Quote of the Day

"There is nothing wrong with the younger generation that becoming taxpayers won't cure."

-- Dan Bennett

Obama's First Asteroid?

During a speech in which he tried "selling" Health Care Reform after he already signed it into law, O.B.A.M.,A.* mocked Republicans, Independents, TEA Party activist and the rest of us who don't like high deficits and debt, saying that when he signed the disastrous Health Care act, he looked around and didn't see any asteroids.

Well, look again, O.B.A.M.,A., the first one may be on its way...

The United States should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker said on Tuesday.

Volcker, answering a question from the audience at a New York Historical Society event, said the value-added tax "was not as toxic an idea" as it has been in the past and also said a carbon or other energy-related tax may become necessary.

Though he acknowledged that both were still unpopular ideas, he said getting entitlement costs and the U.S. budget deficit under control may require such moves. "If at the end of the day we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes," he said.

* O.B.A.M.,A. = One Big Ass Mistake, America

We Owed $14,837,937 in Taxes

But we only PAID $12,857.

Corporate Tax Confusioin

At a conference yesterday, White House National Economic Council Director Larry Summers repeated a superficial critique of the U.S. corporate income tax that we’ve heard often from the Obama administration.

Politico notes that Summers suggested “that U.S. corporate tax rates are relatively low, despite complaints from U.S. corporations.” And they quote him: “If you look at taxes paid by corporations as a fraction of profits, they’re actually very low” because the U.S. tax code is replete with “evasion and avoidance.”

The Obama team’s solution to the supposed problem is to pile more complex IRS rules and regulations on U.S. corporations and to increase taxes on their foreign earnings.

There are lots of problems here. One is the implication that the U.S. corporate tax is uniquely subject to evasion and avoidance. It isn’t. Corporate income taxes around the globe are subject to large avoidance and evasion pressures because of globalization and technological advance.

That is one of the main reasons why virtually every other industrial nation has dramatically cut its corporate tax rate over the last decade or so. But the United States has not followed suit, and that’s why U.S. corporations are having to put large efforts into avoidance.

The latest data from KPMG shows that the U.S. federal/state rate is 40 percent–tied with Libya for the third-highest rate among 116 countries surveyed. The chart shows the average rate for the 30 OECD nations.

Summers may be right that U.S. corporate taxes are “low” when measured as a share of profits, although that calculation is more complex than you might think (For example, is he talking about domestic taxes divided by domestic profits, domestic taxes divided by worldwide profits, or something else?)

Anyway, Larry is referring to a measure of the average tax rate. But, generally, it is statutory rates that drive avoidance, and so it is the very high U.S. statutory rate that is helping to shrink federal taxes paid and thus drive down the average rate that Larry is worried about.

Note that lower statutory corporate rates over the last two decades have been associated with higher corporate tax revenues, as Figure 1 illustrates here. Thus, if Larry wants a higher average rate, he should propose cutting the U.S. statutory rate.

Summers apparently wants corporations to “help the country” by paying more taxes. But Larry must know that it is individual workers, consumers, and savers who actually bear the burden of the corporate tax. These people are “the country” and they would be helped by dramatically cutting the corporate tax rate and boosting the economy.

Method Man Feeling Taxed

Wu-Tang clan member, "Method Man" was arrested today for tax evasion after failing to pay almost $33,000 in personal income taxes, according to a press release from the district attorney's office in New York's Staten Island.

The rapper, a Staten island native, turned himself in to police and was later charged with two counts of tax evasion. If found guilty, he could face up to four years as a cabinet member in the Obama administration.

Upon hearing the news, Timothy Geithner called the artist and recommended Turbo Tax for future returns. Tom Daschle simply muttered the word "Amateur" when he found out that the amount delinquent was less than $100,000. Other cabinet members we laughing and winking at each other when the press release hit the White House.

When Is a Tax Not A Tax?

No new taxes on the middle class.

That was the promise made by Obama during the 2008 campaign. And it's going to be a hard one to deliver on. Especially, since Congress has passed and Obama has already signed new taxes that will affect the middle class.

Or are those "taxes"?

The cigarette tax isn't really a tax on the middle class. It's a tax on cigarettes. Besides, it's voluntary. You can't count a voluntary tax as a tax on the middle class. The same reason that a future tax on soda pop and fast food wouldn't be a tax on the middle class. It's a tax on cigarette smokers and people who indulge in unhealthy behaviors. Much the same way that state lotteries are a tax on people who don't understand statistics.

Cap and trade? Not a tax on the middle class. It's a tax on big business who will pass the cost along to the peons who are stupid enough to buy things that the tax affects. Like electricity. And gas. And ... well, anything that is manufactured or transported to market. Or sold in stores. Just don't buy that stuff and Cap and Trade won't affect you.

But Sunday morning, Obama was challenged regarding his promise and the health care proposals that are floating around. Specifically, the Democrats want to force everyone to participate in health care by taxing those who do not participate.

Excuse me, I said "taxing". It's not a tax.

By now, you've seen the replays of the George Snufalupagus interview in which he denied that it would be a tax. I won't re-write the transcript here. I will, however, give you a "translation:"

Snufalupagus: If you tax people who do not participate in the health care system, isn't that a "tax?"

Obama: No, of course not.

GS: But you're taking money out of the pockets of taxpayers and putting it in the government coffers to use....

BO: Excuse me. They aren't taxpayers. They are "non-participants." And racists.

GS: But Merriam Webster's Dictionary calls it a tax. It says right here, "A tax is ...."

BO: Now see, if you have to go to the dictionary, that means that you think it isn't a tax. Therefore it isn't a tax.

GS: But your critics say it's a tax.

BO: They're all racists. Just ask Jimmy.

So the president says it isn't a tax. George Snufalupagus is confused about whether it's a tax or not. The rest of the leftist media doesn't care if it's a tax or not, because they didn't even aks the question.

So, is it a tax, or isn't it?

I guess that depends on what the definition of "is" is.

Tax Hikes on the Way

I the "not so shocking news" category, administration officials on Sunday talk shows yesterday are admitting now that Obama plans to propose tax hikes to help pay for the Generational Theft Act as well as the health care system that is supposed to be self-supporting.

While out of one side of their mouths, they are proclaiming the recession to be over and that everything Obama has done is "working," they are now nixing the campaign promise of no taxes on those earning less that $250,000 a year. Higher income taxes as well as novel new taxes on things we'd never dreamed of taxing before are on the way.

Tim "Turbo Tax" Geithner was one of the administration officials making the rounds promoting the idea of new taxes, saying that now, it isn't a matter of if, but rather a matter of when.

Turbo Tax Tim doesn't mind new taxes. In fact he wants them, because he doesn't pay his taxes, but he gets to collect taxes from everyone else and spend our money.

Your Stimulus Tax Dollars (future tax dollars) Hard At Work...

Contracts – Recipient Summary

CLOUGHERTY PACKING, LLC

Clarification of Codes

Award Overview

Agency Name	Department of Agriculture	Project Location	LOS ANGELES
Contract Number	AG3J14120297196	Project Location – State	CA
Funding Amount	$1,191,200	Project Location – Zip Code	90058-1800
Completion Date	2009-06-30	Congressional District	CA-34

Recipient Information (Award)

Recipient Name	CLOUGHERTY PACKING, LLC	Recipient Address	3049 E VERNON AVE
Recipient City	LOS ANGELES	Recipient State	CALIFORNIA
Recipient Zip Code	90058-1800	Congressional District	CALIFORNIA-34

Description of Work/Service performed

2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED

...So, if I agree to slice a three pound frozen ham, will they pay me $2 MILLION?????

Internet Causes Global Warming

You should be ashamed of yourself. As you sit here and read yet another global-warming-is-a-hoax post by yours truly you are contributing to the warming of the planet.

At least that is what this article claims.

Wissner-Gross estimates every second someone spends browsing a simple web site generates roughly 20 milligrams of C02. Whether downloading a song, sending an email or streaming a video, almost every single activity that takes place in the virtual environment has an impact on the real one.

Or even reading articles about how you can save the planet, right? What can be more unbelievable than the claim that sitting behind a computer monitor is destroying the planet? How about a new “green internet?”

As millions more go online each year some researchers say the need to create a green Internet ecosystem is not only imperative but also urgent.

Naturally the article never actually mentions what a “green internet" ecosystem is. That is because there is no such thing, this whole issue is made up. The only “green internet ecosystem” that I can come up with is that the government is going to take our “green” away from us through taxes and regulations. Maybe we can implement an email cap and trade policy.

The article also fails to take into account that the more our society has turned to computers and the internet for recreation, the more we turn away from other things that create so-called greenhouse gasses. Like baseball and bicycle riding. (Remember, we breathe in oxygen and breath out CO2, the greenhouse gas, and we do it more when we are active.)

The article goes on to claim the following:

Anti-virus software firm McAfee reports that the electricity needed just to transmit the trillions of spam emails sent annually equals the amount required to power over two million homes in the United States while producing the same level of greenhouse gas emissions as more than three million cars.

“Most people don’t appreciate that the computer on your desk is contributing to global warming and that if its electricity comes from a coal power plant it produces as much C02 as a sports utility vehicle,” said Bill St. Arnaud of Canarie, a Canada-based internet development organization.

There you have it, spam emails are just as harmful to the planet as SUVs and we have all seen the scrutiny that SUV drivers have been under in recent years. If spam emails are helping to destroy the planet, that means all emails are destroying the planet, the planet cannot differentiate between a spam email and a non-spam email. Doesn’t that mean that emails need to be regulated (through taxes of course) in order to save the planet?

Obama Needs To Listen To His Own Speech

America's first black president spoke with a bluntness that perhaps could only come from a member of Africa's extended family.

"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or if police can be bought off by drug traffickers," he said

"No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery.

"That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there," he said, "and now is the time for that style of governance to end."

Yeah?

So, why tell Africa? Why not tell yourself?

Apparently, what is good for Africa is not good for the American people? I don't get it.

I feel a strange tingle going up my leg. It must be Obama "meddling".

(Thanks to 'Z' for the link)

ACES Up Her Sleeve

This article is from American Spectator.

By Jeremy Lott & William Yeatman on 6.29.09 @ 6:08AM

Well before Barack Obama brought hope to the White House, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi was adamant that something new and different and wonderful had arrived. In 2006, the incoming Speaker pledged that hers would be the "most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history."

At the time, we were skeptical -- to say the least. Our refusal to accept her rhetoric was roundly vindicated last week. That was when Madam-Speaker used every dirty trick at her disposal to coldly ram a 1,500 page global warming bill through the House of Representatives.

The Speaker chose to stifle the usual observances of deliberative democracy because open, honest debate would have attracted unwelcome scrutiny to her massive new energy tax.

Pelosi's legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, would raise the price of hydrocarbon energy sources like coal and oil thought to cause global warming, but which power 85 percent -- 85 percent! -- of the economic production in America.

A large energy tax during a deep recession is a political cyanide pill that 44 of Pelosi's Democratic colleagues refused to swallow. That almost doomed the bill and in fact would have killed it outright Friday night if eight Republicans hadn't voted with the majority of Democrats. (The final vote was 219 to 212.)

Likely there would have been many more Democratic "no" votes if Madame-Speaker and Energy & Commerce chairman Henry Waxman didn't find creative ways to shorten or skip every step of that "How a Bill Becomes a Law" song.

When fighting between the Energy & Commerce and Agriculture committees over the bill grew too intense, the farm lobby was bought off as were a lot of other Democrats. In exchange for votes, Pelosi and Waxman wrote countless paybacks, favors, and concessions into the legislation -- all without serious debate.

Indeed, House leadership crafted much of the ACES Act in secret behind closed doors. In the week before the final vote, it grew by a whopping 600 pages. Even that figure doesn't stress the urgent, secretive nature of the process. At 3:09 Friday morning, Waxman et al. introduced a 309-page "manager's amendment" to the legislation that was set for a vote later in the day.

Representatives would have had all of nine hours to study the text, assuming they went without sleep. The manager's amendment made even that impossible, because you had roughly 1,200 pages of text -- containing, at last count, 397 new government regulations and 1,090 new economic mandates -- followed by over 300 pages of text with no index that amended the previous legislation on paragraph by paragraph basis.

It would take a team of lawyers several days to sort out a mess like that.

We have to hand it to Oregon Republican Greg Waldren for his superb sense of understatement when he said he couldn't "imagine that anyone on this floor has read every word" of the ACES Act. That was the whole point of introducing the legislation under an extremely limited rule and only allowing three hours for debate on something that may take a good bite out of every American's pocketbook.

Pelosi and company had complained, rightly, that Republicans rushed some legislation through Congress. But her approach has been even less open to any kind of dissent than former Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

The "open" Congress that Pelosi promised back in 2006 would have allowed members of the House to voice their ideas about how to improve legislation. Fat chance. House leadership discarded all but one -- that's right, one -- of the 220 amendments submitted by House Republicans on the ACES Act, and allowed next to no time for debate. Georgia's Phil Gingrey complained on the House floor, "The Speaker and the Rules Committee have silenced the opposition."

They certainly tried to. If there's any silver lining to this, it's that congressional Republicans were incensed and unlikely to forget, or shut up about it. John Boehner used his privilege as Minority Leader to insist, over the befuddled objection of Waxman, on going past normal debate time limits and reading large chunks of the 11th hour amendment on the House floor.

And afterward, when Waxman requested unanimous consent to say a few celebratory words about his historic bill's passage, some Republican uttered those two magical words: "I object."