrible tax. The vehicle for this unwitting GOP punch is a new exaction called the border adjustability tax. This levy will cost American consumers at least a trillion dollars over the next ten years. Knowing how Washington politicians calculate...

For the first time since 1999, California has raised the taxes on cigarettes—and thanks to an interesting provision in the state laws, the state’s taxes on cigars are also going up. Just before midnight local time, the Associated Press called the decision on Proposition 56, a ballot measure that asked California voters whether to raise the tax on cigarettes from 87 cents to $2.87 per pack. California voters overwhelmingly said yes. Taxes on cigars will also be going up substantially. California adjusts taxes on other tobacco products, including cigars, every year. The state’s Board of Equalization determines the rate by...

A Manhattan pharmacy has begun charging its male customers an extra 7 percent “man tax” as a protest against gender-based income inequality as well as a political move to promote Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.

As governor, Hillary’s High-Tax-Tim tried to hike taxes by billions of dollars If prospective Hillary Clinton running mate Tim Kaine had his way, Virginia residents would be paying billions in higher taxes. As governor, Kaine sought to impose nearly $4 billion in higher taxes, including an income tax hike on families earning as little as $17,000 a year. He pushed for tax hikes on businesses and higher taxes on distilled spirits and cigarettes: Income Tax Hike on Working Families: Kaine tried to Increase the bottom tax rate from 5.75% to 6.75%, directly affecting low income families earning as little as...

Hillary Clinton wants to increase the estate tax to 65 percent on the wealthiest Americans, according to her latest tax plan. The Clinton campaign estimates that the increase would raise an addition $75 billion in revenue over the next decade. The current rate maxes out at 40 percent. But Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill have created a number of tax shelters in recent years to dramatically limit their payment of the very same tax. As Bloomberg reported back in 2014: “To reduce the tax pinch, the Clintons are using financial planning strategies befitting the top 1 percent of U.S....

President Barack Obama isn’t afraid to enact his agenda over the will of Congress. At this late stage in his presidency, he’s still overreaching his authority to push through an agenda; his most recent overstep being an effort to unilaterally raise the federal estate tax. Conservatives have successfully lessened the impact of the estate tax, colloquially known as the “death tax,” in recent years. In 2000, before George W. Bush became president, the death tax had a rate of 55 percent and struck families with assets valued at $675,000 or more.

Election 2016: Hillary Clinton has big plans for the economy if she's elected president, as she made clear in her speech in economically troubled Warren, Mich., on Thursday. It's too bad that her big plans involve only big spending and big taxes, which will produce little if any economic growth. Clinton's speech was framed around four questions. Which candidate has a plan to create good jobs? Who will ensure the top pay their "fair share" of taxes? Who will go to bat for families? And who can deliver results? But her answer to every question was the same: more government...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU__9f0kEb0&feature=gp-n-y&google_comment_id=z13ltx55tpb0jd4s322jgxtrzletuvjlg Hillary Clinton plans to raise taxes for the workers the affluent and middle class. Pay roll taxes and national sales taxes for workers, Higher income taxes for the rest with the middle class bearing the brunt of these taxes. With commentary by Mike Savage Also get a load of some of the people who are gonna benefit the most from these new taxes, yokels, alcoholics, potheads, anarchists, thugs and crazies!

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

Donald Trump said on Sunday that taxes for the wealthy should go up but that his tax plans would likely be renegotiated with Congress should he win the U.S. presidency. "For the wealthy I think frankly it is going to go up and, you know what, it really should go up," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee told NBC's "Meet the Press." Trump said that he see his current tax plans, which would reduce taxes for the middle class and businesses and increase those for the wealthy, as a negotiating "floor" that may change in dealings with Congress. Latest News Update...

GUTHRIE: Do you believe in raising taxes on the wealthy? TRUMP: I do. I do – including myself. I do. That was...this morning, in an interview that featured some other controversial statements.  In fairness to Trump, he's been using the "raise taxes on rich people like me" line for months, embracing Obama-style class warfare tax gimmicks like the 'Buffet Rule.'  But raising taxes on anyone, an outcome Trump just re-endorsed, is not what his formal policy agenda proposes.  Just the opposite.  As we've seen on issues such immigration, abortion and foreign policy, Trump routinely makes clear that he isn't familiar with his own positions.  His stances aren't...

Bernie Sanders, avowed socialist that he is, has suggested hefty tax increases on just about everyone and everything to pay for the largess, which includes free health care and free college. But, as it turns out, Hillary Clinton is no slouch when it comes to raising taxes. Americans for Tax Reform estimates that the second President Clinton would hike taxes about $1 trillion over ten years. Clinton’s tax increases will not be used to close the deficit, but rather to pay for new programs

Art Laffer, famed member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board, has co-authored, with Stephen Moore, an article for Investor’s Business Daily in which they assert that Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have the “best” tax proposals.

Puerto Rico is $72 billion in debt, and it will take a painful process to bring the island's finances back from the brink. It's a massive debt load for such a small territory, and the problem can really be traced to one issue — bad tax policy. After Puerto Rico let one tax break for manufacturers expire almost a decade ago, manufacturers started shutting down operations on the island. That caused a spike in unemployment. On top of that, business-friendly tax policies for some of the companies that remained allowed multinational giants to pay tax rates of little more than...

Donald Trump wants to run for president. He says he can beat Hillary. Sometimes Donald Trump has something good things to say, and sometimes he makes me shake my head in disbelief. ... Here is one of Trump’s economic solutions. “He said Ford and other companies looking to move manufacturing to Mexico or overseas should face a 35 percent tax when they ship the goods back to the U.S. That would bring the plants back home, he argued. ‘That’s what’s going to happen, and there are hundreds, thousands of those deals,’ he said. ‘I will make this country so rich...

Nevada’s Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, secured an unlikely victory when the conservative state Legislature approved a huge tax increase at his urging as part of a plan to boost education spending. The $1.1 billion package raises taxes on businesses and cigarettes, and it makes permanent a $500 million bundle of temporary payroll and sales taxes. Sandoval’s win on Monday came on the last day of the legislative session, and the proposal’s fate had been in doubt until late Sunday when several skeptical Republicans in the state Assembly pledged support. The plan had faced vocal resistance for months, led by anti-tax...

A nearly $1 billion dollar transportation funding bill is on its way to Gov. Nathan Deal after a late night compromise is passed by the state House and Senate.The two sides agreed to convert from a state sales tax on motor fuel to an excise tax of 26 cents per gallon for passenger vehicles and 29 cents for tractor trailers.Semis would also be required to pay an impact fee of $50 to $100 based on weight.“Those trucks are the ones doing the most damage to our roads; we felt like that was a small, nominal fee for them to pay...

A group representing road builders said Thursday that the federal gas tax should be increased by 15 cents per gallon to help pay for infrastructure improvements. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) said increasing the gas tax this year would raise $401 billion for new transportation spending. The gas tax hike could be offset with a “federal tax rebate for middle and lower income Americans for six years,” the group suggested.