Sunday, July 24, 2011
The Gang of Six Types Attack Savers
They want to cap "combined employee/employer pre-tax contributions to 401(k)s at $20,000 or 20 percent of income, whichever is lower. That would be a substantial cut in deductibility, since the employee deduction alone currently is capped at $16,500 (savers over age 50 can make additional $5,500 “catch-up” contributions)."
Just one of the ways the greedy feds want to extract more revenue from people as they age.
You'll find more of this discussed, here.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Larry Kudlow is No Conservative: Another Voice Impeding the Tea Party
So-called conservatives like Lawrence Kudlow insist, INSIST!, that Barack Obama is a liberal, not a socialist.
Wake up, Kudlow: The deficit is triple what it was under a real liberal, George W. Bush, and you call that more liberalism!
Which is why Kudlow, even today, keeps defending plans like the one from the Gang of Six. That plan's baseline assumes the expiration of the Bush tax rates, which means a reset UP of the tax rates. A cut from that is a cut, except relative to the rates from which it represents a tax increase.
GET ON THE RIGHT, KUDLOW!
Cut taxes, you moron.
And slash, SLASH!, spending.
Build submarines and satellites to project American power, and drill here. We don't need boots on the ground in what, 170 countries?!
This is so easy my fifth grader could beat you.
Friday, July 22, 2011
The Fed Still Refuses to Document for the GAO the Exigent Circumstances Justifying Loans to Non-Primary Dealers
See the story here.
We're talkin' affiliates of Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.
None dare call it fascism.
The True Born Sons of Liberty want The Fed to end.
The True Born Sons of Liberty want The Fed to end.
Mayor Daley's Legacy: A Total Breakdown of Law and Order in Chicago
Firemen need police escorts to turn off nearly 2,000 opened fire hydrants.
Story here.
Just think what would happen in this country if we had a really serious problem. The natives are restless.
Everybody's Doin' A Brand New Dance Now: The Mussolini
Carole King - Locomotion
LOCOMOTION
by Gerry Goffin and Carole King
Everybody's doin' a brand new dance now
Come on baby do thelocomotion Mussolini
I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now
Come on baby do thelocomotion Mussolini
My little baby sister can do it with ease
It's easier than learning your ABC's
So come on, come on do thelocomotion Mussolini with me
You gotta swing your hips now
Come on baby jump up jump back
Oh well, I think you've got the knack
Now that you can do it let's makea chain some pain now
Come on baby do thelocomotion Mussolini
Chug-a-chug a motion like arailroad train now nuke plant meltdown
Come on baby do thelocomotion Mussolini
Do it nice and easy now and don't lose control
A little bit of rhythm and a lot of soul
Come on, come on do thelocomotion Mussolini with me
Move around the floorin a locomotion like a king-sized Weenie
Come on baby do thelocomotion Mussolini
Do it holdin' handsif you get the notion you big fascist Meanie
Come on baby do thelocomotion Mussolini
There's never been a dance that's so easy to do
It even makes youhappy wealthy when you're feeling blue
Come on, come on do thelocomotion Mussolini with me
(original lyrics here)
LOCOMOTION
by Gerry Goffin and Carole King
Everybody's doin' a brand new dance now
Come on baby do the
I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now
Come on baby do the
My little baby sister can do it with ease
It's easier than learning your ABC's
So come on, come on do the
You gotta swing your hips now
Come on baby jump up jump back
Oh well, I think you've got the knack
Now that you can do it let's make
Come on baby do the
Chug-a-chug a motion like a
Come on baby do the
Do it nice and easy now and don't lose control
A little bit of rhythm and a lot of soul
Come on, come on do the
Move around the floor
Come on baby do the
Do it holdin' hands
Come on baby do the
There's never been a dance that's so easy to do
It even makes you
Come on, come on do the
(original lyrics here)
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Senator Saxby Chambliss Doesn't Tell The Whole Truth About Tax Loss Expenditures
On the Sean Hannity program today Senator Chambliss claimed that under Ronald Reagan tax loss expenditures were eliminated as part of a lowering and broadening of the tax base in 1986.
The top income tax bracket eventually fell to 28 percent for a very brief time as a result of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 under Reagan's successor, George Herbert Walker Bush, who subsequently went on to break his no new taxes pledge, paving the way for tax increases under his successor, Bill Clinton, proving that broad low tax rates can be as ephemeral as any other part of the tax code.
The senator from Georgia today claimed that the current plan of his Gang of Six was proposing the scaling-back of similar tax loss expenditures enjoyed by taxpayers in the same spirit of Reagan. For example, the Gang wants to reduce the deductibility of home mortgage interest and charitable contributions in exchange for a lower income tax rate.
But the senator is pulling a fast one with the facts. Reagan didn't just eliminate some tax loss expenditures and reduce income tax rates in exchange. He in fact broadened at the same time the mortgage interest deduction in order to encourage home ownership, something entirely missing from the Gang of Six plan:
Prior to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86), the interest on all personal loans (including credit card debt) was deductible. TRA86 eliminated that broad deduction, but created the narrower home mortgage interest deduction under the theory that it would encourage home ownership.
I remember at the time how unfair I thought it was to lose the deductibility of credit card interest until I realized how an equity line of credit based on home ownership could and in fact did replace the role credit cards and other lines of credit had played in the tax equation before 1986. The change was also noteworthy because it encouraged the acquisition and use of secured equity instead of the use of mere credit secured only by income and creditworthiness.
Senator Chambliss' plan will eliminate tax deductibility of home mortgage interest without replacing it with anything to encourage home ownership.
And if there's anything America needs more right now, it's jobs and family formation to soak up the excess housing inventory. All Chambliss' plan will do is worsen the economic circumstances of current homeowners, who are already struggling with upside down loans and declining real estate values.
It's time conservatives recaptured the importance of home ownership as a social good. Unfortunately, the ideas of the Gang of Six do anything but. And whatever else they are, they aren't Reaganite.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Incompetent Airport Security Misses .32 cal Ammo TWICE
Both in the US and in the Bahamas:
It’s unclear how the bullet was not detected by security at Kansas City International Airport and in Nassau.
No, it's entirely clear. You're incompetent and your security is pure theatre, you miserable cretins.
There's more here.
Spending Cuts, Not Default, Are What Obama and Democrats Fear, and Loathe
American news organs appear to be incapable of the accurate formulation.
You won't find it put better anywhere than here:
Without agreement by August 2, the U.S. government will have to impose immediate spending cuts of about 44 per cent to stave off a default on its huge debts.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
House Defiant, Passes Cut, Cap and Balance 234-190
Presidential candidates Bachmann and Paul were among nine Republicans who voted against the plan because it raises the debt ceiling:
The measure, to be taken up by the Senate next, would impose statutory spending caps to wring $5.8 trillion in unspecified savings from the government over the next decade — twice the $2.4 trillion debt ceiling increase that is allowed. Nondefense appropriations face a 30 percent cut from what the Congressional Budget Office now projects for the same period, and even SSI (Supplemental Security Income) payments for the elderly and disabled are exposed to across-the-board sequesters to enforce the reductions.
Read the rest here.
Obama Grasps at Straws, Seizes on Gang of Six Pricks Plan
Reported here:
President Barack Obama ... lauded a bipartisan deficit-reduction plan Tuesday that includes $1 trillion in higher taxes ... [S]tocks soared for the day, propelled by the deficit plan's emergence and Obama's decision to seize on it as well as by strong earnings reports.
And elsewhere, this:
"You're elected executive to lead. And I think it's incumbent on the president to put the plan out there. You cannot wait for members of a legislative body to lead. The executive has an obligation to lead."
-- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
And elsewhere, this:
"You're elected executive to lead. And I think it's incumbent on the president to put the plan out there. You cannot wait for members of a legislative body to lead. The executive has an obligation to lead."
-- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
Tim Pawlenty Draws Blood: How Bachmann is Obama All Over Again
And it's about time, too:
Speaking to reporters after a town-hall event [in Iowa] on a sweltering afternoon, Pawlenty did not hold back when asked whether the Minnesota congresswoman could win a general election if she were to become the Republican presidential nominee.
"I don't think the country is going to do that again," Pawlenty said in his characteristically subdued tone before twisting the knife. "They learned the lesson of big speeches and no experience with Barack Obama, and it didn't work."
More here.
More here.
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