Articles tagged as

Taxes

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

A Typical Day In Mr. Buckley’s Neighborhood

These folks have all insisted, in one way or another, that things like unemployment, food stamps, even destruction of public and private property, are good for the economy. So using their metrics, these are things Democrats should not complain about unless they are actually bad for the economy.

Would You Suck Twice as Hard for Half as Much?

I appreciate it when democrats give you the rope with which to hang their half baked ideas.  Take Mark Fernald for example.  Mr. Fernald is a sometime New Hampshire Democrat candidate for this or that, and prominent member of the left wing Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC).  He recently (sorry, frequently) forwards  partisan, left wing economic spin, to justify his pet obsession with rising taxes and class warfare. 

This most recent email to the arm chair central planners in his fan base is just another in a string of left wing editorials that attempts to contrast democrat spending against that of our previous president. It is typical Fernald; an oranges to rotten apples comparison that uses incomplete data, wild assumptions (about Obama’s future affect in every case), misleading graphs, cherry picked data, and resulting percentages that stretch the fabric of reality so thin that you could easily pass into the alternate dimension in which Democrats and faeries dance widderershins around the deficit mound, as money appears out of nowhere to pay for whatever theirr tiny, narrow, Marxist minds can imagine.

donkey with hed up assThis particualr faerie story centers around three graphs from the Government Printing Office (GPO).  Not the fed, the treasury, or even some fruit-loop left wing think tank, but the GPO.  The GPO prints stuff, and answers to the Executive branch.  So right out of the toy-box we have to question these partisan stills, presented as they are in a partisan manner, bearing guestimated facts and assumptions, with no basis in reality any greater than anything that has ever escaped Mr. Obama’s teleprompter; you do recall all the Obama the non-partisan, deficit cutting, cost reducing, globe saving, health care giving, unifying, auto company saving, mortgage rescuing, goodness?  How about the transparent lobbyist-less,  open to ideas, new tone, we need to work together Obama?  No?  You probably remember the we won, closed door, partisan, hate those bankers, Tea Partiers are terrorists,  intimidation tactics, don’t interrupt my vacation, Arrest Ron Paul supporters, dozens of lobbyists, shadow cabinet, Attack Arizona, hunt down my enemies, anti-free speech, black panthers can scare away voters, give guns to Mexican drug lords, nohting is my fault Obama with the double action golf-club grip?  Well his printing office is the source.  Are we surprised it tries to make him look good?

So what can we glean that goes beyond the objective of showing your Republican friends that they are wrong about Obama?  How about using facts to show that those Republicans are actually right?

Read more

Do Students Like Re-Distribution or Not?

In what may well be the best independent video I have seen in a while, some savvy college students ask their peers (typical tax the rich types) if they would sign a petition. The plan? Redistribute GPA points from the high achievers so that other students can use them to pass classes they are doing poorly in.

Bernanke’s Bender

Bernanke sober- or so it seems(Note:This arrived in my mail box unattributed, but I have discovered that it is from The Onion.  I have edited any questionable language by replacing letters with asterisks.  This image is not associated with the article at The Onion.)
 
SEWARD, NE—Claiming he wasn’t afraid to let everyone in attendance know about "the real mess we’re in," Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke reportedly got drunk Tuesday and told everyone at Elwood’s Corner Tavern about how absolutely f****d the U.S. economy actually is.
 
Bernanke, who sources confirmed was "totally sloshed," arrived at the drinking establishment at approximately 5:30 p.m., ensconced himself upon a bar stool, and consumed several bottles of Miller High Life and a half-dozen shots of whiskey while loudly proclaiming to any patron who would listen that the economic outlook was "pretty goddamned awful if you want the God’s honest truth."
 
"Look, they don’t want anyone except for the Washington, D.C. bigwigs to know how bad shit really is," said Bernanke, slurring his words as he spoke. "Mounting debt exacerbated—and not relieved—by unchecked consumption, spiraling interest rates, and the grim realities of an inevitable worldwide energy crisis are projected to leave our entire economy in the sh****r for, like, a generation, man, I’m telling you."

Read more

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.

Read more

Meet Bob “Bathroom Bill” Perry (Reprise)

With the Strafford 3 special election tomorrow, I thought it fitting to revisit this post about democrat Bob ‘Bathroom Bill’ Perry.  His voting record epitomizes what the left is and wants for you and your children.  You must not forget what they stand for.

Read more

It isn’t just the taxes that is a wet blanket on the economy

The estimate is that our Govt has placed an additional cost, via regulations, of $1.75 Trillion.  It is also clear that the Obama Administration has no problem in adding more and more: (H/T: Big Government) Even as GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt tried to tell other CEOs to start hiring (he is an economic advisor to … Read more

Data Point – who has more money in the bank?

US Government operating cash balance: $73.8 Billion. Apple?  $76.3 Billion. It seems that private industry, having to watch over their own money, can be more "successful" than Government at watching its money.  Imagine that; while Apple is among the most successful companies in the world right now, our elected politicians and bureaucrats have now shown … Read more

A Brief History of President Obama’s Fiscal Record

A Brief History of President Obama’s Fiscal Record

Setting the Record Straight
July 15, 2011

 
 

Despite newfound concern with the debt overhang stifling economic growth, President Obama’s record falls far short of his rhetoric.  Let’s review the decisions made by President Obama and Congressional Democrats over the past couple of years, and the disappointing results of their policy choices:

January 20, 2009 
President Obama sworn into office

  • President tells the American people in his Inaugural Address: “Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”

  • Debt Held By Public = $6.31 trillion

February 17, 2009
President Signs into Law the Spending Stimulus

  • The stimulus adds $821 billion in new spending according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

  • The White House promises this infusion of spending and borrowing would keep unemployment rate below 8%.  As millions of Americans are painfully aware, that promise was broken.

  • Debt Held by Public = $6.48 trillion

February 26, 2009
President Issues FY2010 Budget

  • The President’s budget adds $2.7 trillion in new debt in FY2010 and imposes $1.4 trillion in new taxes.

  • Debt Held by Public = $6.58 trillion

March 11, 2009
President Signs FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act

  • The massive spending bill includes 8,696 earmarks at a cost of $11 billion.

  • The spending bill adds $19 billion in new spending above the baseline – an 8.6% spending increase.

  • Debt Held by Public = $6.66 trillion

April 29, 2009
Congressional Democrats Pass FY2010 Budget

  • The Congressional Democrats’ budget calls for a $2 trillion debt increase in 2010, and another 8.9% increase in non-defense discretionary spending.

  • The reconciliation process is abused to later pave the way for health care overhaul to be jammed into law.

  • Of note: this is the last time Congressional Democrats will bother budgeting.

  • Debt Held by Public = $6.85 trillion

continued on the jump…

Read more

GSFTC Member Organization Spotlight -NH Citizens Alliance

There are a number of groups that the Left wing Granite State ‘Fare’ Tax Coalition highlights on it’s web site.  It’s your typical collection of "non-non-partisan" interests like the State Employes Union of NH (That’s the local SEIU 1984). The AFSC-which is the NH Chapter of a global leftist movement supported by all the nicest left wing foundations.  The League of Women Voters of course.  And there is even a who’s-who of left wing, NH social justice churches and their political arms, all promoting socialist activism and statist policy from the pulpit down to on the ground left wing activism.Socialism- Making everyone poor...

All of these groups warrant, and will receive, a proper vetting, but today I would like to focus on a special cog in the leftist machine of the so-called non-partisan GSFTC, one that happens to be very active in New Hampshire on its own; the NHCA.  The NHCA is the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance.  (You may remember their executive director, Sarah Chaisson Warner?  She received some unwanted attention after some remarks she made back in March of 2010. See also Here from the NHTPC.) The New Hampshire citizens alliance is…(drum-roll please)

…a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to social, economic, and political justice.

A Non-partisan organization devoted to social, economic, and political justice?  Too bad that’s just not possible.  There are no right wing groups seeking these ethereal ends.  These are buzz-words, Orwellian constructs, created by statist agenda-driven socialists to mislead people.  So the NHCA couldn’t be "non-partisan" if they tried. But you don’t have to take my word for it.  Just look at who they associate with and what they support.

Read more

The Very Partisan Granite State Fair Tax Coalition Part II

GSFTDNC%202.jpgThe Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC–Greedy Socialists Frisking TaxPayers Cash) is a partisan non-profit, which for years has insisted it is a non-partisan group advocating an income tax in New Hampshire.  But the GSFTC is non-partisan the way MSNBC is.  They use the dark side equivalent of the Jedi mind trick.  ‘The force can have a strong influence on the weak minded.” And while there is nothing wrong with being a left wing partisan group, started by a social-justice driven religious organization, to advocate for a top down income tax, there is something wrong with acting like this is a non-partisan effort.

Our first look at the partisan make up of the GSFTC (God Says Fleece Taxpayers for Christ) was a rundown of their advisory board.  This revealed a panel of progressive and left wing water-carriers, who provide cover and material support for a specific leftist agenda: a state income tax.   They are democrats and democrat supporters, willing to use class warfare and a faux-morality-cum-guilt complex media campaign, to advocate for that state income tax.  Fish swim, birds fly, democrats spend and so must tax.  To insist they are non-partisan suggests a mental state that is non compos mentis.  Or to be a bit more colloquial; They are just a bunch of typical leftists.

Read more

Dangerous Democrats

Obama and the democrats can let Iran build nukes because it is a no-lose situation for them. Inaction is action. If by chance Iran does not nuke up, they will take credit. If it does, and then kills millions, they will blame George Bush, or obstructionist Republicans.

Really Getting it Straight on Right to Work

To the Editor:

It is too bad that Rob Azevedo’s entertaining article in The Citizen on June 29th,  “Getting it straight on Right to Work” misrepresents the proposed New Hampshire Right to Work law and vilifies the TEA Party people who support it.  

Right to Work (RTW) is not about union busting, not about lowering wages, not about working hard, not about keeping people from forming or joining unions.  RTW is about the same thing Americans fought the Revolutionary War for, Liberty.  

Read more

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXingYummly