Posts Tagged ‘taxes’

« Older Entries
Greg Knapp

Time to Pay the IOUs out of the ‘Lock Box’

by Greg Knapp

iou pig

All the lies about the Social Security “lock box” are now on full display. This is the year we will start paying out more from the SS program than we took in. We’ve gotten here even earlier than predicted. This wasn’t supposed to happen until 2017. Whoops…

Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from Social Security rather than foreign creditors. In return, the Treasury Department issued a stack of IOUs — in the form of Treasury bonds— which are kept in a nondescript office building just down the street from Parkersburg’s municipal offices.

Now the government will have to borrow even more money, much of it abroad, to start paying back the IOUs, and the timing couldn’t be worse. The government is projected to post a record $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year, followed by trillion dollar deficits for years to come.

But, wait!  We have $2.5 trillion in there and it’s earning interest. It’s real money. We’re fine, right? Right. Pull this leg and it plays “Jingle Bells.” This is the mess conservatives have warned about for so long. The lock box hoax is nothing but a promise from the government (us)  to pay us. Yes, the bonds will be paid, but that shouldn’t ease your anxiety. The money has to come from somewhere. Government only has two choices to get it:

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 15th 2010 at 9:14 am in Political Humor, Tax Reform, Uncategorized, federal spending | 123 Comments

The New Ledger

Why Obama’s Going to Have to Raise Taxes on the Middle Class

by The New Ledger

It’s time for your weekly dose of markets and politics with Coffee and Markets, featuring The New Ledger’s Francis Cianfrocca, a podcast brought to you by the fine folks at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com and LibertyPundits.com, your new home for Conservative podcasts. In this week’s edition, we hash out what’s happening in Greece and the global markets, President Obama’s broken promises on taxes, and what lies ahead for the big entitlement bomb.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

The Daily Caller: Showmanship is Not Leadership

Politico: Obama’s Bipartisan Health Summit

The Daily Beast: An Interview With Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan’s Roadmap

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Feb 12th 2010 at 7:03 am in Coffee and Markets, Politics | 39 Comments

The New Ledger

After the Massachusetts Upset, the Left Turns on Obama

by The New Ledger

In the wake of a stunning political result in Massachusetts, it’s time to assess the future Scott Brown dictates for health care, the market, the Democrats, and the country. It’s the third week of January 2010, and here’s the latest edition of Coffee and Markets, a weekly podcast from The New Ledger on politics, policy and the marketplace with Francis Cianfrocca, brought to you by BigGovernment.com.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Dan McLaughlin: Seven Lessons of the Brown Bombshell

WSJ: Obama Scales Back Health Care Plans

Paul Krugman: Obama Wasn’t The One We’ve Been Waiting For

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Jan 22nd 2010 at 7:01 am in Coffee and Markets | 22 Comments

Andrew Marcus

Obama: ‘Break Out Your Pitchforks And Head For The Banks!’

by Andrew Marcus

The government, starving for streams of revenue, wants to tax major banking institutions under a new regulatory scheme allegedly geared toward reforming the financial industry.

Yesterday (Thursday), President Obama launched a major salvo in his Progressive agenda for (Marxist) reform. Below is a brief excerpt of his statement announcing new banking restrictions, and it’s laced with vilifying rhetoric – complete with threats of pitchforks.


This is criminally brilliant.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Jan 22nd 2010 at 6:31 am in Economics, Obama | 175 Comments

Publius

McCOTTER: Putting ‘Limited’ Back In Government

by Publius

From today’s Washington Times:

If your finances looked like the federal budget, you wouldn’t get elected. You’d get arrested. Under the Democrats’ iron-fisted, one-party rule of Washington, family budgets shrink and the federal budget bloats: The deficit, the debt and spending are at record levels; massive tax increases impend in the days ahead; and widespread unemployment persists and pains working families. Compounding this crisis, the Democrats’ spending spree imperils our national security by creating a “debt threat” whereby antagonistic nations to which we owe hundreds of billions of dollars practice economic statecraft against America to influence our foreign and domestic policies and/or actively undermine our strategic interests. In sum, government exacerbates rather than ameliorates the economic chaos around us.

is it 2012 yet?

Amidst the economic, social and political challenges of globalization, the injurious inequity of Democrats’ fiscal irresponsibility is not lost upon Americans. We know the government’s morally bankrupt boondoggle, committed with our hard-earned money, squanders our prosperity, weakens our security and constitutes an immoral usurpation of our liberty and sovereignty. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Jan 21st 2010 at 1:22 pm in Congress, Economics, Obama, Politics | 94 Comments

Dan Mitchell

The Problem is Spending, not Deficits

by Dan Mitchell

Reckless spending increases under both Bush and Obama have resulted in unprecedented deficits, which is the reason for boosting the nation’s debt limit by an astounding $1.8 trillion. Government borrowing has become such a big issue that some politicians are proposing a deficit reduction commission, which may mean they are like alcoholics trying for a self-imposed intervention.

But all this fretting about deficits and debt is somewhat misplaced. Government borrowing is a bad thing, of course, but this video explains that the real problem is excessive government spending.


Fixating on the deficit allows politicians to pull a bait and switch, since they can raise taxes, claim they are solving the problem, when all they are doing is replacing debt-financed spending with tax-financed spending. At best, that’s merely taking a different route to the wrong destination. The more likely result is that the tax increases will weaken the economy, further exacerbating America’s fiscal position.

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Dec 21st 2009 at 11:37 am in Congress, Earmarks, Economics, Healthcare, Obama, Politics, Pork Report, Tax Reform, Uncategorized | 34 Comments

Brian Garst

A Value-Added Tax Won’t Solve the Deficit Crisis

by Brian Garst

As Congress prepares to raise the debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion, there are renewed calls from political elites for a value-added tax in America. The New York Times all but campaigned for the idea while touting it as a possible “cure for deficits.” But a VAT would do nothing to solve our deficit problem. Rather, it would supply new fuel to big government bureaucrats addicted to spending.

PT-AK518_jp1MUS_G_20081219183549

Supporters of a VAT mistakenly assume that increasing government revenues will lead to reduced budget deficits. While raising additional revenue may be part of any long term budgetary solution, it is not sufficient by itself – and probably not needed at all. Unless systemic changes are made, there is every reason to believe that additional revenues will simply be used to provide additional entitlements, pork barrel projects, and other wasteful government spending initiatives designed solely to enhance the reelection prospects of politicians. So long as deficit spending provides tangible benefits to the political class, they will continue to run deficits regardless of the amount of revenue raised.

Even in the midst of recession, federal revenues exceeded $2 trillion in fiscal year 2009. Can anyone really argue that $2 trillion is not enough for the federal government to perform the duties outlined in the Constitution?

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Dec 14th 2009 at 12:57 pm in Congress, Economics, Politics | 62 Comments

The New Ledger

Inside Harry Reid’s Massive Health Care Tax Plan

by The New Ledger

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has finally brought out the health care bill he’s fashioned behind closed doors over the past several weeks, and it ain’t pretty. The Budget Committee fully implemented 10 year score of the bill is $2.5 trillion. The CBO score, which is really just a six year measure, says taxes will go up $493.6 billion, while Medicare will be cut $464.6 billion. It’s a massive piece of legislation, but will it actually solve any of America’s health care problems? Whatever this legislation is about, one thing is clear: it’s not about making us healthier. We’ll discuss the bill on today’s Coffee and Markets, a daily podcast from The New Ledger on politics, policy and the marketplace with Francis Cianfrocca, brought to you by BigGovernment.com.

Coffee and Markets

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Keith Hennessey: Reid’s Tax Increases
Weekly Standard: 2,074 Pages of Bad Ideas
AUL: Reid Releases Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill
Reuters: Key Differences in Bill
Times Online UK: Obama Fears Double Dip Recession
WSJ: Showdown on Health Care

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Nov 19th 2009 at 8:51 am in Economics, Healthcare | 16 Comments

The New Ledger

Do the Democrats Have Any Solutions on Jobs? Anything at All?

by The New Ledger

The dominant Democrat leadership in Washington is terrified that people will actually start blaming them for historically high unemployment levels, despite their best efforts to create or save jobs in Texas District 85 and elsewhere. We’ll talk about how the markets perceive their possible solutions — and why none of them are likely to work — on today’s Coffee and Markets, a daily podcast from The New Ledger on politics, policy and the marketplace with Francis Cianfrocca, brought to you by BigGovernment.com.

Coffee and Markets

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

WP: House Focus Shifts to Jobs
AP: Jobs Jobs Jobs
NYT: Jobs!
WSJ: Jobs?

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Nov 18th 2009 at 9:41 am in Economics | 105 Comments

Thomas Del Beccaro

Tax Increases Mean Less Revenue: Your Common Sense Guide

by Thomas Del Beccaro

As Congress recklessly moves to enact evermore programs in the face of ever larger deficits, it is only a matter of time before they take up the revenue side of deficit equation: Spending – Tax Revenue = the Deficit.  Of course, in response to rising deficits, the Media and the Democrats will reflexively demand tax increases. Republicans, for their part, simply must be able to articulate why higher taxes will actually result in larger deficits not smaller.

Balance

I offer this common sense guide for the great battle to come.

At the outset, it must be noted that, in practice, politicians don’t actually raise taxes so much as they pass laws to increase tax “rates,” i.e. income rates, sales tax rates, etc.  They do in an ill-founded pursuit of more tax revenue.

It is ill-founded because tax rate increases, over time, yield less revenue than tax rate cuts.  For instance, when the economy was bad in the early 1990’s, the California legislature raised tax rates and over a 3 year period, revenues actually dropped.  By 1999, Bill Clinton’s tax rate increase resulted in the highest overall tax burden in our history – a recession naturally followed which led to declining revenues.

These common sense points explain why tax rate cuts, over time, will raise for more money than tax rate increases.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Nov 15th 2009 at 6:17 am in Economics, Featured Story, History, Tax Reform | 67 Comments

Greg Knapp

Forcing Us to Buy Health Insurance Is Not the Same as Mandatory Car Insurance

by Greg Knapp

obama eye

I thought this analogy had been thoroughly destroyed, but it’s baa-aack. The One is claiming it’s no biggie that the new “health care” bills require every American to buy insurance because most states require everyone to buy car insurance. He goes back to that analogy as he downplays the fact that if you don’t buy health insurance you will eventually be sent to prison.

The President said that he didn’t think the question over the appropriateness of possible jail time is the “biggest question” the House and Senate are facing right now.

I’m thinking it’s a pretty big question for people who don’t want to buy health insurance and don’t want to pay a fine. The only way a “mandate” works is that, eventually, jail time is the punishment. Otherwise, people can ignore the mandate.

Back to the car insurance analogy:

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Nov 11th 2009 at 7:43 am in Healthcare, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized | 153 Comments

Patrick Tuohey

This Week’s Elections: Tea Party Post Mortem

by Patrick Tuohey

Doug Hoffman lost his race in the 23rd Congressional District of New York, a seat held by Republicans for the past 120 years. John McHugh held the seat since 1992 and won with such large margins (he was even unopposed in 2002) that when I pitched him to provide polling for his campaign, it was a challenge to even argue why he needed polling in the first place.

3198784

Dede Scozzafava was chased out of the race by conservative Tea Party activists. Her campaign may have been inept, and local GOP leaders may have erred in selecting her, but activists had no business dictating terms from afar. Despite her flaws, Scozzafava was ahead in the polls before the Tea Party brouhaha. (So much for respecting local control.) Their result was to actually shrink the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives.  (Moreover, the newly-elected Democrat Congressman Bill Owens may provide the deciding vote on passing Pelosi Care, up for debate tonight in the House.) Just as conservative Democrats voted for Speaker Pelosi, liberal Republicans like Scozzafava would have supported the Party’s leadership. A RINO is better than no R at all.  The good news is that the district is likely to support the Republican candidate in 2010 after what I suspect will be a vigorous primary.

The most laughable criticism of Scozzafava was that she showed no loyalty to conservatives by endorsing the Democrat in the race–this from Tea Partiers who showed no loyalty to the Republican Party by pushing a third party candidate in the first place.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Nov 7th 2009 at 4:59 pm in Congress, Politics, State Politics, Tea Party | 232 Comments

Dan Mitchell

The Value-Added Tax: Financing the Road to Serfdom

by Dan Mitchell

If government-run healthcare is approved, it is very likely that politicians will then look for a new revenue source to finance all the new spending that inevitably will follow. Unfortunately, that means a value-added tax (VAT) will be high on the list. Indeed, the VAT recently has been favorably mentioned by powerful political figures and key Obama allies such as the Co-Chairman of his transition team and the Speaker of the House.

The VAT would be great news for the political insiders and belteway elite. A  brand new source of revenue would mean more money for them to spend and a new set of  loopholes to swap for campaign cash and lobbying fees.  But as I explain in this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity,  the evidence from Europe unambiguously suggests that a VAT will dramatically increase the burden of government.  That’s good for Washington, but bad for America.


It’s worth noting that even if the politicians are unsuccessful in their campaign to take over the health care system, there will be a VAT fight at some point in the next few years. This will be a Armageddon moment for proponents of limited government. Defeating a VAT is not a sufficient condition for controlling the size of government, but it surely is a necessarry condition.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Oct 14th 2009 at 8:00 am in Congress, Economics, Obama, Politics, Tax Reform | 36 Comments

Dan Mitchell

The Problem Is Spending, Not Deficits

by Dan Mitchell

Speaking recently a Steamboat Institute conference, I explain that big government is America’s fiscal challenge, not whether the spending is financed with taxes or borrowing.  This issue is important because the statists are trying to create the conditions for a big tax hike. We got huge spending increases under Bush, and now Obama has picked up the baton and is racing in the same direction. Needless to say, the politicians don’t care about deficits when they are spending money. But when it is time to discuss tax policy, deficits suddenly become a giant threat to the economy and turning more of our money over to the political class is the only solution.


The Q&A session (which can be seen here) also is interesting. I pontificate about the financial crisis, Keynesian economics, the rule of law, and tax competition (both videos courtesy of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity).

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Oct 8th 2009 at 1:30 pm in Congress, Economics, Obama, Politics, Tax Reform | 16 Comments

Dan Mitchell

If You Think Government Is Too Big Now, Just Wait…

by Dan Mitchell

…Until the politicians figure out a way of imposing a national sales tax. More specifically, the crowd in Washington is salivating at the idea of adding a value-added tax (a European-style national sales tax) on top of the income tax. A VAT  will allow them to finance a big expansion in the burden of government, which is exactly what happened in Europe after the tax was levied (notwithstanding promises that the revenue would be used to lower and/or eliminate other taxes). Here’s a worrisome Bloomberg report featuring comments by one of President Obama’s main political allies:

“There’s going to have to be revenue in this budget,” said Podesta, Clinton’s former chief of staff and co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s transition team, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing today. A so-called consumption tax would “create a balance” with European and Japanese economies and “could potentially have a substantial effect on competitiveness,” said Podesta. Value-added taxes in Europe and Japan encourage savings by taxing consumption. Podesta said such a tax may be regressive, but can be balanced by exempting some products and using “the money to support low-wage workers.”

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , ,
Posted Sep 29th 2009 at 5:44 am in Economics, Tax Reform | 157 Comments

Anthony Randazzo

Obama’s New Tax on the Poor, Just Redefined Away

by Anthony Randazzo

During the campaign in 2008, President Obama made his tax message as clear as it could be: he wanted to tax the wealthy, and help the poor. He promised over and over that taxes on those making less than $250,000 would not go up. So why has the president proposed a health care tax on the poor?

A frequent line by candidate Obama in his stump speeches during the election went something like this:

“Let me be absolutely clear. If you are a family making less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes go up.”


Despite this promise, we’ve already had the federal tax hike on cigarettes to fund children’s health care (S-CHIP), an excise tax that impacts the poor profoundly more than the wealthy because of the inverse relationship between smoking and income.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Sep 24th 2009 at 5:00 am in Congress, Economics, Obama, Politics | 33 Comments

Publius

IRS Severs Ties with ACORN Over Scandal

by Publius

From the Associated Press:

acorn logo

WASHINGTON (AP) – The IRS says it is severing ties with ACORN, the community activist group involved in a scandal after employees were caught on video giving advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp.

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it would no longer include ACORN in its volunteer tax assistance program. The program offered free tax advice to about 3 million low- and moderate-income tax filers this spring.

The IRS said ACORN, which is short for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, provided help on about 25,000 returns.

Read the full article here.

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , ,
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 12:44 pm in ACORN, Exclusives | 97 Comments

Dan Mitchell

American Public Thinks 50 Percent of the Federal Budget Is Wasted

by Dan Mitchell

Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal has an excellent column today discussing new poll data showing that Americans think, on average, that 50 percent of the federal budget is wasted. As Steve explains, these numbers are very encouraging since they suggest that “Americans are in the mood for a radical shrinking of government in order to reduce debt and waste.” The bad news is that the 50 percent figure almost certainly is too high. Yes, government programs are riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse, but most of the money actually winds up in the hands of intended beneficiaries. The good news, though, is that this does not undermine the argument for dramatic reductions in the size and scope of the federal government. As this video explains, there are eight big reasons why government spending undermines economic growth.


Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 7:45 am in Congress, Earmarks, Economics, Obama, Politics | 32 Comments

Mike Flynn

Taxpayer-Funded Propaganda: The ABC’s of the NEA Conference Call

by Mike Flynn

Today, Big Hollywood released a full audio recording and transcript of the NEA conference call. A full review of the call reveals several new and more troubling aspects to what transpired on the August 10th phone call. What is inescapable is that the origin of the call reaches into the highest offices of the White House. It is clear, from the transcript, that the call was orchestrated by the Office of Public Engagement, whose Director, Valerie Jarrett, is among the closest advisors to President and First Lady Obama. It is also apparent that Ms. Jarrett’s office directed the involvement of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for National and Community Service, two independent federal agencies. (This is important, as neither is officially part of the executive branch.)

Agitplakat

At the very beginning of the call, the general ‘moderator’ of the call, Michael Skolnik, political director for Hip-Hop mogul Russell Simmons, explains the genesis of the call:

I have been asked by people in the White House and folks in the NEA about a month ago in a conversation that was had. We had the idea that I would help bring together the independent artists community around the country.

This is important, because in the immediate aftermath of the breaking story, the NEA has tried to state that a ‘third party’ organized the call. This clearly isn’t true. The e-mail invitation to the call was sent from Mr. Sargent’s government-provided NEA e-mail address. In addition, as the transcript reveals, Mr. Sloknik was “asked” by the White House and NEA to organize the call.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 3:19 pm in ACORN, Culture, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 92 Comments

Ben Shapiro

Demand Congressional Investigation: NEA Conference Call Broke Laws

by Ben Shapiro

In the aftermath of the Andrew Breitbart/James O’Keefe/Hannah Giles-broken ACORN scandal, President Obama and his allies in Congress have distanced themselves from the community organizing goliath.  Congress has cut off funds, and Obama has refused to speak about the matter.  End of story, right?

Wrong.

gavel510pix

There’s only one problem: the ACORN mentality – pinpointing and mobilizing particular groups in support of a radical-left agenda – is no longer restricted to government-funded private non-profits like ACORN.  The ACORN mentality now dominates the government itself.  Taxpayer dollars are being used by elected officials to encourage the deification of President Obama and his agenda.  And one of the chief organs of the government propaganda machine is the National Endowment for the Arts.

Let’s start from the beginning.  On August 25, artist Patrick Courrielche told the story of a conference call he attended on August 10.  That conference call was hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve.  The goal of the conference call: “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda – health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”  The call would push “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how the arts can be used for a positive change!” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 11:20 am in Culture, News, Obama, Politics | No Comments

« Older Entries