I should have added Tennessee State Government. These two items are right up there with the Tennessee law that taxes illegal drugs.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
The IRS and South Carolina State Govt: DUMB!!
Dallas TeaParty groups getting out the vote
Link
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― With early balloting for the March 2 primary getting underway in a matter of days, politicians are trying to get out their vote.
Members of various Tea Party groups are canvassing door-to-door as well, but they're not backing any specific candidates. They're backing all of them.
From Dallas to Carrollton and all across the area, an estimated 50 teams from various Tea Parties hit the pavement Saturday to not only alert potential voters about the primary, but also to get promises.
When candidates canvass a neighborhood door-to-door they're generally asking people to vote for them, but the Tea Party groups are just asking people to vote, period.
Tea Parties are neophytes compared to established political groups. But they have what all parties want: motivated members.
Members like Carrollton's Billy Penn "We're non-partisan, not Democrat or Republican we're trying to get people interested in the government."
State of Calif prints SocSec nums on outside of envelopes
Link
The numbers were printed on the outside of envelopes sent to elderly patients of the Adult Day Health Care program, many of whom are blind or have Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive disabilities. The Department of Health Care Services sent the envelopes, which contained change-of-benefit notices, Feb. 1.
Officials have since sent follow-up letters advising recipients to destroy the envelopes and are advising patients to contact credit agencies to put a freeze on new accounts.
Beware of Tennessee hospitals bearing tax "gifts"
Tennessee hospitals are just fine paying a new tax....if we give them more Federal taxpayer money....sounds like one of those "heads I win, tails you lose" deals. (hint: Federal Taxpayers are amazingly similar to State taxpayers.)
THA president Craig Becker said the fee would begin on July 1 and be reviewed after a year. He wasn't sure about the exact amount of the fee, but said it could be between "1 and 2 percent".
Whatever it is, he said patients won't be affected.
Five ways bloggers can use OpenCongress.org
OpenCongress.org is an exceptional resource for bloggers. Highly recommended.
Political engagement is what we care about the most at OpenCongress. We think it’s fundamental for fighting corruption, dysfunction and apathy in our government. That’s why we’re striving to make the best primary source information on Congress for political bloggers to use. Every page on OpenCongress gives you—
The best one-page summary — all the crucial official information on bills, issues, senators and reps. is available at-a-glance on a single page.
The ability to write your members of Congress — login (or register) to your free “My OpenCongress” account, and emailing your federal elected officials about a bill is just one click away.
A chance to create political networks — use our pages to coordinate actions with people that feel the same way as you on an issue. OpenCongress pages have created powerful coalitions that have affected legislation.
Information in context — Rather than just showing bills, senators, reps. and issues, we let you know you which ones people are paying the most attention to on the internet and which ones are “hot.”
Here are five ways bloggers and journalists can use OpenCongress right now to help shed more light on D.C. and give people the information they need to hold power accountable:
Will Tea Partiers actually stand by small Govt principles?
This USAToday reader has it right. The real test of Tea Party effectiveness will come when they are asked to give up their share of government largess. Will we actually fight to reduce spending?
1. Will Tea Party seniors support reductions in Social Security and Medicare benefits and increases to the retirement age?
2. Will Tea Party farmers support elimination of farm and ethanol subsidies?
3. Will Tea Party members from Long Beach, Calif., support canceling the C-17 aircraft program?
4. Will Tea Party members from the Space Coast and Houston support cutbacks to the manned space program?
If the answer is yes, then the movement serves a purpose. Otherwise, it does not.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Obama's Phantom $15 Bil Program for Small Businesses
Link
Last March 16, President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced a new $15 billion program to help encourage loans to small businesses -- the Unlocking Credit for Small Businesses, or UCSB program.
Subsequently, wrote Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, in his latest report, "two additional initiatives were announced to support small-business lending, and Treasury announced an increase of the TARP funding dedicated to support these efforts to $30 billion."
But oddly, Barofsky noted, as of December 31, 2009, "the details of the initiative under this program had not been announced and no funds had been disbursed."
A $15-30 billion program for small businesses and no details have been released?
And no money disbursed??
Greek public employee unions hellbent on self-destruction
Why are public employee unions (and even some private unions) like a parasite that is determined to kill the host that sustains it?? Greece has the shakiest economy in a very shaky EU....and yet the unions are still hellbent on causing even more trouble.
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek unions pledged on Monday to fight austerity measures with a public sector strike this week, the first test of the government's commitment to cut deficits and a ballooning public debt which has shaken the euro.
Wednesday's planned 24-hour strike comes as Prime Minister George Papandreou puts the finishing touches to details of a deficit-reduction plan, endorsed by the European Commission last week to pull Greece's finances back from the brink.
The AIG/Goldman Taxpayer shakedown
Goldman and AIG used their considerable connections within both the Federal Reserve and the Bush and Obama administrations to extort billions from the taxpayers under the "too big to fail" ruse. It was the heist of the young century. This NYTimes article focuses in the AIG-Goldman conflict but also offers insight into the government/financial industry complex that served Goldman and AIG so well.
Behind-the-scenes disputes over huge sums are common in banking, but the standoff between A.I.G. and Goldman would become one of the most momentous in Wall Street history. Well before the federal government bailed out A.I.G. in September 2008, Goldman’s demands for billions of dollars from the insurer helped put it in a precarious financial position by bleeding much-needed cash. That ultimately provoked the government to step in.
With taxpayer assistance to A.I.G. currently totaling $180 billion, regulatory and Congressional scrutiny of Goldman’s role in the insurer’s downfall is increasing. The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining the payment demands that a number of firms — most prominently Goldman — made during 2007 and 2008 as the mortgage market imploded.
The S.E.C. wants to know whether any of the demands improperly distressed the mortgage market, according to people briefed on the matter who requested anonymity because the inquiry was intended to be confidential.
TIME: Five Lessons from the Tea-Party Convention
Link
As with any protest movement, consensus proved elusive in two days of debate, but they seemed to agree on five key points:
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Red Light Cameras were all about the MONEY from the start
The vendor says their cameras are not catching enough citizens breaking the law so they are shutting them down. GOOD!
Cleveland city officials said red light cameras in the city seem to be effective, but the company furnishing the cameras has asked that the cameras come down.
Accordingly, they will be removed at the end of March.
The firm that supplied the cameras said both it and the city have been losing money on the operation.
George Will summarizes Paul Ryan's Plan for solvency
Paul Ryan's plan is an excellent road map to sanity and solvency and George Will does a good job summarizing.
To make the economy -- on which all else hinges -- hum, Ryan proposes tax reform. Masochists would be permitted to continue paying income taxes under the current system. Others could use a radically simplified code, filing a form that fits on a postcard. It would have just two rates: 10 percent on incomes up to $100,000 for joint filers and $50,000 for single filers; 25 percent on higher incomes. There would be no deductions, credits or exclusions, other than the health-care tax credit (see below).
Drug raid uncovers massive tax fraud scheme
Link
It is believed Bodden was filing income tax returns from her mobile home, primarily tax returns for illegal immigrants, and claiming the first-time home buyers tax credit of $8,000.
If someone is using a Social Security number and paid taxes through an employer, income tax returns can be filed.
“This was a very organized and elaborate tax fraud scheme,” Entrekin said. Records to confirm about $200,000 in tax refunds were discovered.
It is suspected that many more tax returns have been filed electronically and that information can be obtained through a forensic investigation of the computers.
It appears Bodden was profiting by filing the returns and charging 25 percent of the tax refund. The refunds were deposited into a bank account over which she had control.
Agents found one instance in which a person’s refund was about $12,000 and she made $2,700.
District Attorney Jimmie Harp gave an example of one tax return in which a person believed to be in the U.S. illegally made $6,000 last year and got a $13,000 refund using the tax credit.
Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit Commander Rob Savage said investigators have not found any homes listed as purchased on the returns that even exist.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Wash Post: the Toxic influence of one Teacher's union
Link
As far as we know, this arrangement is unique; in elections elsewhere, unions and other special interests contribute to candidates, not vice versa. But such is the overweening power of the teachers union in Montgomery that the usual rules are turned upside down. And it's no coincidence that the union's toxic influence in local elections is matched by its success in squeezing unaffordable concessions from the county in contract negotiations -- at taxpayers' expense.
In the latest elections for the Montgomery County Council, in 2006, most candidates on the union-approved (and trademarked) "Apple Ballot" coughed up the maximum contribution allowed by state law, $6,000, to a PAC run by the Montgomery County Education Association, as the teachers union is known. Union-backed candidates for the Board of Education also paid handsomely. Supposedly, these funds covered the cost of the union's mailings to constituents and other activities on behalf of its anointed candidates -- although there is no real accounting on a campaign-by-campaign basis. In theory, these contributions are voluntary. In fact, several sources told us that the MCEA's chief political strategist, Jon Gerson, made it clear that he expected candidates, once endorsed, to pay what they "owed" for the union's campaign on their behalf. One candidate, asked to explain the decision to pay, answered concisely: "Fear."
Friday, February 05, 2010
Maybe this is why the IRS wanted more shotguns
Obama wants to increase the penalties for: "aggravated failure to file."
Yep, you will be aggravated if you see IRS agents with shotguns.
Under current law, the willful failure to pay taxes is a misdemeanor. You could go to jail for up to a year and pay a maximum fine of $25K (for individuals, $100K for corporations) for each year you fail to file a return. There is a proposal in the new budget to increase the penalty for repeated failure to file a tax return:Any person who willfully fails to file tax returns in any three years within any five consecutive year period, if the aggregated tax liability for such period is at least $50,000, would be subject to a new aggravated failure to file criminal penalty. The proposal would classify such failure as a felony and, upon conviction, impose a fine of not more than $250,000 ($500,000 in the case of a corporation) or imprisonment for not more than five years, or both.
Poll: Michigan House Dems Lose 15-17 Seats
Link
To do that the governor will need either budget cuts or revenue increases, and if it's the later, she has a huge problem. During a recent closed-door retreat, house democrats were told if the election was held today, they could lose between 15 and 17 seats, although some claim the number is smaller. Either way, that means democrats could lose control of the house.
Rep. Mark Meadows, (D) East Lansing: "Having a revenue increase during this year is going to be a difficult sell for anybody."
Republican Senator Richard Shelby extorting money from taxpayers
Shelby is apparently holding the Senate and the taxpayers hostage to his earmark greed.
I suppose he hasn't heard about the trillion deficits. This is despicable.
According to the report, Shelby is holding Obama's nominees hostage until a pair of lucrative programs that would send billions in taxpayer dollars to his home state get back on track. The two programs Shelby wants to move forward or else:
- A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers. From CongressDaily: "Northrop/EADS team would build the planes in Mobile, Ala., but has threatened to pull out of the competition unless the Air Force makes changes to a draft request for proposals." Federal Times offers more details on the tanker deal, and also confirms its connection to the hold.
- An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI. From CongressDaily: "[Shelby] is frustrated that the Obama administration won't build" the center, which Shelby earmarked $45 million for in 2008. The center is due to be based "at the Army's Redstone Arsenal."
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