Articles tagged as

Tax Cuts

Instead of a ‘Trade War’ German Car Makers Propose Tariff Free Trade With United States

tariffTwo weeks ago the Left was predicting a trade apocalypse after Mr. Trump said he wanted our G7 allies to drop their tariffs on US goods or he’d raise ours to match them. As an alternative, on his way out the door to meet with Kim Jong Un (something else no other U.S. President had done), he suggested a tariff and subsidy-free trading zone amongst all G7 nations.

The Democrat Party apocalypse tour shouted good night America! as they looked for their next world-ending Trump Derangement Syndrome induced narrative. But somewhere along the way, Germany’s largest automakers said, “hey, we’d love to end all import tariffs on cars between the EU and the US.”

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Demokrat Diktionary – Tax Cuts

Tax Cuts:  Money you earned legally that the Democrats did not take from you (yet). Example.  You earn $1000.00 dollars.  The government takes $200.00, but it could have taken $500.00.  In this example, the Democrats gave you a $300.00 dollar tax cut.  (They actually gave you a 500.00 tax cut because none of that money is really … Read more

Ask A NH Democrat: About Having “A Conversation About Taxes”

Back in 2010 Barack Obama’s excuse for not allowing taxes to rise (by letting inherited tax cuts expire) was that despite Democrats four year grip on congress and their parties complete control of government for two years, it wasn’t time to let that happen.   But not to worry.  He’d let taxes go back up at … Read more

Making ‘Cents’ To Democrats

Getting Pennies while we can - sunsetting the cigarette taxRep Ken Wyler, R-Kingston NH, took the Portsmouth Herald to task, in Fosters Daily Democrat, (Fosters.com) for its recent editorial on the cigarette tax decrease.  The Herald would like us to continue raising tobacco taxes every year, just like when the Democrats were in power, essentially pimping the Democrat party argument that we need the revenue, and that the tax decrease was pointless.

I’ve been arguing for a much larger decrease of the cigarette tax than the Republican House settled on for years.  It seemed obvious to me.    We make a hell of a lot more on Rooms and Meals taxes and that revenue is shared with towns–(ironic considering how Democrats pilfered that tax for reasons that will become obvious in a moment.)    Increased commerce overall is a benefit to the business community, profits, employment, wages, and the business tax revenue that grows as a result.  Cigarettes are a draw, even as sales drop.  Why don’t Democrats see it?

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Progressives want to kill this capitalist puppy!

From today’s Wall Street Journal, Alan Blinder argues against "The Folly of the Flat Tax."

Blinder, a member in good standing of the modern American political class, is a Princeton prof and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. He uses the word "progressive" like humans brandish garlic at vampires.

But in fact the real vampires are the members of the parasitic political classes. Blinder’s article should be titled "The Folly of Regressive Progressivism."

After all…

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I’d Like To Give A Tax Cut To Public Sector Employees

As I understand it public sector employees pay taxes too. I’m quite sure I’ve heard that somewhere. So if they paid for their benefits and pensions right out of their paychecks, like most of the rest of us have to do. They’d automatically give themselves a tax cut.

Smoke Em or Eat Em

Cigarette Taxes up in smokeDemocrats thought they had something for a minute.  After the GOP majority reduced the cigarette tax the revenue didn’t shoot right up the next day.  It actually did not shoot up the first month either.  Naturally this made knees jerk all over the party headquarters and the muttering began about how decreasing the tax forced us to reduce valuable government services.  (Women, children, and public union employees hit hardest.)

The media permitted them their druthers, for good or ill, and it became a matter of public record that the NHDP had embarked on a nah-nah told you so PR campaign about taxing tobacco products.

Then tobacco revenues went up.  They went up 1.8 Million ahead of plan last month.  What was more important was that this increase ended what the NH House majority claims was a five year downward trend.  2011 minus five carry the tax deduction…well, since just about the time the democrat majority experiment began. (And hey, someone please call Rep Christine"Nostradamus" Hamm, D-Hopkinton, and rub it in her face.)

So why bring it up?  One  month, 1.8 million over plan, not that much really.  I mention it because Big Government.com just posted a piece that references data from the CDC and other sources on the ongoing futility of using cigarette taxes as a source of state revenue.  Smoking is still on the decrease, which is good.  I count myself among the legions of former smokers, though cost was not then a factor.  The number of cigarettes smoked per day is down, which is also good but reductive from a revenue perspective.  And a majority of cigarette tax increases never really produce the expected revenue.  This is partly due to the affects of taxation, and to some degree due (apparently) to smuggling.  High taxation and regulation lead to illegal behavior–which adds costs to deal with the "crime " created by them–so feel free to postulate the downsides yourselves; but raising taxes is no guarantee of more revenue, so I think it is time for another discussion about tobacco taxes, and why we need a long term plan to cut them until they are not taxed at all.

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New Hampshire Exceptional, Yet Again.

Stopping the spending and the out of control growth was and is exactly what you need and want from your US congress, but cannot yet achieve with a Democrat Senate and a Democrat President. And you will never get it as long as the left controls any those parts of your Federal government.

THE SHRILL KATHY And Her Bill O’Brien Rant

“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.” ~Ronald Reagan

Shrill_Kathy_Chronicals_Grok.jpg

When one reads the Shrill Kathy’s latest diatribe in the Union Leader, there is one theme that plays like a broken record: Tax, Tax, Tax…Spend, Spend, Spend.  The Shrill Kathy complains, “a 10-cent cut in the cigarette tax, did not change prices for smokers because the tobacco companies raised their prices…” I think I missed something because the former argument of the day was that the tobacco tax reduction would increase youth smoking. So, now here’s Kathy Sullivan arguing the ill merits of a tax typically inflicted upon Granite Staters who earn the least….a tax on the poor…which of many, smoke.

Next, the Shrill Kathy complains that, “House budget writers ignored every signal that the federal government was about to impose a $35 million penalty for Medicaid errors dating back to the Benson administration…” adding that, “Their irresponsibility has caused a gaping hole in their ballyhooed ‘balanced budget’.”  How conveniently she ignores the fact that her beloved Democratic party, led by Teri “Billion-dollar deficit” Norelli had two full terms to reconcile and fix this issue, but did not do so. Instead, they created more layers of government, increased over one-hundred fees and taxes and put into motion record unsustainable budgets, creating the fiscal mess this state now faces.

The Shrill Kathy whines, “New Hampshire hospitals are laying off hundreds of employees because O’Brien and his Republican colleagues took away federal money that had paid hospital costs for the poor…” Yet it hard to ignore the countless millions of construction dollars hospitals are using to competitively outspend one-another in an unquenchable drive to be better than the next facility.  Now that the Democrats have created yet another constituency cash cow that becomes as angry as any other when bloated coffers are not being filled, The dependable Shrill Kathy is all too willing to step into the limelight and pimp their cash loss off onto the poor. Isn’t it about time we stop the demagoguing and manipulation of the less fortunate? Let’s be honest here; You don’t really care about poor people, Kathy.

Mayor Gatsas is no different than any other cash cow constituent, be it Republican or Democrat. Every entity that gets some form of funding for something from the state or federal government cries, cut theirs…but NOT MINE!  Cuts made to the at-risk juvenile program, shows no indication of any highly-paid hacks taking any pay cuts or losing their jobs. Nope! self-preservation trumps program delivery.

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New Hampshire Got Jobs!?

How about some jobs? New Hampshire is reporting an April unemployment rate of 4.9%. … This is unlike last year when the initial “improvement” we saw was actually the result of workforce decline–people had stopped looking or receiving benefits and dropped out of the equation.

Meet Terie “Billion Dollar Deficit” Vu.

NH Journal is reporting more fear-mongering from the left, and from the usual suspects. Teri “Billion Dollar Deficit” Norelli (D- scaring women and children), is promising us that the Republican Budget will ‘put peoples lives at risk.

How About Some Cheese With Your Hamm?

Tax TrapIf the democrats in New Hampshire want anyone to take them seriously on why we should not lower the cigarette tax, they had best find a better spokesperson than House rep. Christine Hamm from the Peoples Republic of Hopkinton.(PRH)

From this mornings union leader..

Rep. Christine Hamm, D-Hopkinton, argued against the change. She said no state has seen tobacco tax revenue increase after a tax cut.

“This is yet another expensive exercise in futility,” she said. When it comes to tobacco, she said, “Every tax hike produces new revenue, and every tax cut reduces it.”

Oregon tried a 10-cent cut, and saw revenues fall by 10 percent, she said.

“To do the same thing would be fiscally stupid,” Hamm said

You know what else is stupid?  Listening to Christine Hamm.  Oh, and comparing Oregon to New Hampshire?  There are almost no demographic similarities, the most important of which is the sheer size of Oregon and the proximity of neighboring states which are also huge.

No one is driving across Washington State, or up from California, or Idaho, or anywhere else to buy cigarettes in Oregon.  Only Washington State taxes them more (the last I checked.) No incentive, no gain.

But here in New England, where people can buy almost everything cheaper in New Hampshire, the classic New England maxim does not apply–"you can get there from her," or here from there, and they do.  People shop here from other states to save money.  So reducing taxes on cigarettes (or anything else) gives them one more incentive to make the trip or to buy more while they are here.

Need proof?

Raising the tax already cost us revenue.  Last August Maine announced that it’s sales had increased 20%.  That is most likely money that used to get spent here but which the tax hike diverted back to Maine. (I wrote about it here)

And more Proof?

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Two Congressmen And A Free Throw

HR 1 The US House just finished it’s work on HR1, cleaning up after democrats who in 2010 abrogated yet another  obligation when they found themselves incapable of writing the budget they really wanted right before an election.

The liberal-progressives wanted more spending but that was not politically advantageous.  And since the single driving-force behind all Democrat decisions is politics the budget got relegated to the back of the bus, where the electorate’s short attention spans were meant to forget that democrats were never fiscally conscious representatives–they just tried to play them on the campaign trail. 

But avoiding the high profile budget battle was more evidence that they had something to hide. The Democrat House majority was appropriately sedated and placed under observation, while the Senate saw minor adjustments but no change in leadership.  So the process of changing our spending ways would still have to go through a Democrat controlled Senate and across the desk of a President who thinks the words "spending cuts" are just a rhetorical flourish used to provide cover for more spending.

Obama’s budget is proof enough of that.

But Obama only proposes a budget.  The House is in charge of spending.  So the new Republican congress went to the back seat of the Hopey-changey bus and picked up the budget obligations abandoned by the 111th congress.  This wwas a free shot at changing the fiscal direction of the country before writing their own first official budget, which was not due until later in 2011.  It was a gimme, a free throw, but one that had to survive the democrat Senate and the Spender in Chief.

So how did it turn out?

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Smoke Em After You Buy Em…In New Hampshire

Right off the bat, thanks to Matt at Red Hampshire for reminding me about Ken Wyler’s bill to cut the cigarette tax by $0.10 cents per pack.  (HB 156) I’ve been queuing up a post on this having written about it often and what better time than now to unload it.

First the basics.  Wyler thinks cutting the tax by a buck a carton will actually increase revenue by attracting more out of state traffic.  Ken is correct.  A larger cut would be better, but I guess we can crawl before we walk.  And with that in mind, lets review why it will raise more revenue.  And I’m not even going to have to go back very far for a decent flashback.

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Just Throwing This Out There…

The House Democrats have balked at a bi-partisan deal that while not perfect, is an actual compromise, and would end a good deal of the uncertainty about tax increases (that is stagnating the economy) by ensuring that for the most part, there are almost none. (The estate tax survives)

Good Cop – Bad Cop

iStock Photo ImageEveryone knows Good Cop, Bad Cop. 

You have gruff and uncompromising on one side, and then someone else shows up sweet as pie.  The goal is to get something you want that they do not want to give up. 

So is Mr. Obama’s compromise on stopping a tax increase part of the good cop bad-cop formula?

 

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Show me the Tax cut

All those years of left wing class warfare about cuts for the rich but none for the rest of us we’re liberal lies. Plain and simple. You can’t extend something that does not exist.

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