Clipmarks | Eaglewings's 'taxes' clips

How Government Regulation effects oil prices at the pump

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:33:20 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings
clipper's remarks: As is usually the case with government intervention into private enterprise the unexpected results are usually far worse than the original problem congress set out to solve. Doesn't anybody study history anymore? It was not that long ago that the same ideas were floating around congress during the Carter years. Anyone remember the odd even gas days and the long lines at the pumps because of the government forced oil shortages of the 70's

Among other mistakes from that period, the government increased the taxes levied on domestic oil producers, as if that would somehow help.

The result was “reduced domestic oil production from between 3 and 6 percent, and increased oil imports from between 8 and 16 percent.”

The government also instituted price controls, which only served to create the notorious gas shortages of that era. Yes, price controls meant consumers could get cheaper gas — but only after waiting in long gas lines and only if stations didn’t run out first.

Clip Source: www.heritage.org

When it comes to soaring gasoline prices, we need a federal government that does less.

We need fewer restrictions on domestic oil drilling.

The only reason not to drill is the environmental concerns.

We also need less regulatory red tape affecting refineries and gasoline supplies.

It would be worthwhile to streamline the regulations that make it all but impossible to build a new refinery and more difficult and time-consuming to expand an existing one.

Simplifying or eliminating the federal requirements that dictate the recipe (actually a dozen different recipes) for fuel also would help.

Worst of all the federal requirements is the one requiring that corn-based ethanol be mixed into the gasoline supply. Not only does ethanol use raise the cost of driving, but diverting corn from food to fuel has raised food prices, as well.

Congress needs to start undoing the damage it has done. If it enacts more of the same instead, get ready for $4 or even $5 gas.

Tags: gas, fuel, energy, governement, price, control

Labor Unions driving force behind California City fiscal collapse

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:14:57 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings
clipper's remarks: California, a democratic stronghold, faces a fiscal crisis brought on by unrestrained public employee union pension demands. Unfunded benefits are eating away at the fiscal pie leaving less and less for general funding. These unfunded benefits will eventually bankrupt many municipalities not only in California but elsewhere.

Clip Source: www.weeklystandard.com

Welcome to the next great financial bubble in America--a fiscal time bomb that could cause your local and state tax bills to double or even triple in years to come.

Soaring public employee pension costs are crunching municipal budgets and causing service cuts or tax hikes across the state. In the Los Angeles County school system, health, pension, and workers compensation liabilities are so mountainous that an estimated one of every three dollars budgeted for the L.A. schools goes to teacher retirement costs. "The three Rs in the L.A. County school system are now reading, writing, and retirement," moans Richman.

Clip Source: www.weeklystandard.com

"The public employee unions are far and away the most powerful special interest in the state. They run the state and virtually no politician will stand up to them." She remembers being physically threatened one year when the state was broke and she tried to trim a $400 million bonus in the pensions for corrections officers: "I had to fear for my life."

Tags: taxes, pensions, public, labor, unions

Democrat suggests raising gas tax in Michigan

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:41:29 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

A Michigan congressman wants to put a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline to try to cut back on Americans' consumption.

Polls show that a majority of Americans support policies that would reduce greenhouse gases. But when it comes to paying for it, it's a different story.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., wants to help cut consumption with a gas tax but some don't agree with the idea, according to a new poll by the National Center for Public Policy Research.

The poll, scheduled to be released on Thursday, shows 48 percent don't support paying even a penny more, 28 percent would pay up to 50 cents more, 10 percent would pay more than 50 cents and 8 percent would pay more than a dollar.

Some environmentalists and economists say pain at the pump may be bad for Americans, but good medicine for a sick planet.

But others say it wouldn't change much. Even if Americans abandoned their cars, global emissions would fall by less than one percent.

Tags: john dingill, gasoline, gas, inflation, taxes. tax

Rudy's Twelve Commandments.

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:41:55 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings
clipper's remarks: God had ten and we can not keep those perhaps Rudy can keep his twelve commandments. I have to admit it is far more refreshing to hear someone actually putting forth a plan to do SOMETHING rather than just harping on all that is wrong with Washington. Politicians is what is wrong with Washington perhaps it is time we elect a common JOE to the office of President someone who actually knows what it is like to try to live with all these lawmakers' laws.

Just my two cents worth.

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

I am making 12 Commitments to the American People. They are intended to lift our vision from the rearview mirror to the road ahead. If I am elected president, I want to be held accountable for the progress we make as a nation.

1) I will keep America on offense in the Terrorists’ War on Us.

2) I will end illegal immigration, secure our borders and identify every non-citizen in our nation.

3) I will restore fiscal discipline and cut wasteful Washington spending

4) I will cut taxes and reform the tax code.

5) I will impose accountability on Washington.

6) I will lead America towards energy independence.

7) I will give Americans more control over their health care with affordable and portable free-market solutions.

8) I will increase adoptions, decrease abortions, and protect the quality of life for our children.

9) I will reform the legal system and appoint strict constructionist judges.

10) I will ensure that every community in America is prepared for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

Tags: rudy, giuliani, presidential candidate, primary

June 9th 1943, Congress introduces public to tax withholding.

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 18:56:47 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings
clipper's remarks: Emergency measure to pay for the war. Well like anything else that originates in Congress we are still paying for the 1943 war. Like everything else that brings money into the federal government this will never disappear.

Perhaps we need to elect another Andrew Jackson as President! One who sees the evil of excessive taxation on a free market society. What are the chances?

Clip Source: www.amerisearch.net

Withholding taxes from people's paychecks began JUNE 9, 1943. Congress passed it as an emergency measure to get money to fight Hitler. The idea came from Beardsley Ruml, treasurer of Macy's and chairman of New York's Federal Reserve Bank. He called it the "pay-as-you-go" tax. So much money came in with so few complaints that it continued after the war. President John F. Kennedy, April 20, 1961, stated to Congress: "Introduced during the war when the income tax was extended to millions of new taxpayers, the wage-withholding system has been one of the most important and successful advances in our tax system in recent times.

Americans weren't always taxed so much. In a Veto Message to Congress, May 27, 1830, President Andrew Jackson stated: "Through the favor of an overruling and indulgent Providence our country is blessed with general prosperity and our citizens exempted from the pressure of taxation, which other less favored portions of the human family are obliged to bear."

Tags: taxes, government, income tax

Why Companies Set up Shop overseas

Wed, 02 May 2007 01:13:28 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

Why do U.S. companies relocate their plants overseas, thereby abolishing U.S. jobs?

a. They can hire workers at very low wages (such as 30 cents an hour in China).

b. The companies don't have to pay any employee benefits.

c. They don't have to comply with safety and environmental regulations.

d. They don't have to pay foreign taxes when they export their products back to us.

The correct answer is all of the above. The United States cannot require foreign governments to impose a minimum wage or safety regulations, or pay employee benefits. But the U.S. can and should do something about (d), the huge tax-rebate racket that lures U.S. companies to lay off American workers and set up shop in foreign countries.

Foreign governments also tax corporations, but if the company exports its products to the United States, or other countries, the foreign government rebates (forgives) the tax.

Corporations located in the United States pay big U.S. corporate income and property taxes.

Tags: taxes, imports, corporations, business

Servant of God or Greed? You be the judge

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 02:28:08 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings
clipper's remarks: No wonder the Gospel of Jesus Christ is much maligned around the world. We got so called preachers of God's word living greedy lifestyles while Jesus taught self denial and self sacrifice. Not much sacrificing going on here I do not think. Nevertheless Lord Jesus do come quickly.

Clip Source: www.detnews.com

Detroit World Outreach Church considers its purchase of this mansion proof of God's blessing.

Wayne E. Smith / The Detroit News

NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP -- A Redford Township church that believes wealth is God's reward is raising eyebrows for buying its pastor a $3.65 million mansion and taking it off the tax rolls.

This month, township officials grudgingly conceded they had no choice but to remove the 11,000-square-foot home overlooking Maybury State Park from its assessment rolls, losing $40,000 annually in taxes.

They concluded the plush pad is a parsonage, but that hasn't quelled debate among township officials and neighbors about whether Christian charity extends to the Detroit World Outreach Church's purchase in September of the home for Pastor Ben Gibert and his wife and co-pastor, Charisse Gibert.

"In this country we value rock stars, movie stars and athletes

When our value system elevates a man who can put a ball in a hole and not a man who does God's work, something is wrong."

Tags: greed, prosperity, rich, pastors, wealth

Where our Tax Money Really Goes

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 04:13:44 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings
clipper's remarks: Once every taxpayers comes to grips with were our tax money really goes perhaps then and only then will the populace be able to pick leaders who are serious about our future. Taxing the rich to GIVE MONEY AWAY to those who do not work, refuse to work, are not able to work, or just feel they earned a hand out is not what government was set up to do. All this talk about cutting defense spending is only a smoke screen to keep our focus off of the REAL BUDGET sucker. Listen closely for that big sucking sound you hear coming from Washington is the sound of your hard earned money being sucked out of your pocket right into the pocket of someone who is not working.

Clip Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

Tags: government, taxes, waste, graft, welfare, social security

Gov Needs to Take 3 Trillion dollars from US this year!

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 01:29:21 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings
clipper's remarks: HOLD ON TIGHTER to your wallets ladies and gentlemen the government has just told us HOW MUCH MONEY they are going to take from us. 3 trillion dollars. Now that is a lot of hamburgers. That is more than it would cost to buy a small country. HELL we could have bought IRAQ for that money. This is insane. If the government had to EARN that much money I wonder what the budget would look like then?

Clip Source: apnews.myway.com

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush sent a $2.90 trillion spending plan to a Democratic-controlled Congress on Monday, proposing a big increase in military spending, including billions more to fight the war in Iraq, while squeezing the rest of government to meet his goal of eliminating the deficit in five years.

Bush's spending plan would make his first-term tax cuts permanent, at a cost of $1.6 trillion over 10 years. He is seeking $78 billion in savings in the government's big health care programs - Medicare and Medicaid - over the next five years.

The president insisted that he had made the right choices to keep the nation secure from terrorist threats and the economy growing.

To help achieve what would be the government's first surplus since 2001, Bush is proposing $95.9 billion in savings in mandatory spending, the part of the budget that includes the big benefit programs of Social Security and health care.

Medicare, which provides health insurance for 43 million older and disabled Americans, would see the bulk of those savings - reductions of $66 billion over five years. That would come about primarily by slowing the growth of payments to health care providers.

Additional savings would be achieved by charging higher income Medicare beneficiaries bigger monthly premiums.

Bush's energy proposals would expand use of ethanol and other renewable fuels with a goal of cutting gasoline use by 20 percent over the next decade.

Tags: federal government, federal spending, budget, inflation, government, taxes