Articles tagged as

Taxes

MAGGIE “THE MARXIST” HASSAN IS RUNNING

“Ask anyone committed to Marxist analysis how many angels on the head of a pin, and you will be asked in return to never mind the angels, tell me who controls the production of pins.” ­—Joan Didion

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 Defeated Democratic state Senator Maggie Hassan made it official today that she will be running for governor in 2012. In her usual hokum, Hassan touted the typical big government solution to prop up the economy. As reported in the Union Leader, Maggie the Marxist, “stressed the need to create jobs by “investing” in education and job training programs and by fostering a business climate that attracts innovative small businesses and new technologies.” Translation: “investing” equals big-government spending and solutions…equals heavy taxation to raise such revenues. Such notions were brought with her as a carpet-bagging “massplant” to the Granite State. 

The Union Leader reported that “Maggie the Marxist” pledged to be a fiscally responsible governor who would veto any sales or income tax and commit herself to a balanced state budget.“  This is laughable given her extensive record as a State Senator.  My fellow Blogger Steve MacDonald absolutely nailed it on back October 5th when he wrote:

  Hassan is a left wing, government first, spend then tax Democrat who wants socialized medicine, supports abortion from conception to birth (also here), and was more than willing to trample on opponents with the “Sullivan/Hassan Hates Speech (the left can’t control) amendment.” (also here, and here, …)  She is also willing to lie about her opponents to get re-elected.

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10 Golden Rules of Effective Taxation

Obama on "effective" taxation:

GIBSON: All right. You have, however, said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, "I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton," which was 28 percent. It’s now 15 percent. That’s almost a doubling, if you went to 28 percent.

…

GIBSON: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down.

So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.

…

GIBSON: But history shows that when you drop the capital gains tax, the revenues go up.

Fairness?  A very subjective judgement – another Hope and Change, which is not something on which to base public policy revenues.  This is when things go off the rails – when tax policies enforce ideologies instead of their main purpose – to fund the essential functions of government.  I’d rather go with something much more objective.  To the rescue- Art Laffer on Effective Taxation (Rich States, Poor States, 4th edition, ALEC.ORG):

1. When you tax something more you get less of it, and when you tax something less you get more of it.

2. Individuals work and produce goods and services to earn money for present or future consumption.

3. Taxes create a wedge between the cost of working and the rewards from working.

4. An increase in tax rates will not lead to a dollar-for-dollar increase in tax revenues, and a reduction in tax rates that encourages production will lead to less than a dollar-for-dollar reduction in tax revenues.

5. If tax rates become too high, they may lead to a reduction in tax receipts.  The relationship between tax rates and tax receipts has been described by the Laffer Curve.

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Left Wing “Fair Tax” In Trouble?

It is no secret that the Granite State Fair Tax Coalitions (GSFTC) is a hive of left wing Democrat tax and spend socialists trying to hide behind a so-called bi-partisan front group.  It is run by leftists (here and here), colludes with leftists, and seeks to advance Democrat party tax policy under the false notion that our current system of taxation in New Hampshire is some how not fair.

But the evidence continues to confound their false narratives.

Despite the GSFTCs misrepresentation of facts and the spinning of data to mislead, whatever our tax system is in New Hampshire, it continues to provide a better quality of opportunity than any other state in the Nation.  The US census reports that New Hampshire has the lowest poverty rate in the country.

Well how the hell did that happen?  I thought things were so unfair here?  How could our "unfair" tax system still allow for the best economic environment for people to thrive in?  And in this lousy economy to boot?  We have the lowest poverty, one of the highest standards of living, and one of the safest to live in as well.  Could it be because our current system also provides one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the country as well?  Can we argue that low overall tax burden–the result of our so-called "unfair" system of taxation, is somehow more effective at keeping people above the poverty line than any other state in the country?

Hell yeah.

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OCCUPY WALL STREET FOR DUMMIES

“In hindsight it may even seem inevitable that a socialist society will starve when it runs out of capitalists.”  —Larry Niven

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How does one become an Occupy Wall Street Protestor? A quest for understanding in a somewhat complicated topic. Why? Because there are some who seem to demonstrate a modicum of intelligence and articulate usage of the language when the camera is rolling. And, there are some who dress reasonably normal (normal meaning, no obvious hygiene challenges, maintaining a groomed appearance). Those folks are in the vast minority. And certainly it would not be an accurate statement to say these slackers are all “youth generational.” The camera has caught some old enough to be peers of my parents.

But the task at hand is an immediate one. How do I blend in? How do I become an OWS protestor. I suppose I should start with something superficial. Ah yes! you say, “Things aren’t always as they appear.” and how right one might be to make such a characterization. But any good leftist will tell you, honesty is a relative term. “Your views are your views.”  Kind of akin to calling people racists because they don’t like Obama… Yet, when it is pointed out that these same “racists” like Herman Cain, the argument shifts to, “you only like him because he gives your racism cover.” Rank dishonesty is the domain of the left. And outward appearance is what we first see from our friends in the lame stream media.

As a segue into my OWS protestor journey, I neither shave nor shower for an extended period of time. (if I wish to wholly embrace this slacker look, I don’t brush my teeth, either..If a casual observer spies a chive stuck in my teeth when I smile, I have arrived) It is important to engender that, “rail against the establishment” appearance. Smelling ones’ own smell, is sufficient validation one has achieved parity with the OWS appearance.

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SHORT BUS ECONOMICS

“Imagine a political system so radical as to promise to move more of the poorest 20% of the population into the richest 20% than remain in the poorest bracket within the decade? You don’t need to imagine it. It’s called the United States of America.”  —Thomas Sowell The collective voice of “Occupy Wall Street” has … Read more

That Rich Bastard Who Is Screwing The Teachers Over Is Actually…

There is a graphic going around, no doubt becasue of the OWS class-warfare hippy-fest, that asks why we wold cut teachers pay 20% instead of asking millionaires to give a little more.    This is of course dishonest on several levels.

A few quick observations. No one is asking teachers to give up 20% of their wages and I challenge anyone who pays school taxes to find me an example of it.  The job creators already front 70% of all taxes from which teachers are paid so if anyone needs to pony up it is the rest of us.  And most importantly, the problem isn’t the wealthy it is the federal government.  Since Obama took office the Department of Education’s budget has gone from 35 Billion a year (That’s BILLION), to 70 Billion. ($70,000,000,000.00).  That’s 389 million per school day if you run on a 180 day calendar.

The rich bastard that is screwing teachers is not on Wall Street.  The richest bastard of all is the US Government’s Department of Education.

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NH Wind Farm Project Comes With Inside Deal Making?

NH Wind and Jeanne Shaheen KickbacksThere is a major Wind farm project underway in Coos county.  The principle players are GraniteWind, which is owned by Brookfield Renewable Power and a company called Freshet Wind Energy. (more on them in a moment)

Brookfield has gotten press recently because Brookfield Properties (same company) owns Zucotti Park where the #OWS hippies are hanging out.  Mayor Bloomberg girlfriend sits on Brookfield’s board, and George Soros and some other big Democrat Donors are heavily invested in Brookfield, which has just received a $168 million dollar Federal Green energy loan for the New Hampshire Wind farm project courtesy of the US Department of Energy, which was lobbied by the firm run by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

Just about everyone is short stroking that set of circumstances, and it is far too convenient to seem like a random coincidence, but there is a New Hampshire connection that is far more interesting if you just take the time to dig a little bit deeper.

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Obama Finally Builds Bi-Partisan Coalition!!!

I may be jumping the gun here, but I believe that Mr. Obama will achieve that which he has been calling for for years. Democrats and Republicans will come together today to form a bi-partisan coalition…

NH Dems Endorse Obama Tax Increase

As reported in the Union Leader Ray Buckley and the State Democrat party would like people to call members of congress and encourage them to support Mr. Obama’s tax on investors and job creators so Democrats can fund public sector union jobs and keep the dues-donations rolling in.  They also support the push to defer millions in social security revenues on to the shoulders of our children, though Buckley words it differently.

The plan would cut the payroll tax that 30,000 New Hampshire small businesses pay, provide tax relief for families, funding for police, firefighters and teachers, school building improvements and transportation projects in the state.

This entire effort is another organized scam to fund unions and Democrat campaigns, in the run up to November 2012, at taxpayer expense.  The payroll tax cut is a useless gesture, not a cut but a deferment, so what we have is more of the same catastrophic economic policy that has kept us in a recession and on the brink of collapse for three years now.

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Democrats Reject Obama’s Jobs Bill

Yesterday provided another clear example of President Obama and other Democrats blaming others for their own failings.  For a month Democrats have blamed Republicans for not passing President Obama’s “jobs” bill.  But, yesterday when Republicans pressed for a vote on the bill, Senate Democrats prevented the vote. 

President Obama lies when he blames Republicans for failure to pass a jobs bill.  Even Democrats know President Obama’s bill is unacceptable, full of wasteful spending and increased taxes, intended only to give a failing President a campaign tool for fooling ignorant voters.  

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Revenue Prediction

No, I’m not going to guess how New Hampshire will fare on tax revenue. I am going to predict how democrats will respond to the news of a surplus and business tax revenues over estimate.

Jeanne “Central Planner” Shaheen

Jeanne Shaheen The Central Planning MachineThe Union Leader has done us a service these past two days by exposing Governor Shaheen for who she is.   In back to back staff editorials we see that her priority is to filter money through the hands of distant bureaucrats rather than find ways to keep it in New Hampshire in the first place.

Her supporters will say, as they did with the earmarking debate, that we need these kinds of representatives "to get our money back from Washington."  But I have always said, would it not be better if we had representatives who just worked harder to keep it here?  Why must it leave in the first place?

It must leave so our former governor can brag on her press page about how she has helped bring money into the state for this or that.  And this or that is always from a list of benefactors and favorites of the political left.  And that is why she cannot leave the money in state where it belongs.

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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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Obama’s “Bride Of Stimulus” Speech

I wasn’t going to bother, but when you have a title like “Bride of Stimulus” you have to run with it. And that is exactly what that speech was. To quote every democrat’s greasy palm card from 2007/2008, what we have here is…”the same old failed polices of the past.” Or what I referred to on twitter as “same old whore new dress.”

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.

NH Democrats Still Want To Limit Free Speech

What price for speech?In the waning days of New Hampshire’s leftist experiment of 2007-2010, in the months leading up to the crackling heat of the 2010 election, the Democrat-lead state legislature attempted to pass the Sullivan/Hassan speech intimidation amendment attached to NH HB1459 .

This kitchen-table Frankenstein was strung together by Democrat party Committee creature Kathy “Lawsuit” Sullivan and then Democrat state Senator Maggie “The Red” Hassan, from dead bits of left wing jack-booted policy dreams.  The goal was to quickly replace the gag that the Supreme Courts Citizens United v. FEC ruling had removed.  They would require businesses to get permission to engage in political speech if they intended to spend over a certain sum.

Assigning government regulated speech limitations based on some arbitrary, government defined value was hardly the worst of it. The democrats also wanted to empower third parties to intimidate political speech for them as well.  Anyone with the money and time could file a lawsuit against any business that it thought could have violated the law.  This would give every out of state funded left wing non-profit the ability to pay its left wing, democrat supporting lawyers, to cast a chilling anti-speech pall across the New Hampshire Landscape.   Fear of litigation would instantaneously exclude thousands of voices from the political debate simply because they could not risk the time and expense of being sued, even erroneously, should they fail to dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s.

From square one this was a partisan, prejudicial and intentionally unconstitutional act.

Government can do nothing without first denying someone of their legally earned income, so this bill established that it was acceptable for 51% of those doing the taxing to define what constituted free speech.  When that happens free speech is no longer a protected right, it is a legislated privilege regulated by a democratic mobocracy.  It no longer mattered that every business pays some kind of tax, in most cases dozens of them, to finance government. It did not matter that the right to free association can take the form of a business or group that might have an interest in it’s relationship to how government exercises power in their name.  All that mattered to New Hampshire Democrats was that free speech continues to be a barrier to their political success, and if they could silence any class of persons they could find a way to silence any dissenter they chose.

Ask yourself, which party is forever trying to limit free speech and the answer is Democrats?  The war on business, the fairness doctrine, the war on new media and Fox news.  The insults and slurs hurled at the TEA party.  These are all efforts to intimidate or limit speech to which the left objects.  They have no interest in fairness or equality of message.  They seek to control the message.

The New Hampshire Democrat effort to complicate, regulate, and even intimidate anyone out of having free reign to speak about how or how often they are taxed, about how those taxes are used, and to actually sanction random intimidation by entities outside the government, should have immediately disqualified them from every holding another elected office.  We came just a few votes shy of passing a bill that Governor Lynch said he was prepared to sign.

This is not something we can forget.  It defines the character of everyone who voted for it, sanctioned it, or supported it.  This thinking permeates everything about their grasp of your relationship to government.  They still think this way, and they will continue to argue in support of it, even though their actual justifications for it, are fatally flawed.

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RGG-Die!

I’ve had a thing or two to say about RGGI.  Just drop my name and ‘RGGI’ into a search engine and start counting.  If you start reading you will notice a trend.  RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative, is a broad based tax or fee on all energy and all persons who use it.  This tax could increase without anyone every holding a vote, or having a hearing. It was passed by the Democrat majority legislature with that in mind, during New Hampshire’s political experimentation years (democrats were left in charge of everything), and signed by then-and-God-only-knows-why-he-is-still-Governor John Lynch.

(I never call RGGI Reggie, by the way.  This makes me think of Reggie Mantle from The Archie’s, which makes me think of Veronica Lodge, who was kind of hot in a post-pre-pubescent animated sort of a way, which might explain my fondness for dark haired women, but probably not.   Maybe Isis from the Shazam Isis power hour, or how about Wonder Woman?  Did I mention that I don’t call it Reggie?)Reggies revenge

RGGI’s proponents claimed it would be good for the environment, which was only true if the "environment" was one littered with taxpayer financed slush funds whose purposes were as ephemeral as the lefts idea of rights or  justice.  And Carbon trading to reduce emissions was already a well known lie that ten years of cap and trade in Europe had already proved demonstrably false.  If we just assume the folks who claim to be the smartest people in every room had to know this–being so damn smart–then this was obviously meant to be yet another large slush fund to be raided by current and future Democrat majorities, all but for two fortuitous events that got in the way of pay day.

First, the left’s nationwide social engineering experiment with housing rights collapsed the economy before the program got up to steam, making the RGGI carbon credits worth progressively less until they are now almost completely worthless.  Second, we voted the left-wingers out of office for a ruinous spending agenda and their chronic inability to balance the books despite scores of new taxes and fees, and laying siege to every pile of money within view, public or private.

We wont even get into the left wing law firms that lined up to manage the grants and the distribution of funds for approved projects, or the list of Democrat friendly recipients.

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