There are interesting rumblings in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. You might almost think the left was getting ready to admit there’s a problem….naaah. That’s not going to happen.
States were $1.38 trillion short of having enough to pay their public-employee retirement bills in 2010, the last year for which totals are available for all 50 states, according [...]
The left has been arguing for years that the Bush tax cuts went mostly to the wealthy and that the Obama deficits have been caused not by over-spending but by the Bush tax cuts. Those of us who pointed to the actual numbers indicating otherwise were (at best) ignored but usually attacked.
Well we have now [...]
Apparently the Delaware taxpayers are getting hosed because of a deal the state signed with Fisker. That would be the same Fisker the US taxpayers are getting hosed for.
This statement from the governor’s office really ticked me off:
“It has not worked out the way he had envisioned,” [Delaware Gov.] Markell spokeswoman Cathy Rossi acknowledged Monday [...]
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit frequently calls on conservatives to “punch back twice as hard.” He has also embraced the idea of raising certain taxes, specifically ones that will disproportionately hit blue states (such as reducing the deductibility of state income taxes).
Along those lines, I have taken a few of the features and taxes from Obamacare [...]
The top 100 U.S. university endowments have a total value of $310 billion and the top 100 U.S. foundations have assets totaling $244 billion. I am outraged that they exploit tax loopholes and pay no taxes. It’s time for them to pay their fair share. Fix the fiscal cliff - tax the rich!
So, Obama has been reelected. It is going to be a tough few years. Here is what to expect:
Slow economic growth
Sustained high unemployment
Reduced opportunities for the lower middle class
Reduced opportunities for the poor
Upper middle-class people who are go-getters will be okay but upper middle class people used to the idea of just being a “good [...]
The Democrats have kicked off their convention in the otherwise lovely city of Charlotte, NC to defend a failed presidency and try to convince people that more progressive policies are just what we need.
In related news:
The national debt has hit $16 trillion.
A federal judge has ordered tax payers to fund an inmate’s sex change operation.
A [...]
Think your cell phone bill is too expensive? What about your cable bill? Most people do.
That’s because if you are like most people you are paying for things you don’t want or need (an unusably large number of minutes for your phone or hundreds of channels you don’t watch). It’s pretty intuitive that when you [...]
There is an interesting post at Zero Hedge arguing that the statutory tax rate on the middle class in high tax states (read: blue states) is 75%. This might be slightly high but I think it’s basically accurate.
Above a rather modest $34,600 in taxable income and up to around $106,000, the [statutory] middle class tax [...]
As I previously mentioned, ObamaCare the Obama HealthCare Tax will prove to be temporary. It is not fiscally sustainable. When our inevitable fiscal crisis hits in full, ObamaCare the Obama HealthCare Tax will have to be gutted if it is still around.
The left can blather all it wants about how it’s going to save money, [...]
The left managed to save the ObamaCare Obama HealthCare Tax. But do they even realize what a price they paid to accomplish this?
There’s a new precedent for striking down statutes on federalism grounds. There’s a new precedent expressly limiting the scope of the commerce power. There’s a new precedent limiting the use of the necessary [...]
Progressives like to think they are kind and humane for wanting to expand the welfare state. I say they are cruel.
Think about the working life of a typical person. When a person first enters the workforce, his experience, skills and not surprisingly his earnings are the lowest they will ever be. But over time, as [...]
It has long seemed to me that progressives acted like there was a fundamental law of nature that guaranteed economic growth. They seemed to believe they could do virtually anything to the economy and our lives would still improve.
They are clearly mistaken but it isn’t always easy to come up with historical economic data since [...]
Stimulus Bill
GM Bailout
Cash for Clunkers
Bows to foreign monarchs
Denigrates allies
Supports Iranian dictators over Iranian people
ObamaCare
Contraception mandate
Scraps missile shield
Defense cuts
Supports violence-filled Occupy protests
Demands higher tax rates
Cancels oil leases
Cancels Keystone Pipeline
$5 trillion in new debt and rising
Obama: “After my election, I have more flexibility.”
Let’s hope he doesn’t get the opportunity.
The opposite of Democrat is not Republican. But opposing the Democrats often requires supporting the Republicans.
Yes, the Republicans suck but at least there’s a strong limited-government contingent. Even if it fails to live up to its own standards, the Republican party at least acknowledges that government should be limited in its scope. And need I [...]
Obama has offered a “compromise” on the recent HHS decision to require church-affiliated institutions to include contraception. The “compromise” is that the church-affiliated institutions won’t have to pay for the coverage. The insurers will have to provide the coverage for free to the subscribers.
Normally, I’d say this “compromise” is pure politics. Given the bipartisan attacks [...]
I had an exchange online with an old friend and a few people he knows. I am posting the text of it, anonymized with a couple minor edits, because the debate and what happened after is such a great snapshot of the left.
Old Friend:
Westerners are not taught that the hoarding of wealth is an act [...]
In tonight’s State of the Union address, Pres. Obama called on Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy. He wants them to “pay their fair share.” Set aside the moral issues of redistributive taxes (it is a form of slavery to assert ownership over the value of someone else’s economic output - but that’s for [...]
Jim Pethokoukis on why Mitt Romney’s 15% tax rate is actually too high:
We shouldn’t tax what we want more of. And the real problem with the capital gains tax isn’t the rate or how it is structured, but what is taxed: gains on investments, which are savings put to work. Economists of all stripes have [...]
It seems the geniuses in Philly’s city council plus Mayor Nutter have decided a really good way to make Philly more competitive is to make it more expensive to hire people. They have decided to prohibit companies from asking about an applicant’s criminal history until after their first interview. The only exception is for law [...]