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Democrats demand that Romney release taxes but refuse to release their own

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Members of Congress are demanding that U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney give full disclosure of all of his tax returns, but most are refusing to publicize their own.

The presumptive presidential nominee has disclosed his 2010 tax return and 2011 tax return estimate, but refuses to publicize any more. His refusal is generating critical responses from Congressional members, who claim his secrecy makes him unfit to run for president.

However most members of Congress do not think that this same level of transparency should apply to them. While senators and representatives are required to publicize their sources of income, they are not required to disclose their tax returns, which contain additional financial data like spousal income.

McClatchy has asked all 535 members of Congress for full disclosure of their tax returns, but only 17 have complied.

Among those who refused are Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Harry Reid – both of which have heavily criticized Romney for his limited transparency.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Sen. Patty Murray: Democrats will go over ‘fiscal cliff’ unless GOP relents

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With the US economy speeding toward a year-end fiscal cliff of some $560 billion in higher taxes and draconian spending cuts, Sen. Patty Murray (D) of Washington bluntly laid out her party’s position on how Congress should handle the nation’s coming fiscal travails: Go big or go over the ledge.

“Millions of jobs could be lost through the automatic cuts, programs families depend on would be slashed irresponsibly across the board, and middle-class tax cuts would expire. And once again, if Republicans won’t work with us on a balanced approach, we are not going to get a deal,” said Senator Murray, the Senate’s No. 4 Democrat, in a speech at the Brookings Institution on Monday.

“[I]f we can’t get a good deal – a balanced deal that calls on the wealthy to pay their fair share – then I will absolutely continue this debate into 2013, rather than lock in a long-term deal this year that throws middle-class families under the bus,” she said.

The chair of the party committee charged with electing Democrats to the Senate laid out the broadest, most full-throated explanation of the party’s views on the party’s negotiating position vis-a-vis the fiscal cliff, while outlining the party’s strategy for attacking Republicans at the polls in November.

While optimistic “that we can get a good deal,” Murray said Democrats would not, for example, sign on to a plan that would offset the $55 billion portion of the $109 billion in automatic spending cuts mandated by the “sequester,” the budget-slashing mechanism agreed to as part of 2011’s debt-ceiling showdown. The remainder of the reductions come from discretionary spending, home to Democratic priorities like social welfare programs, and reductions in payments to Medicare providers.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Another Obama first: Americans now toil over half the year to pay for unconstitutional government

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This year, Americans have to work until July 15 to pay for the burden of government, more than six months.

In a new report, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) has calculated that Americans will spend a total of 197 days toiling to pay for the cost of government.

“Cost of Government Day is the date of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burden imposed by government at the federal, state and local levels,” reads the report.

The report, Cost of Government Day, shows that Americans will work 88 days to pay for federal spending; 40 days for state and local spending; and 69 days for total regulatory costs.

“From a different perspective, the cost of government makes up 54.0 percent of annual gross domestic product (GDP),” reads the report. “What’s more, the largest tax hike in the nation’s history is scheduled to take place at the end of 2012 unless Congress acts to protect taxpayers. If this tax increase is allowed to hit, COGD [Cost of Government Day] could permanently be pushed back into August and beyond.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Obama the Job Terminator

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Through taxation and regulation, the Democrat candidate for President is killing American jobs. The effort is so pronounced, so pervasive and so relentless, that it is time to call it deliberate.

Obama has consistently demanded higher individual income taxes on “millionaires and billionaires,” which he consistently defines as anyone making more than $200,000 a year. Calling for “fairness,” he has repeated this mantra thousands of times. Apparently he believes it would be fairer if the top 1% of American income tax payers already paying 38% of all federal income tax revenues pay even more, while half of all American adults continue to pay no income tax at all.

Obama has blocked all attempts to lower the American corporate tax rate—now the highest of all industrialized countries. Worse still, Obama has blocked all efforts to stop the double taxation of U.S. companies’ foreign sales. American companies pay taxes to countries where sales are made, then face American corporate income taxes if the net profits are brought back home. Trillions of dollars are kept by American companies overseas instead of being invested here because of this stubborn job-killing double taxation.

Consequently, while the TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) speaks eloquently about the need for jobs, Obama tax policy punishes job creators. While the TOTUS speaks up forcefully for increased American exports to create jobs, the reality of Obama tax policy is having the opposite effect—jobs are fleeing the U.S. While the TOTUS castigates American companies for hoarding cash and not hiring, it is Obama’s double taxation policies that are causing the problem.

As with other bad trends (deficit spending, declining student test scores, endless wars) that predated Obama but have accelerated under his regime, things have gotten so much worse for job creators in the U.S. in the last 2.5 years.

Read More at Human Events  By Roger Hedgecock, Human Events

Limbaugh: Don’t Be Fooled — Debt Deal Means More Taxes

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Whether the deal to reduce the government deficit passes or not, says radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, the American people are still going to get a tax increase.

“Any way you slice it you are going to get tax increases. That’s how screwed we are,” he said.

Limbaugh blames the complex accounting done by the Congressional Budget Office, he said on his radio show on Monday.

President George W. Bush’s tax cuts that are due to expire at the end of next year, he says. If Obama extends the cuts, the CBO will consider that a $ 5 trillion reduction in government income which will have to be made up elsewhere. If they expire, that’s a direct tax hike on Americans, Limbaugh said.

“Anyone wanting to tell you there are no tax increases in this technically may be right, this piece of legislation does not have a specific tax increases in it. But what’s slated to happen over the next few months results in one,” Limbaugh said.

Read More at NewsMax  By Martin Gould, Newsmax.com

Deconstructing the Revenue Side of the Debt-Ceiling Deal: Yes, There’s a Real Threat of Higher Taxes

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Politicians last night announced the framework of a deal to increase the debt limit. In addition to authorizing about $900 billion more red ink right away, it would require immediate budget cuts of more than $900 billion, though “immediate” means over 10 years and “budget cuts” means spending still goes up (but not as fast as previously planned).

But that’s the relatively uncontroversial part. The fighting we’re seeing today revolves around a “super-committee” that’s been created to find $1.5 trillion of additional “deficit reduction” over the next 10 years (based on Washington math, of course).

And much of the squabbling is about whether the super-committee is a vehicle for higher taxes. As with all kiss-your-sister budget deals, both sides can point to something they like.

Here’s what Republicans like:

The super-committee must use the “current law” baseline, which assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire at the end of 2012. But why are GOPers happy about this, considering they want those tax cuts extended? For the simple reason that Democrats on the super-committee therefore can’t use repeal of the “Bush tax cuts for the rich” as a revenue raiser.

Here’s what Democrats like:

There appears to be nothing in the agreement to preclude the super-committee from meeting its $1.5 trillion target with tax revenue. The 2001 and 2003 tax legislation is not an option, but everything else is on the table (notwithstanding GOP claims that it is “impossible for Joint Committee to increase taxes”).

Read More By Dan Mitchell

Romney is What’s Wrong With the Republican Party

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Reading Al Gore’s comments on Mitt Romney we were reminded of all of the reason’s we don’t trust the man: “Good for Mitt Romney though we’ve long passed the point where weak lip-service is enough on the Climate Crisis. While other Republicans are running from the truth, he is sticking to his guns in the face of the anti-science wing of the Republican Party.

The so-called science of global warming is more media hype and Wall Street attempts to profit on trading carbon credits than it is real science. The scientific community is split on the topic with some climatologist predicting a new mini ice age. Mitt Romney’s gullibility on this issue helps us understand why he has been so wrong on most of the vital issue of the last decade.

Romney is often trumpeted by his supporters as having business experience and they love to site this record of taking Massachusetts from a three billion dollar deficit to a one billion dollar surplus. But the cost of his balanced budgets was tough on business. Peter Nicholas, founder of Boston Scientific Corporation, stated it this way: tax rates on many corporations almost doubled because of legislation supported by Romney. Romney’s tax policies were not helpful for many small businesses, when Romney took many IRS subchapter S businesses in Massachusetts and almost doubled their tax rates; it was an important disincentive to investment, growth and job creation.

The Cato Institute reports as Governor, Romney opposed $140 million in business tax hikes through the closing of loopholes in the tax code. This led to Joseph Crosby of the Council on State Taxation to say, Romney went further than any other governor in trying to wring money out of corporations.

Romney raised taxes on business by a total of $309 million. He increased taxes on business property. He then tried to raise taxes on hotels, but was stopped by the Democrat legislature. Romney at the time joined a coalition lobbying congress to tax internet activity, and he even supported a tax on out of state commuters.

Read More at Townhall by Douglas Kellogg, Human Events