Unlikely GOP Tax Plan the Result of Changing Politics

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Photo Credit: AP/J. Scott ApplewhiteThe tax reform plan from Michigan Rep. Dave Camp was unimaginable as a Republican document just a few years ago, the result of a shifting political landscape that has seen the triumph of President Obama’s tax message and the influence of conservative populism.

The House Ways and Means Committee chairman sought a blueprint that was impervious to charges that it would benefit the wealthy and burden the middle class. That was a direct reaction to the beating Republicans took on the issue in the 2012 presidential contest, with Obama’s “fairness” pitch to increase taxes on the so-called wealthy resonating better than GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s traditional Republican proposal for across-the-board cuts to stimulate economic growth.

Breaking with GOP orthodoxy, Camp also wanted a plan that, while lowering tax rates for all income brackets, received a “revenue neutral” score from Congress’ nonpartisan accounting agencies. Camp wanted to avoid potent Democratic attacks that tax cuts increase the deficit and cost Washington money it needs for cherished programs. Republicans had long dismissed the concept of paying for tax cuts on the grounds that they create jobs and boost revenue, while asserting that the government’s money belongs to the people and reducing their tax load shouldn’t require offsets.

Camp’s draft has received perhaps the most attention for proposing to simplify the tax code by scaling back typically politically sacred exemptions, such as the mortgage interest deduction popular with voters and the housing industry. For years, Republicans — including Camp — promoted these carve-outs as crucial economic drivers. But in a nod to the Tea Party’s sway with House Republicans, Camp was liberated to target a host of breaks the conservative grassroots deride as “crony capitalism.”

“We have to recognize the [political] environment we’re in today, and the fiscal circumstances we’re facing, and take all that into account,” said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee who had a hand in writing the Camp plan.

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Dem Says GOP Would Back Abortion ‘If Their Daughter Got Pregnant by a Black Man’

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Photo Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty ImagesAn Alabama Democrat with a history of making incendiary racial remarks claimed that Republicans wouldn’t oppose abortion “if their daughter got pregnant by a black man.”

Alvin Holmes, a black Democrat who represents Montgomery, was debating Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, a Republican who had proposed a bill that would ban abortions of fetuses with a detectable heartbeat.

The Tuesday debate quickly steered towards race, with Holmes saying that Republican support for abortion was based on a double standard.

“Ninety-nine percent of all of the white people in here are going to raise their hand that they are against abortion,” said Holmes, according to the Huntsville Times. “On the other hand, 99 percent of the whites who are sitting in here now, if their daughter got pregnant by a black man, they are going to make their daughter have an abortion.”

“She’s got two other white children and then she’s going to have a little black baby going to be running around there, in the living room, in the den, with the rest of them,” Holmes continued.

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Bitcoin Firm CEO Found Dead After ‘Suicide’

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Photo Credit: LinkedinIt appears bitcoin’s recent turmoil has claimed its first life.

Autumn Radtke, a 28-year-old American CEO of bitcoin exchange firm First Meta, was found dead in her Singapore apartment on Feb. 28.

Local media are calling it a suicide, but Singapore officials are waiting for toxicology test results.

Radtke formerly worked with Apple and other Silicon Valley tech firms on developing digital payment systems.

Radtke’s death brings the number of questionable financial sector deaths this year to eight.

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Obama Budget Proposal Won’t Tame Debt, Interest Would Soon Exceed Military Spending

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Photo Credit: AP

President Obama’s latest budget proposal paints a troubling picture of America’s fiscal future.

Here’s a startling snapshot:

— By 2024, the total national debt would rise from $17.4 trillion to nearly $25 trillion.

— By 2020, U.S. taxpayers would be paying more in interest on the debt than they would on the entire Defense budget.

— By 2017, those interest payments would be bigger than the budget for Medicaid.

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/APObama budget: 4 things to know

By By Mark Trumbull.

President Obama’s proposed budget for 2015 seeks to nudge Congress to spend more money to improve the nation’s roads and rails, more on early childhood education, and more on job skills for adult workers.

To pay for it while also holding down federal deficits, Mr. Obama proposes further tax hikes on high-income Americans – in the form of closing “loopholes” rather than raising tax rates.

From poverty reduction to helping manufacturers improve productivity, the president’s clear priority is to use the government as a lever boost the economic well-being of ordinary Americans. Although the budget also offers proposals aimed at fiscal sustainability, it does little to reduce a public debt load that stands at a historically high level.

The four themes below summarize the budget proposal and Washington’s fiscal state of play.

Taxes would rise (again) on the rich. In an era of chronic deficits, the Obama budget calls for raising new tax revenue by making it harder for high-earning Americans to shield income from taxes. Reducing various deductions and tax breaks, and imposing a “Buffett rule” that ensures millionaires couldn’t have below-average tax rates, would raise some $651 billion between 2015 and 2024.

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Obama: Dems Paid ‘Dear Price’ in 2010 Midterms

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Photo Credit: ReutersPresident Barack Obama says Democrats paid a “dear price” for not paying enough attention to the 2010 midterm elections and urged donors to not repeat the same mistakes this year.

Democrats lost control of the House and gave up seats in the Senate in the 2010 midterms. Speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Obama says Democrats may be good at presidential elections, but “get a little sleepy” in the midterms.

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President Obama’s Budget Sends $286,479,000 to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsPresident Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood have been bosom buddies since his election — and the president has kept flow of taxpayer funds on ever since entering the White House in 2009. This year’s budget proposal is no exception.

Obama wanted God to bless Planned Parenthood and, this year, he wants them blessed with hundreds of millions.

As Tom Minnery of March for Life explains:

The good news in President Obama’s budget is that Title X funds (p. 434) that generally give money to entities like Planned Parenthood have gone down from $297,400,000 to $286,479,000. (That is still higher than the figure in 2007 ($283,146,000.))

Also it appears that $5,000,000 is set aside for true abstinence education (p. 490) while almost six times that amount is reserved for “comprehensive” abstinence education that does everything from encouraging young kids to shower together to helping fund online “How to BDSM” videos for teens.

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Justice for 16-Year-Old Boy Who Was Beaten Bloody by Police and Sent to Hospital

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Photo Credit: WikipediaA teenager who was beaten bloody by a Parma, Ohio police officer wielding a flashlight will receive a $40,000 settlement, according to local news.

The family of the unnamed 16-year-old boy filed suit as a result of a November 2012 traffic stop, during which officer James Manzo repeatedly hit him on the head with a flashlight. The teenager was hospitalized and has lingering headaches as a result of the brutal attack, according to Cleveland.com.

The boy was being driven in a car by his father when they were pulled over by Manzo. Manzo accused the father of circling the block, but his son challenged the officer’s assertion. In response, Manzo pulled the boy out of the car, telling him, “If you want to be a smartass, come here.”

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Rep. Alan Grayson’s Wife Accuses Him of Injuring Her

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Photo Credit: GettyRep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., is denying his wife’s accusation that he shoved and injured her during a domestic dispute over the weekend, saying through his spokeswoman that his estranged wife’s allegation is “an outright lie.”

The Orlando Sentinel reports that a judge has granted a temporary protective injunction against Grayson after Lolita Grayson filed paperwork accusing the congressman of pushing her against a door during a confrontation at their home on Saturday, causing her to fall and injuring her.

The Sentinel reports that her petition states that Rep. Grayson “showed up, unannounced” to their home and he asked to speak with her. She refused and asked him to leave. She then accuses the congressman of “deliberately and with force” pushing her “very hard against the front door, causing [her] to fall to the ground as a result,” the Sentinel reports.

Photos filed with the petition show bruises to her leg and shoulder, according to the Sentinel.

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Conservatives’ Frustrations Mount with GOP Establishment: Compromise Trumps Principle

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Photo Credit: Charles DharapakProminent Republicans see no evidence that their party’s electoral successes have advanced the cause of limited government and moral governance.

“Today, our party’s leaders act like thermometers measuring the temperature of the electorate. We need to be the thermostats and set the temperature,” said Rob McCoy, pastor of Calvary Chapel, a few minutes’ drive from the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif.

For Republicans like Mr. McCoy, who is running for a state Assembly seat, the national party has racked up decades of compromises that have led to relentless government expansion, ever-increasing spending growth, continually mounting national debt and growing intrusiveness into the private lives of Americans.

From her George Mason University’s Mercatus Center office in Arlington, Va., economist Veronique de Rugy looks at the objective evidence of the Republican Party’s effect on limiting government.

“Every president has spent more total real dollars in his last budget than in his first,” she said, noting that Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson increased spending by 38 percent, but George W. Bush, twice elected on a conservative Republican platform, increased spending by 53 percent during his presidency.

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Christian Alternative to ObamaCare Growing Fast as Deadline Nears

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Photo Credit: Natural News With just weeks left to sign up for insurance on HealthCare.gov, a growing number of people are opting to enroll in a Christian alternative to traditional health insurance.

Nationwide networks of fellow believers help share each other’s major medical bills through what’s known as health care sharing ministries.

“It works just like insurance. I have an insurance card. I show it just like anyone else would. I have a deductible. I have a monthly premium that I pay,” explained Eileen Wade, who joined the health care sharing ministry, Medi-Share, in 2011.

The nation’s three largest ministries boast more than 242,000 members, spanning all 50 states, who agree to live so-called biblical lifestyles — meaning regular church attendance; no drugs, tobacco, or sex outside of marriage; and limited alcohol consumption.

This kind of healthier lifestyle helps keep monthly premiums lower than that of other health insurers for most members.

Read more this story HERE.