Waking up?

Americans might (just might) finally be figuring out this debt thing.

PRINCETON, NJ -- The large majority of Americans say spending too much money on unneeded or wasteful federal programs is to blame for the federal budget deficit, while 22% say the deficit is a consequence of not raising enough in taxes to pay for needed programs.(link)

Read the whole thing and check out the breakdown on the numbers. Democrats are still much more likely to want to raise taxes, but even they have a majority (56%) that think out of control spending is the problem.

Cap and Tax

Clyde Middleton and I just concluded a blogger conference call with the House Whip Team. On the call were Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Erik Paulsen (R-MN).

The major news from the call was that Cap and Trade is, according to Rep. Jordan, “all but dead in the House.”...(link)

More good news from the party once called conservative. Cap and Tax err Trade is one of the biggest (not the biggest since ObamaCare is still in the works) thefts of American wealth ever put forth by any legislature.

For the purpose of 'protecting the climate' (which the bill wouldn't even do) the citizens would have to pay higher prices for energy... and of course since every product you buy has energy being used to make it, guess what would happen to the prices of all those 'luxury' goods (you know: food, water, shelter, etc.)? Of course they'd skyrocket also. Since the manufacturers would have to pay more to produce, they would charge more (not the full amount, some would be taken back by cutting pay and a very small amount eaten from profit) for their products to consumers.

So not only do you have the 'direct tax' of higher electric bills (around $1761 per year [link]) you would also bite the indirect price raise by each business that had their electric bills raised. The cost to each person would be much higher than any estimate because of the 'pass-down' method of pricing by business.

Killing this behemoth bill is a very high priority (just behind the ObamaCare fiasco) and you should let your congresscritters know how you feel on this. (easy way here)

Ed talks about this among other non-tax taxes in his latest AIP column here

Tax THEN Spend

A great look at Democratic policies at work (or liberal policies if you want to get 100% accurate):

The Chicago Sun-Times really pulled a whopper in their March 26th piece about a tax on bottled water that the Chicago City Council passed earlier this year. Chicago levied a 5 cent a bottle tax on each unit of bottled water sold in the city expecting to raise $875,000 a month on the tax. But somehow this windfall to the city has yet to be realized with the tax booty so far only amounting to $554,000. Because of this "below expected" revenue the Sun-Times claimed that this shortfall is "exacerbating a budget crunch" for the city.

I'm sorry Sun-Times but a tax shortfall isn't "exacerbating a budget crunch." The city itself is doing the "exacerbating" not the taxpayers. The City Council created a never before heard of tax and then spent the money it assumed it'd get. But then it didn't get it. How can we blame the taxpayers who avoided the tax -- legally avoided it, I might add -- for any "budget crunch"? The budget crunch is the fault of wild spending by the Chicago City Council, not by the taxpayers not being bled enough.

NewsBusters

Click through and read the rest; it's enough to make you wonder (unless of course you believe in the power of the almighty government, then you'll simply wonder at the evil!! of the tax-payers that didn't buy the water).

Tags: NewsBusters, Chicago Sun-Times, taxes, chutzpah, liberalism, Lord Nazh, Verlin Martin

Taxes

In a totally surprising move, Congress today showed that when W leaves they will raise our taxes enormously (/sarc).

Both the House and the Senate basically are telling the American people that no matter what you think of your current situation (or what the media tells you to think of it), just wait a little bit and it will get worse.

The Democrats promise to get the books back in the black while making each and every American pay more (the Senate wants some to pay more, and some not) while also raising unemployment and inflation. (ok I made the last part up, but if you take a slowing economy and jump taxes on it, guess what will happen) Of course these votes didn't actually mean anything, they were simply political in nature (which is actually the best kind of votes for us little people; the less that Congress of either stripe actually passes, the better).

The one bill that would have been great for the public probably won't pass however, the earmark one-year ban looks like it will die an agonizing death (hopefully they'll surprise me on that one). Why can't they simply take money from the people that keep bitching that taxes are too low? Do these people not realize that they can simply pay more? Maybe they should try that route.

Went out and played a round of golf today, first time in a couple years that I've been able to get out there. I won't put my score in here so I don't upset anyone (me), but it was fun and hopefully with me living in Decatur, I can do it more often. I need to light a fire under my co-bloggers to get more copy out here, but what can you do :)
Yahoo

tag: taxes, Congress, budget, , earmarks, politics, Verlin Martin, Lord Nazh

Fred on taxes

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson proposed an income tax plan Sunday that would allow Americans to choose a simplified system with only two rates: 10 percent and 25 percent.

Thompson's proposal, announced on "Fox News Sunday," would allow filers to remain under the current, complex tax code or use the flat tax rates.

Asked whether the plan would cut too deeply into federal revenues, the former Tennessee senator and actor said experts "always overestimate the losses to the government" when taxes are cut.

"We've known for years any time we have lowered taxes and any time we've lowered tax rates, we've seen growth in the economy," Thompson said.

Thompson added that money would be saved by his Social Security reform plan. He proposed that workers younger than 58 receive smaller monthly Social Security checks than they are now promised. Individuals could contribute 2 percent of their paycheck to a personal retirement account, an amount that would be matched by the Social Security trust fund. [link]

Some solid policy speak from Fred. Hopefully this will get his campaign back on track in time for the upcoming votes. I'll vote for the Republican nominee, but I'd feel much better if that was Fred :)

tag: Fred Thompson, taxes, policy, presidential election, republican, republican primaries, Blogpower, Lord Nazh