David Stockman shows the economy is not as robust as the data suggest.
“The boys and girls on Wall Street are now riding their bikes with no hands and eyes wide shut. That’s the only way to explain Friday’s lunatic buying spree in response to another jobs report that proves exactly nothing about an allegedly resurgent economy.”
Source: Real Jobs Report: Tax Collections Data Suggest US Economy Barely Above Water
A full page newspaper sponsored by AARP makes one of the best cases that the New Jersey income tax should be reduced for retirees with the assertion, ” [the bill] would cut state income taxes on income for those who need it most, allowing residents to save more of their hard-earned money.” Why not reduce taxes (massively) for all residents so they can save, spend, make charitable contributions? In other words, people should be financial independent, and the only way that could happen is for state governments and the federal government to go on a draconian diet.
They overwhelmingly reject a basic income plan.
Government cannot give money to someone without first taking it away from individuals who earned it in the first place. That is called theft. Legalized theft is the at the center of all government all activities. Until we have a national and global discussion about the proper role of government, massive transfers of income, a polite way of saying unlimited coercion, will be the essence of the nation state.
After watching the first debate between Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, it is crystal clear that Booker is an unapologetic collectivist and Steve Lonegan is an intellectual lightweight. In addition, watching these two candidates for United States Senate insult each other confirms what critics of the 17th amendment have argued, that US senators should not be elected directly by the people but appointed by state legislatures, the way senators had originally been appointed to the United States Congress until the progressive era reforms of the early 20th century.
This story says it all. Booker cannot talk about US aggression against Syria? Because….? Booker is just another career politician looking for another gig in the government apparatus of coercion, spying and massive legalized theft via the income tax and the Federal Reserve.
“On the House side, John Boehner intends to prove the crony capitalist critique of the GOP correct. He’ll vote for a bloated farm bill that subsidizes, funds, and kicks back whole industries that could not exist but for the congressional porkers in Washington.”
That was Eric Erickson, in this morning’s RedState. Yesterday afternoon, there was another GOP crony capitalism lovefest here in New Jersey.
In an op-ed Senator John McCain bemoans the fact that American cable and satellite subscribers are being ripped off, because they do not have the ability to cancel channels they do not watch…and for which they have to pay now.
The deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff passed the U.S. Senate with only eight no votes. The House passed the bill on New Year’s Day in another (smaller) “bipartisan” vote, 257 to 167. In other words, the GOP, the party of supposedly fiscal conservatism, caved in on higher taxes for not only upper income Americans but also allowed the temporary Social Security tax cut to expire for all wage earners. Moreover, the estate tax rate increases above $5 million.
In essays on consecutive days in the New York Times, Steven Rattner and Warren Buffett call for higher taxes on upper income Americans to close the federal budget gap. Rattner calls for raising the top tax rate on capital gains to 28 percent, the same rate during Bill Clinton’s first term. He asserts that “capitalists” would not be adversely affected by the rise in tax rates. He also would eliminate the “carried interest” tax preference (15% rate), the “indefensibly low tax rate” that is paid by some private equity and hedge fund investors. In addition, Rattner would cap deductions on the wealthy taxpayers and increase taxes on dividends as well.
One of the worst essays ever to be published in the NYT. Several comments are spot on. Raising taxes is a failed experiment as is the 100 year welfare-warfare state.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/opinion/kristof-a-failed-experiment.html
Now that President Obama has been overwhelmingly reelected, at least by the spread in the Electoral College, and GOP House Speaker John Boehner has made conciliatory statements about working with the administration to prevent the “fiscal cliff,” higher taxes and spending cuts that are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2013.
Some observations before I begin:
There are no tax loopholes; there are deductions, exemptions and credits in the tax code. A loophole is a political word.
Herbert Hoover was not a laissez faire president; federal spending increased, taxes increased, the Federal Reserve boosted the money supply, government got bigger and unemployment skyrocketed under HH. Dems have been successfully running against HH for the wrong reasons. FDR was the fiscal conservative in the 1932 presidential campaign. FDR expanded the HH’s expansion of federal government power. Result: depression lasted for more than a decade.
At the Democratic convention, Newark mayor Corey Booker’s call for higher taxes on the wealthy so the federal government can spend more on welfare programs is emblematic of the morally bankrupt ideology of the Democratic party. Shamelessly, Booker is another example of why most politicians are nothing more than slick Willie Suttons.
Dr. Alieta Eck, president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, argues that we need to embrace Frederic Bastiat’s insights why a free society demands a government of limited powers. Under such an arrangement, the people will use their income and resources to address the issues the advocates of big government assert can only be solved by intervention in many sectors of the economy, especially healthcare.