Homeowners Lose Break In Obama Tax Bill

Homeowners Lose Break In Obama Tax Bill — A rotten Easter egg for homeowners is part of the tax bill passed by the lame-duck Democrat Congress and signed into law by President Obama, Dec. 17.

A provision to allow homeowners to deduct local property taxes without itemizing was let lapse. About two-thirds of Americans don’t make enough money to make it worth itemizing. The provision saved homeowners about $1.6 billion per year.

Of course, the filthy rich for whom it makes sense to itemize are not affected. Did you hear, by the way, that they are now inclined to support Democrats?

The bill does, however, include a tax break that allows banks and financial firms to shield foreign profits from being taxed through 2011. Beneficiaries include Bank of America  and Goldman Sachs. The cost to the country is $9.2 billion.

It is fair to say Obama is a man of the people if one assumes Wall Street bankers are people.

In a related matter, banks repossessed 1 million homes in 2010.

Homeowners Lose Break In Obama Tax Bill

Homeowners Lose Break In Obama Tax Bill

0Care Taxes That You May Not Know About


Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the current tax deduction for Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies would only be allowed if 85 percent or more of premium revenues are spent on clinical services.

Under the act there will be a $50,000 per hospital excise tax on charitable hospitals that fail to  meet new “community health assessment needs,” “financial assistance,” and “billing and collection” rules set by Department of Health and Human Services.

Under the act, the tax deduction for employer-provided retirement prescription drug coverage will be ended.

The Americans for Tax Reform has a detailed list as to how this bureaucratic nightmare passed last March is going to make our lives our harder and why we must repeal it as promised by the newly elected House. It can be found here.

Oh, and did you know that there will be exemptions to Individual Mandate Excise Tax starting in 2014 to anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance.

Those eligible for the exemptions are, according to ATR,  religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases determined by HHS.

What religions could possibly be included? Will it be the one discussed at the link?

Democrats Love The Poor Which Is Why . . .

Democrats Love The Poor Which Is Why . . . — The Democrat Party loves the poor which is why it works so hard to create so many.

The price of oil is marching to $100 per barrel and the “party of compassion” bends over backwards to keep new drilling from occurring on American territory leaving the matter as almost the exclusive privilege of Islamic and socialist dictators.

“Climate change” regulations are estimated to be costing this country $10.6 million per day despite it becoming more and more evident the “climate change” crisis is a despicable hoax .

Meanwhile, construction of non-CO2-emitting nuclear power plants are stopped by Democrats while they advance the destruction of non-CO2-emitting hydro-electric dams.

Under health care “reform” the cost of health insurance is skyrocketing and Medicare is being cut .

The Democrat Party leaders love the poor so much they want us all to be poor.

Themselves excepted, of course.

On a definitely related matter, wealthy New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, Thursday, wrote this article in which he said America was divided between greedy conservatives who don’t want to be taxed to help the poor and the enlightened ones such as himself.

He has it completely bassackwards. It’s the conservatives who give to charity and the vast majority of them do not have a problem with a social safety net.

It’s just they wonder why things like state tax dollars are used to fund propaganda like Democracy Now on Mind-TV.

It’s just that they wonder how exactly are tax-supported ACORN and Planned Parenthood part of a social safety net.

It’s that they wonder why Social Security has run a surplus for decades which is used to fund pensions, health plans and salaries for bureaucrats far, far, far more generous than those of the Social Security recipients.

And of course they wonder how a person who could make such a unsophisticated, ill-reasoned claim actually get a Nobel Prize.

OK, never mind on that last point.

 

Democrats Love The Poor

Defend Rush, Will The President?

Will The President Defend Rush? — President Obama, Wednesday, gave a wonderful speech at a memorial to the victims of the Tucson shooting held at the University of Arizona in the city.

He went off script to add the words “it did not ” for emphasis to a paragraph in which he baldly stated that heated political discourse was not responsible for the actions of the murderer.

His political allies among the dying dinosaurs of the once-dominant media have been attempting to convince Americans that a communist-praising, flag-burning, skull-worshiping, mentally unstable Christian-hater had been somehow inspired by prominent Republicans.

The President’s command for them to chill was, as one counts, his first attempt to impose national unity as our nation’s leader.

So sincere kudos but for him to succeed in his desire for “civil and honest public discourse” he must not stop with that one phrase uttered on one day. He must speak out in defense of all Americans — even his political adversaries — when they are on the receiving end of hate and lies.

When the Tea Party Movement is accused of racism, he must say they are not racists since they are not. When the Pro-Life movement is accused of being misogynist bullies, he must say they are not since they are not.

When a scary effigy of Sarah Palin is hanged high  from a window and then given wide publicity, his voice must be the loudest in saying take it down. When Rush Limbaugh is falsely accused of uttering vile, bigoted words, let the President be the first to come to his defense.

That he disagrees with Sarah and Rush would only make him look bigger and he might start getting the “civil and honest public discourse” that he claims to want.

Will The President Defend Rush?

Survey Shows Politicians Clueless On Civics

Survey Shows Politicians Clueless On Civics — The Intercollegiate Studies Institute surveyed 2,508 of those who took its civic literacy test and 164 said they held an elected government office at least once in their life. The average score of the politicians was 44 percent right. The average general score was 49 percent right which is also kind of scary but does explain how Democrats get elected.

The ISI is an non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 1953. It began its American Civic Literacy Program in 2003 which is designed to study and strengthen the teaching of America’s history and institutions at the college level. It contracted with the University of Connecticut in 2005 to administer the survey.

The ISI has placed its 33-question 2008 test online and it can be found here.

Results can be found here .

For the record I got a 33 out of 33. I guess I’d make a lousy politician.


 Survey Shows Politicians Clueless On Civics

Survey Shows Politicians Clueless On Civics

School Choice To Be S.B. 1 In Pa.

A bi-partisan school choice bill will be the first order of business in the Pennsylvania Senate.

S.B. 1 , will soon be introduced by Education Committee Chairman Jeffrey E. Piccola, the Republican  who represents the 15th District which consists of parts of Dauphin and York counties, and Anthony H. Williams, the respected Democrat who represents the 8th District which consists of parts of Philadelphia and Delaware counties.

The bill would eventually allow the parents of any needy child in the state to take the state subsidy — about $9,000 — that would have gone to their home school district and apply to the public, private or parochial school of their choice.

The plan would be implemented over three years with only low-income students currently attending persistently failing schools eligible the first year; low-income students residing in the attendance boundary of those schools but currently attending private schools becoming eligible in the second year; and all low income students becoming eligible in the third year.

Low income will be defined as families whose incomes are at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level so a family of four would qualify at $28,665.

The bill would also add $25 million to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program bringing the total tax credits available under it to $100 million.

Gov-Elect Tom Corbett is a supporter of school choice but expect the teacher unions to shriek like banshees if it should be signed into law and mount a state constitutional challenge citing Article III Section 15 .

Hat tip Bob Guzzardi

Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist Spreads Hate

Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist Spreads Hate — Annette John-Hall wrote in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer that “words matter” in trying to explain the Tucson shootings and then listed a litany of word crimes committed by opponents of President Obama and the Democrat Party.

Among the examples of hate she used were  calling the President “a liar, a socialist, a racist and an alien”.  It seems this sort of stuff became hate on Jan. 20, 2009. Must have missed that memo. It certainly wasn’t called “hate” before that. Then it was called patriotism.

In the next paragraph, however, she crosses the line from simple ninnyness to become a spreader of hate herself when she writes
It wasn’t Democrats who spit on members of Congress and called them vile names during the health-care debate.

Of the myriad of recording devices on the scene whether the expensive cameras of professional news crews or simple cell phones, not one managed to capture such a thing despite a $10,000 reward offer for each use of said vile name found. 

One wonders why Annette John Hall can’t see the irony of using an unfounded allegation to demean an entire group whose protest did not in the slightest involve a race issue.

Making things up to acquire power and destroy the innocent is certainly not a thing unknown to the self-proclaimed caring progressive .

Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist Spreads Hate

What Has Become Of The United States of America?


Charles Martini Sr. of the Media area has had this article published in the Delaware County Daily Times . Charles is a regular attendee of meetings of the Delaware County Patriots.

Has America become the land of the special interest and home of the double standard? For many it has. Here is a review of current events. Make your own decision.

If we lie to the Congress, it’s a felony. If the Congress lies to us it’s just politics. If we dislike a black person, we’re racist. If a black dislikes whites, it’s their First Amendment right.

The government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and they do almost nothing for the victims. In public schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK, but you better not use the word God in the process.

You can kill an unborn child, but it’s wrong to execute a mass murderer. We don’t burn books in America, we now rewrite them. We got rid of the communist and socialist threat by renaming them progressive. We are unable to close our border with Mexico, but we have no problem protecting the 38th parallel in Korea.

If you protest against President Obama’s policies you’re a terrorist or a racist, but if you burned an American flag or George W. Bush’s picture in effigy it was your First Amendment right.

You can have pornography on TV or the Internet, but you better not put a nativity scene in a public park during Christmas. We have eliminated all criminals in America; they are now called sick people. We can use a human fetus for medical research, but it’s wrong to use an animal for drug research to cure a disease.

We take money from those who
work hard for it and give it to those who don’t want to work. We all
support the Constitution, but only when it supports our political
ideology. We still have freedom of speech, but only if we are being
politically correct.

We can celebrate Cinco De Mayo and
Halloween, but we can’t celebrate Christmas, which is a recognized
national holiday and a religious holiday for most of Americans.

We
can ask law-abiding citizens to present valid I.D. when cashing a check
or making a credit card purchase, but we can’t ask suspicious “illegal
aliens” to produce a valid I.D. to verify their status or identify
themselves.

We explain away individuals who steal classified and
secret communications and distribute them to the press, but can’t hold
the press or individuals libel for participating in this
life-threatening treachery to our country and armed forces personnel.

We
applaud confiscatory taxation and regulation on those who work hard,
run an enterprise and play by the rules, then reward drug addicts,
slackers, welfare cheats and bums with “benefits” they did not earn to
continue their corrupt lifestyles … and call this whole process “social
justice” or welfare for the so-called disadvantaged and poor of society.

Actor
Wesley Snipes goes to jail for tax evasion, while Democratic
Congressman Charles Rangel, who was indicted 20 times for fraud and
evasion, gets a mild censure and no jail time from Congress. And you
wonder why the U.S. Congress is held in deep contempt with a 20 percent
approval rating from U.S. taxpayers and voters.

What has happened to the land of the free and home of the brave?

The answer: America has become a welfare state based on deviant behavior, questionable morals and situation ethics.

R.I.P. Major Dick Winters

Richard D. Winters, the quiet, religious, teetotaling warrior made famous by the Stephen Ambrose book Band of Bothers died Jan. 2. He would have turned 93 on Jan. 21.

The book would be turned into a widely watched mini-series on HBO in 2001.

Winter’s death was announced after a private funeral service that was held on Saturday.

Winters was born in Ephrata, Pa. He lived much of his life after World War II in Hershey from where he ran a state-wide business selling animal feed products to farmers.

Band of Brothers is the story of  Easy Company or Company E, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, which saw near constant action from D-Day until the surrender of Germany.

Winters would rise to be company commander then to battalion acting commander leaving service with the rank of major.

Winters received numerous medals including the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest military honor. The Distinguished Service Cross was bestowed for destroying a German battery of 105 mm howitzers during the Battle of Normandy in what is know as the Brecourt Manor Assault and is used at West Point as an example as to how small-unit tactics can overcome a larger enemy force.

An attempt is being made to upgrade Winters medal to the Congressional Medal of Honor.

 

R.I.P. Major Dick Winters

Massacre Victim Was Dallas Green’s Granddaughter

Massacre Victim Was Dallas Green’s Granddaughter — Christina-Taylor Green, the nine-year-old granddaughter of Dallas Green, was among the six killed in  yesterday’s attack at a congresswoman’s constituency meeting at a Safeway in Tuscon, Az.

Green managed the Philadelphia Phillies to their first world title in 1980.

The congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat who represents the state’s 8th District, miraculously survived a bullet that passed through her brain. Her condition is described as critical but doctors have expressed optimism that she will live.

Ms. Giffords was considered a moderate and was one of 19 Democrats who voted against Nancy Pelosi on Jan. 5 in the election for Speaker of the House.

Also, among the dead was Federal District Judge John McCarthy Roll , a moderate conservative, and native Pennsylvanian, who was appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1991.

The accused killer, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, was described as “left wing, quite liberal ” by those who knew him. Loughner in internet postings had express a dislike for religion and admiration for the writings of Karl Marx and Adolph Hitler.

Ms. Giffords is Jewish and there are also reports that Loughner had links to an antisemitic group.

 

Massacre Victim Was Dallas Green’s Granddaughter