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Obama's Proposed Budget NEVER Balances

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Today marks the 100th anniversary of the federal income tax. Since its inception in 1913, the income tax has continued to grow in scope and complexity. A century later, hardworking American taxpayers will send the federal government $2.7 trillion this year alone.

While Americans across the country file their returns and open their checkbooks to pay their taxes today, the President and his liberal lieutenants in the Senate continue to call for another trillion dollars in higher job-killing taxes over the next ten years. It’s hard for President Obama to make the case that you don’t pay enough in taxes when this year’s $2.7 trillion marks the all-time record for the most money the federal government has ever taken in! Even after adjusting for inflation, this year’s revenue has only been eclipsed four times in our nation’s history. Washington clearly has a serious spending problem, and you can only solve it by controlling Washington spending rather than President Obama’s scheme to have the IRS take more of your hard-earned money through even higher taxes.

Obama Finally Presents Budget

Last week the President sent Congress a budget, that includes over $1 trillion in new taxes, over $8 trillion in new debt, and yet NEVER balances.

While our national debt is approaching $17 trillion, our President and his liberal lieutenants continue to ask for additional taxes so they can keep spending more and living beyond their means. The President got the higher taxes he wanted in the “fiscal cliff” deal, but yet he still refuses to agree to any spending cuts. More wasteful Washington spending, radical regulations, and costly duplication are not what the American people want or deserve, and that failed agenda is still holding the American economy back.

The Obama administration refuses to take common-sense steps to rein in Washington spending, while continuing to grow failed welfare programs that jeopardize the future of our country. Republicans have passed a plan that would balance our nation’s budget in ten years by growing the economy with no tax increases, while the President’s budget raises taxes, increases radical regulations, and never achieves balance. This is truly a choice of two completely different directions for our country.

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The Obamas' Falling Tax Rate

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Photo Credit: AP

President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid the lowest effective tax rate since they moved into the White House by taking advantage of the most popular — and expensive — benefits in the tax code.

Tax returns released by the White House on Friday show that the Obamas paid an effective tax rate of 18.4 percent on more than $608,000 in adjusted gross income earned in 2012. Last year, their rate was 20.5 percent.

They were able to lower the amount of income on which they were taxed by more than $258,000 by claiming several big-ticket deductions.

The first family’s biggest deduction by far stems from the $150,034 in donations they made to 33 charities, including the Fisher House Foundation, a charity that helps the families of wounded veterans, and the Sidwell Friends School, where the president’s daughters attend school.

The Obamas’ return serves as an interesting test case for how some of the proposals outlined in the White House budget released this week would raise taxes on high earners. For instance, the budget calls on lawmakers to impose a 28 percent cap on deductions for taxpayers that fall into the top tax brackets.

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Video: IRS Collecting Tax Payer Information from Facebook and Twitter

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Photo Credit: kenteegardin

You have until April 15th to file a return – and the IRS will be collecting a lot more than just taxes this year.

According to several reports, the agency will also be collecting personal information from sites like Facebook and Twitter.

It says the effort is to catch people trying to beat the system, but some say it goes too far.

Attorney Kristen Mathews warns to be careful with what you say on social media platforms.

Watch video here:

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Wisconsin Among Worst for Business Taxes, Now Considers Multimillion Circus Bailout

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Photo Credit: Elsie esq.

Wisconsin led the nation in collective bargaining reform for public employees in 2011, but the state’s current tax and regulatory climate led the Tax Foundation to recently declare Wisconsin among the worst in the country for business taxes. But while lawmakers mull over how best to reduce taxes and streamline regulations, they are being asked by one state agency to spend $3.7 million on a circus museum…

Yes, Wisconsin taxpayers may have to spend millions of dollars to bailout a cash-strapped circus museum.

The proposed state budget under consideration by lawmakers is the largest in the state’s history. Included in its various proposals are provisions that would add 710 new employees to state government. That’s a jumbo-jet and a half of new state workers complete with pensions and health care plans financed by taxpayers. Hardly a small irony after Governor Scott Walker balanced his first budget in 2011 by forcing state workers to contribute more to their health insurance and pension plans.

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US Corporations Get Cold Feet About Reducing Tax Rates

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Photo Credit: AP

Washington is finally starting to get serious about corporate tax reform — and now businesses are getting cold feet.

At first, it seemed like an idea the White House, Congress and corporate America could all agree on. Every company would play by the same tax rules: They would give up their special tax breaks in exchange for lowering the basic tax rate from 35 percent to as little as 25 percent.

But with Congress starting to dig into the details, many captains of industry are backpedaling — and fast.

The corporations aren’t keen on giving up the special tax breaks that have let many of them pay Uncle Sam less than advertised for years.

And they’ve gone on the offense to protect their favorite loopholes.

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Lawsuit Over Health Care Tax Could Kill ‘Obamacare’

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Photo Credit: The Washington Times

“Obamacare” looks increasingly inevitable, but one lawsuit making its way through the court system could pull the plug on the sweeping federal health care law.

A challenge filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation contends that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional because the bill originated in the Senate, not the House. Under the Origination Clause of the Constitution, all bills raising revenue must begin in the House.

The Supreme Court upheld most provisions of the act in June, but Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. took pains in the majority opinion to define Obamacare as a federal tax, not a mandate. That was when the Sacramento, Calif.-based foundation’s attorneys had their “aha” moment.

“The court there quite explicitly says, ‘This is not a law passed under the Commerce Clause; this is just a tax,’” foundation attorney Timothy Sandefur said at a Cato Institute forum on legal challenges to the health care act. “Well, then the Origination Clause ought to apply. The courts should not be out there carving in new exceptions to the Origination Clause.”

The Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the challenge in November, arguing that the high court has considered only eight Origination Clause cases in its history and “has never invalidated an act of Congress on that basis.”

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Your Taxes Help Promote the World’s Most Hated Dictators (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Thanks to your generous support, the New York City-based People’s Rights Fund has been able publicize the great work of Karl Marx and dictators Kim Jong-Il, Hugo Chavez and Saddam Hussein. Don’t remember writing that check?

If you paid federal taxes after 1997, some of your money went to Tides, a San Francisco-based clearinghouse that collects and distributes about $251 million every year to hundreds of leftwing organizations.

Much of the money flowing into Tides comes from wealthy benefactors who use Tides as a clearinghouse — a way to help finance left-liberal organizations without leaving any fingerprints.

But since 1997, the U.S. government has joined in, making $79 million in grants to the non-profit. In the same period, Tides has funded such groups as the radical PRF and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization whose leaders were convicted of funneling money to the terrorist group Hamas.

Tides also gives money to groups you likely know and may even support such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.

But CAIR?

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Murkowski’s Folly: No Road For King Cove

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Photo Credit: U.S. Army Alaska

Alaska has long received more than its fair share of federal tax dollars, as evidenced by its perennial first place ranking in pork per capita according to Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) Congressional Pig Book. Now, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) wants taxpayers to pay for a road in her state linking the town of King Cove (about 750 year-round residents) to Cold Bay and the latter’s all-weather airport, purportedly for safety reasons. In February, Sen. Murkowski threatened to block the nomination of Sally Jewell to be Secretary of the Interior unless the road was approved.

Sen. Murkowski’s pet project had previously been rebuffed by the Department of the Interior because the road would run through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Environmental Impact Statement, the road would cost $22.7 million, but data from the Alaska Statewide Improvement Transportation budget projections from fiscal years 2010-2015 suggest that the cost of the road could exceed $80 million, or more than $2 million per mile. Undeterred, Sen. Murkowski stated on February 12 that she was “prepared to consider all actions available…to convince this administration that denying the people of King Cove reliable access to medical care would be a travesty.” This week, Sen. Murkowski struck a deal with the Interior Department to get the road proposal reevaluated and toned down her rhetoric regarding the nomination.

Predictably, it appears that commercial interests, not medical emergencies, are the primary driver of the project. According to a February 24, 2013 Washington Post article, “Originally, both area residents and state officials viewed the road as a way to bolster the region’s fishing industry. …when King Cove passed its first resolution calling for its construction, it did not mention safety concerns and instead called for the road to ‘link together two communities having one of the state’s premier fishing port/harbors.'” The “safety” defense emerged only after it appeared unlikely that the road would receive federal funds.

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Federal Employees Who Don’t Pay Taxes Would Be Fired Under Bill That Passed Committee

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Citing figures indicating that more than 100,000 federal employees owe more than $1 billion in federal taxes, a House committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would require the firing of government workers who are “seriously tax delinquent.”

The legislation, introduced by Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, advanced through the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It now has to pass the full House to be implemented into law.

“Most taxpayers file accurate tax returns and pay the taxes they owe on time, regardless of their income,” Chaffetz, a Republican, said during the hearing Wednesday. “Federal employees and individuals applying for federal employment should do the same.”

The Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2013 requires the termination of employment for tax delinquent federal employees, while also prohibiting the hiring of new federal employees with a substantial amount of delinquent tax debt.

“The intent of the bill is simple,” Chaffetz said. “If you are a federal employee or applicant, you should be making a good faith effort to pay your taxes or to dispute them, as all taxpayers have the right to do.”

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Video: Bill Maher Complains That His Taxes Are Too High

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Photo Credit: Human Events

The whole exchange began with the high-octane stupidity of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow whining that House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget “is a document that says the big problems in America right now are that rich people do not have enough money… They need relief from confiscatory tax rates.”

Because all money is the rightful property of the State, you see. Anything the geniuses in Washington decide to let you keep – rather than seizing and giving to their favorite constituents, or “investing” in debacles like Solyndra – is an “expense.” So is the United States military, the one government program Maddow wants to cut to the bone.

We’ll get back to that business of government “investment” in a moment, but first, savor the irony of hyper-liberal Bill Maher deciding he’s not quite ready to follow Maddow down this particular fork in the Road to Serfdom:

Pointing at Virginia’s former Republican Congressman Tom Davis, Maher said, “You know what? Rich people – I’m sure you’d agree with this – actually do pay the freight in this country.”

“I just saw these statistics,” he continued, “I mean, something like 70 percent. And here in California, I just want to say liberals – you could actually lose me. It’s outrageous what we’re paying – over 50 percent. I’m willing to pay my share, but yeah, it’s ridiculous.”

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