What life in socialist Europe is actually like

After spending years living in socialist Germany and exploring all over Europe, what is striking is that, even in one of the wealthiest non-U.S. places on Earth, it is all about learning to do without. --Let's examine the facts: --There is a crushing 20% sales tax on everything. There is also a TV tax, a radio tax, a dog tax, a death tax of up to 50%, and every other kind of tax you could possibly imagine...for a grand total of about 60-65% of your income (unless you have already been brutalized into poverty by this system, in which case you get welfare).

Read more at the Examiner
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Taxpayers Fleeing Democrat-Run States for Republican Ones

In 2013, more than 200,000 people on net fled states with Democrat governors for ones run by Republicans, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by Americans for Tax Reform. --"People move away from high tax states to low tax states. Every tax refugee is sending a powerful message to politicians," said ATR President Grover Norquist. "They are voting with their feet. Leaders in Texas and Florida are listening. New York and California are not."

Read more at American's for Tax Reform
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Ron Sherman: Yellow cabs vs. Uber: Tale of the tax tape

It's easy to take yellow cabs for granted. Taxis are ubiquitous in the city, moving 500,000 New Yorkers, tourists and business travelers daily. --But what do they really contribute to the local and state coffers? With new competition like Uber and all kinds of assertions and assumptions being made about the value of these businesses, it seemed like a good time to provide New Yorkers with the facts.

Read more at NY Daily News
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Rand Paul calls for 14.5 percent flat tax

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants to gut the U.S. tax code and instead install a flat tax, insisting such a plan would “turbocharge” the economy and be fairer for average taxpayers. Paul, who’s running for president in 2016, would put into place one 14.5 percent rate for individual, business and investment income, and remove all but a couple of the tax breaks currently on the books. The current top rate for individuals and many small businesses is near 40 percent, while the corporate rate tops out at 35 percent. --Taxpayers would get to keep the deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable deductions under Paul’s plan, and would also not have to pay any payroll taxes. Plus, the gift and estate taxes would be scrapped, and the first $50,000 of a family of four’s income would be exempt from taxes.

Read more at The Hill
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Oregon Dems’ tax tsunami has started

The Democrat “Super Majority” is doing little to hide their plans for the 2015 Legislative Session. On Monday, the House Revenue Committee introduced more than 40 bills that would increase taxes on working Oregon families and small businesses.

“The Democrat regime has a spending fever, and their only prescription is more taxes,” said Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day).

“Thousands of Oregon families are hurting, struggling to buy food, pay rent and keep the heater on, especially in rural parts of the state and among minority communities. The proposed tax increases would put the American dream that much further from reach, and show a disconnect between legislative leaders and working Oregonians.”

Among the tax increases introduced:

Read more at the Oregon Catalyst Read More......

The Robin Hood Fallacy: Piketty Would Take from the Rich to Give to the Poor

FOUNDRY, by Stephen Moore - In public policy, bad ideas—no matter how many times they have been discredited—never completely go away. They seem to pop up over and over. Enter the hot new book that has captured the imagination and attention of the left because it endorses an 80 percent tax rate on the rich in the name of “leveling” incomes. ✧ The book is entitled “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by French economist Thomas Piketty, and in addition to 1970s-style tax rates, he wants a new wealth tax on the rich and more money for social welfare programs. He’s being treated like the modern-day Adam Smith by the media [THE LEFT]. ✧ The way to create a more equal distribution of income, apparently, is by making everyone poorer. Piketty warns that “meritocratic extremism”—which is another way of saying you get to keep the fruits of your labor—is ruining our nation’s economy and if we don’t divide the pie more equally, the result could be “truly frightening.” He says that his goal is to “save capitalism… [ahem]”

Read more at The Foundry Read More......

Uncle Sam Revives Feudal Practice to Collect From Children of Debtors

Holding children responsible for the debt incurred by their parents is a feature of historical feudalism and a few modern third-world sh**holes. ✧ Developed countries, by and large, assume that a debt dies with the person who willingly incurred it, or at least stops with his or her estate. "By and large," I write, because the U.S. government has broken with centuries of tradition holding individuals responsible for their choices, opting to withhold tax refunds from children whose parents incurred vague and often ill-documented obligations to the feds.

Read more at Reason.com

Oh, man! This is going to be hard to fight! --bc Read More......

WSJ: As Tax Day Nears, Where Does Your Money Go?

Three nonprofit groups help answer that and other questions of interest to taxpayers -- Where does your money go? Loren Adler, research director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget offers a breakdown, which shows how $100 of revenue was allocated among spending programs in fiscal year 2013. Please note that last year's figures do not include the cost of changes under the Affordable Care Act, which Mr. Adler estimates will come to about 6% of spending when they are fully phased in.

Read more and see the "tax receipt" graphic by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget at Wall Street Journal Read More......

Heartland Blog: A Short Guide to Obamacare

By Matt Faharty - It’s not a national healthcare system. It’s not the free market. It isn’t what we’ve had for the last forty years. So what is Obamacare?

Maybe I am too late to write about this topic since the Affordable Care Act has already been passed and is in the process of implementation. Then again, the bill is infamously opaque, and I believe very few people, either in Washington, the media, or the general public understand what Obamacare is, or how it will make healthcare more affordable. A study in the Journal of Health Economics published this month claims that only 14% of Americans between ages 25 and 64 have a basic understanding of how insurance works, let alone how Obamacare will effect it. Nobody even seems to know how long the bill is with estimates ranging from 10,000 to 33,000 pages of mind-numbing bureaucratic documents.

According to Nancy Pelosi we should start to know what is in the bill at this point, so I will take a crack at it. Read more at Somewhat Reasonable, a Heartland.org/blog ... Read More......

Henninger: Obama's Ruinous Course

Daniel Henninger: Where in his career did Barack Obama ever learn the art of the political deal? Nowhere. ✧ Barack Obama says his election victory is a mandate to pursue the policy course he's insisting on in negotiations with Republicans on the fiscal cliff. He wants a tax increase of $1.6 trillion, $50 billion of new and immediate stimulus spending and the end of congressional approval to raise the ceiling on U.S. debt—the debt that a ratings agency downgraded in 2011. Read more at the Wall Street Journal...

Note: Since the House is still in Republican control, Obama did NOT get a mandate. Spread this news whenever you hear the mandate claim! --bc Read More......

Brent Bozell calls out GOP leadership on Fiscal Cliff

ForAmerica's Brent Bozell writes the Republican Leadership of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate challenging them on putting tax raises on the table.  The question he asks is, "If you now claim a tax increase on small business is the correct course of action, were you lying all along when you claimed this tax increase would decimate the economy?" See full letter at ForAmerica... Read More......

Taxes: Republicans Unveil Their own ‘Buffett Rule’

Republican lawmakers have introduced their own “Buffett Rule” that would allow billionaire investors like Warren Buffett who say they’re not paying enough taxes to voluntarily give more money to the federal government. ✧ Under the legislation, authored by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Rep. John Scalise of Louisiana, taxpayers can donate at least a $1 to the Treasury fund for deficit reduction when they file their federal income tax returns starting next year. Read more at Fox News... Read More......

Raise My Taxes? Not So Fast, Retired CEO Tells Warren Buffett & Obama

Harvey Golub, former CEO of American Express, disagrees with Warren Buffett's premise that the rich should pay more. Before the government "asks" for more from the rich, it should tax everyone more fairly and then spend that money more wisely, he says. "Then you'll need less of my money." Golub makes his case on the opinion pages of today's Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Golub currently serves on the executive committee of the American Enterprise Institute. Read More......

WaPo: Obama abdicates on the budget

WASHINGTON POST, 4/24/2011 by Robert Samuelson (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - "If you’ve wondered why it’s so hard to subdue budget deficits, you should consult a new study from the Congressional Budget Office called “Reducing the Deficit: Spending and Revenue Options” (free at www.cbo.gov). You’ll learn from its 240 pages that the deficits definitely can be curbed. The CBO presents 105 policies (it doesn’t endorse them) that would shrink deficits by trillions of dollars over the next decade. You’ll also learn — surprise! — that most choices are political poison. ∴ Suppose we increased the federal gasoline tax by 25 cents a gallon, from 18.4 cents to 43.4 cents. That would raise $291 billion from 2012 to 2021, estimates the CBO. Or we could advance the ages for early and full Social Security benefits; one suggestion is to raise them (now 62 and 66) by two months a year until reaching predetermined targets (say, 64 and 70). The CBO reckons the decade’s savings at about $264 billion. How about slowly moving Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67? The savings: $125 billion. ∴ Are we finished? Nowhere near..." Read more at the Washington Post... Read More......

VDH: Make the Rich Pay!

TOWNHALL.COM by Victor Davis Hanson - "Last week, President Obama reversed course once again and now wants to raise taxes on the "rich" making above $250,000 per year. Obama is in dire need of additional revenue after proposing a $3.8 trillion 2011 budget -- containing the largest deficit in U.S. history at an estimated $1.6 trillion. Yet his latest share-the-wealth proposals make little sense. ∴ Obama never distinguishes between the super-rich and the well-off [Emphasis added]. At one point in justification, the president scoffed, 'I don't need another tax cut, Warren Buffett doesn't need another tax cut.'" Read more at Townhall.com... Read More......

WSJ: The 30-Cent Tax Premium

WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/18/2011 by Arthur B. Laffer - There is a lot more to taxes than simply paying the bill. Taxpayers must spend significantly more than $1 in order to provide $1 of income-tax revenue to the federal government. Read more at WSJ... Read More......

WSJ: The Presidential Divider

WALL STREET JOURNAL/REVIEW & OUTLOOK, 4/14/2011 by Joseph Rago and Steve Moore - Obama's toxic speech and even worse plan for deficits and debt.

Did someone move the 2012 election to June 1? We ask because President Obama's extraordinary response to Paul Ryan's budget yesterday—with its blistering partisanship and multiple distortions—was the kind Presidents usually outsource to some junior lieutenant. Mr. Obama's fundamentally political document would have been unusual even for a Vice President in the fervor of a campaign.

The immediate political goal was to inoculate the White House from criticism that it is not serious about the fiscal crisis, after ignoring its own deficit commission last year and tossing off a $3.73 trillion budget in February that increased spending amid a record deficit of $1.65 trillion. Mr. Obama was chased to George Washington University yesterday because Mr. Ryan and the Republicans outflanked him on fiscal discipline and are now setting the national political agenda. Read more at WSJ...

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Lawmakers advise new Congress

CONGRESS.ORG - Outgoing members say Capitol Hill needs to change its ways. EXCERPT: "When it's difficult to get Congress to lower taxes and increase spending," Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) said, referring to the recent tax deal, "the real question is how hard will it be to get bipartisanship to raise taxes and lower spending." ∴ Edwards and several other lawmakers who lost in the midterm elections offered their advice for breaking partisan gridlock during a panel at the Bipartisan Policy Center this week. ∴ They suggested Congress needs:

Read more at Congress.org...

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Our burgeoning budget and the politics of avoidance

WASHINGTON POST, 11/22/2010 by Robert J. Samuelson (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - America's budget problem boils down to a simple question: How much will we let programs for the elderly displace other government functions - national defense, education, transportation and many others - and raise taxes to levels that would, almost certainly, reduce economic growth? What's depressing is that this question has been obvious for decades, but our political leaders have consistently evaded it. This includes and indicts Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals and every president since Jimmy Carter, particularly Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who clearly understood the problem. Read more at Washington Post...

"Our political culture prefers delusion to candor." Could Samuelson be talking about Corvallis? --JHD
Did Samuelson forget that GWB crossed the country stumping for SS reform, which fell on deaf ears? --bc Read More......

GT: City Council passes 3 of 5 green fees

A divided Corvallis City Council on Monday approved three of five proposed sustainability fees, including a transportation fee to make bus service free to riders, a fee that would make sidewalk maintenance the burden of the city and a fee to help maintain public trees. Read more at the Gazette-Times...

How many new green fees did your Councilor vote for?

Ward 1, Councilor Mark O'Brien: 0 of 4
Ward 2, Councilor Patrica Daniels: 2 of 4
Ward 3, Councilor Richard Hervey: 2 of 4
Ward 4, Councilor Dan Brown: 2 of 4
Ward 5, Councilor Mike Beilstein: 4 of 4
Ward 6, Councilor Joel Hirsch: 3 of 4
Ward 7, Councilor Jeanne Raymond: 3 of 4
Ward 8, Councilor David Hamby: 0 of 4
Ward 9, Councilor Hal Brauner: 4 of 4 Read More......