Distorting the tax policy debate (Rep. Ron Paul)

Congress freezes federal pay
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's official: Federal workers won't be getting a pay increase for the next two years, despite the best efforts of the unions that represent them. First proposed by President Obama three weeks ago, the freeze required the approval of Congress. On Tuesday, both chambers passed a short-term Budget fix that included the pay freeze. Email Print Comment Once President Obama signs that bill, it's a done deal. And federal workers are none too happy. "We are suffering th...

The Problem, Back Home
A news story last week raised the question: Can state lawmakers be “Conservatives” in Austin if they are cutting funding for necessary programs that governments back home will have to spend Tax Dollars to support? We think the answer is a resounding no. Unfortunately, the question will be raised on many fronts this legislative session as the state looks for ways to close a Budget Deficit now estimated to reach $28 billion. And despite what politicians may try to tell us once their sp...

No More Mister Nice Blog
MORE FROM THE FOX Conspiracy TO KEEP RIGHT-WINGERS STUPID Teaser on the home page of Fox Nation: Every card-carrying Wingnut knows the long-term unemployed are just lazy people who are playing on our sympathies so they can leech off us a little longer -- Sharron Angle has said as much, as have Tom DeLay, Steve King, Jon Kyl, and other Republicans. This is just further proof that it's true! Right? Well, when you click through to the AP story, you see that the answer is no: ... With national unem...

In Responding To Colbert, Bill OReilly Reveals He Worries That Largesse Will Be Wasted On The Poor
Now that the brouhaha over his appearance on The View has died down, Bill O’Reilly is now obsessing about Stephen Colbert mocking him about Jesus and helping the poor. O’Reilly spent at least three segments discussing it on The O’Reilly Factor last night (12/20/10), including his Talking Points Commentary. In defending his stance, O’Reilly made it pretty darned clear that he thinks the poor are likely to be squanderers. Judeo-Christian tradition does not require blind lar...

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK ASLEEP: Heh: Yesterday Department of Homeland Security Secretary said th
YOUR Tax Dollars AT WORK ASLEEP: Heh: “Yesterday Department of Homeland Security Secretary said that her department was working hard to protect American Citizens 24 hours/day, 7/days a week, 364 days a/year (yes she said 364). She did not, however, say whether they were protecting us in all 57 states.” ...

The Evil Paul Krugman Attacks Ron Paul
Writes Robert Wenzel: Wow, I guess Paul Krugman got spoken to about calling Ron Paul consistent. I mean he must have gotten really reamed. He is out with a new absurd attack on Congressman Paul that ranks up there with the Kennedy Assassination magic bullet theory for absurd reasoning. The year is not quite up yet, but I’m pretty sure this post alone will result in Krugman getting this year’s Gene Callahan Award for Absurd Argumentative Style. Krugman writes this: Paleomonetarism I...

Senior Safety Nets at Risk in 2011
When Texas Governor Rick Perry recently threatened to pull his state out of Medicaid, he was hardly alone. Across the country, state Budgets continue to be strapped. Federal stimulus dollars are running out. And the latest Federal Tax and stimulus package will not provide much relief at the state and local levels. Meanwhile, looming provisions of health reform will add a projected 16 million to the Medicaid rolls. Where are the facilities to take care of these folks? Where is the money? [See 1...

Mean Regression
This item is cross-posted from The New Republic. The last few months of 2010 have been illuminating when it comes to the priorities of the Republican Party. By jumping at the Obama-McConnell tax deal, Republicans underscored the fact that protecting the marginal Tax Rates of high earners--not reducing the federal Deficit, and not even denying Obama legislative success--is their party's primary focus at the federal level. It says something that most Conservatives who opposed the tax deal did so...

Lame Duck spasms and other December twitches; the lack of a budget has longest shelf life
Posted by Clyde Middleton on Dec 22 2010 Filed under Business, Constitution, Featured, News & Opinion, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry DADT, START 3, CR, Tax Rates, Internet Regulation: Five spasmodic episodes since the November Punishment ending with a signature on the death cert for the 111th Congress.  All that was accomplished by the twitching was to give surrounding loved ones false hope th...

The Freedom Centers New Campaign: Countering an Anti-Semitic Propaganda Assault on Israel in Seattle
The David Horowitz Freedom Center put out this Press Release today. Above is the ad we’ll be placing on Seattle buses to counter the anti-Semitic ads which were recently purchased. Radical Propaganda on Our City Streets Responding to an advertisement on municipal buses in downtown Seattle accusing Israel of War Crimes, the David Horowitz Freedom Center today began its own counter campaign to denounce Palestinian War Crimes. Placed by a pro Palestinian group calling itself the Seattle Mi...

CNN Poll Shows GOP Won Far Better Deal on Tax Extension
The latest CNN Poll (PDF) is amazing proof that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell got a much better bargain than President Obama on the Bush Tax Cut deal. According the poll the major “concession” Obama won from Republicans — an extension of Unemployment Benefits — is extremely popular. A full 76 percent of respondents favor the extension while only 22 percent oppose. What Obama received in turn from McConnell was Republicans “willingness” to support an extreme...

Billions for Millionaires, Zilch for Neediest Families
Not only did Congress give zillionaires billions of dollars in Tax Breaks, they also told the people at the bottom of the economic ladder, “tough luck.”  With Unemployment at nearly 10 percent and 19 million Americans currently living in “deep Poverty”  (below half the poverty line),  federal funds for the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) program, the Federal Program that replaced welfare, have entirely dried up for the first time since 1996. That

Orrin Hatch Latest Lawmaker To Flunk Unemployment Legislation 101 (VIDEO)
WASHINGTON -- Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said this week that extended Unemployment Insurance "is well over 100 weeks now," making him the latest Millionaire member of Congress to publicly demonstrate that he does not understand the Unemployment Legislation he obstructs. The jobless aid programs reauthorized late Thursday night provide up to 73 weeks of benefits for people who have exhausted 26 weeks of state benefits. The reauthorization lasts for 13 months, but that doesn't mean there a...

Eric Holder is worried about Americans becoming a terrorist threat
  Attorney General Eric Holder once called America a nation of cowards, but there is something that Eric Holder fears so much that he loses sleep over it-the American People and the possibility that they will become radicalized and begin Terrorist activity against the government. It is one of the things that keeps me up at night,” Holder said. “You didn’t worry about this even two years ago — about individuals, about Americans, to the extent that we now do...

Attorney General Eric Holder: Threat of Homegrown Terrorism "Keeps Me Up At Night"
In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke of the ongoing fight to protect American National Security and expressed his growing concern with the threat of homegrown terror - a danger which he said "keeps me up at night." "What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant," Holder told ABC's Pierre Thomas, in an interview that aired Tuesday morning....

Immigration... Will We Make the Right Decision?
by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Immigration continues to preoccupy political considerations in our nation. For the rational and thinking individual it is laughable at best and dangerous at its worst. We indeed are a nation of immigrants. From our very beginnings as a colonial extension of the British Empire we drew peoples from Europe notions. This diversity was then, and remains a positive today. Having said this we must remember that we are now a nation of some 234 years. We have well ...

New Jersey Senate Supports Bill Funding Planned Parenthood
The New Jersey state Senate on Monday approved a bill that would restore the state Taxpayer funding of the family planning efforts run by the Planned Parenthood Abortion business. Last month, the state Assembly approved a pair of bills to restore the funding pro-life Gov. Chris Christie revoked for financial reasons. However, the passage of the bills came seven votes shy of what is needed to override another expected gubernatorial Veto. Yesterday, senators voted for S2393/A3273, which transfers ...

Subsidizing stupidity
Ethanol isn't the only heavily subsidized energy source that won a multibillion dollar jackpot in last week's tax deal. The other big winner was the wind industry, which received a one year extension of a $3 billion grant program for Renewable Energy projects. Talk about throwing good money after bad. Despite more than $30 billion in Subsidies for "Clean Energy" in the 2009 stimulus bill, Big Wind still can't make it in the marketplace. Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind...

The 2% (non) Solution: Part Two
Had a long day of Social Security related blogginess so will just put up this to spark some discussion: In Part One of this post I discussed the danger that the 2% 'temporary' Payroll Tax cut might be a Trojan Horse destined never to expire in full or at all only to have any continuing backfill from the General Fund (by then surely to be described as a 'subsidy') subject to an ongoing series of 'compromises' that gradually phase in benefit cuts rather than take the whole thing at one gulp. In ...

Ports Release: Charleston Volume Up 14 Percent
(Editor’s Note: This is a news release from a government agency. It does not necessarily reflect the editorial position of FITSNews.com. To submit your news release, email blast, media advisory or issues statement for publication, click here ). Charleston, SC - The Port of Charleston’s container volume increased more than 14 percent in November, the 11th consecutive month of growth. Charleston’s container volume in November totaled 65,251 pier containers, up 14.4 percent ...

Subsidizing stupidity
We've talked here about Obama's war on Fossil Fuels and the Collateral Damage being wrought. Couple that news with what follows and understand that we're headed for disaster: Ethanol isn't the only heavily subsidized energy source that won a multibillion dollar jackpot in last week's tax deal. The other big winner was the wind industry, which received a one year extension of a $3 billion grant program for Renewable Energy projects. Talk about throwing good money after bad. Despite more than $3...

Obama: Repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' will strengthen national security
Declaring that members of the Military will no longer be asked to lie, President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise Wednesday and signed a landmark law repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the armed services. "This is a good day," a beaming Obama said. "This is a very good day." The service chiefs must complete implementation plans before lifting the old policy — and they must certify to lawmakers that it won't damage combat readiness, as critics charge. But the ...

9/11 health bill passage could come tomorrow
The Senate is expected to clear a procedural hurdle Wednesday that could lead to final passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act later in the day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has assured both New York senators a vote on the bill will occur after the Senate finishes work on the START nuclear arms treaty with Russia. That’s expected to happen either late in the afternoon or early evening Wednesday. New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand ha

Obama signs 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal
President Barack Obama signs the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010, at the Interior Department in Washington. WASHINGTON—Declaring that members of the Military will no longer be asked to lie, President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise Wednesday and signed a landmark law repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the armed services. "This is a good day," a beaming Obama said. "This is a very good day." The service chiefs must comple...

Obama signs 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal
WASHINGTON — Declaring that members of the Military will no longer be asked to lie, President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise Wednesday and signed a landmark law repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the armed services. "This is a good day," a beaming Obama said. "This is a very good day." The service chiefs must complete implementation plans before lifting the old policy — and they must certify to lawmakers that it won’t damage combat readiness, a...