Beware of the Ides of April also. Today is traditionally Income Tax Day. Moan, groan.
This year taxpayers (and the winos) get a break. Taxes do not have to be filed until April 18 by 5 pm locally.
Today is also my brother’s birthday. He is rapidly becoming a geezer. Happy Birthday Raymie.
Is spring really here or is Mother Nature giving us a false sense of security?
http://www.slate.com/id/2291312/
http://roanoke.com/editorials/wb/283254
“April is the cruelest month … mixing memory and desire…”
t.s.eliot
Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) vetoed a bill Friday afternoon that would have drawn new state legislative boundaries in Virginia for the next decade, saying he believes it violates state and federal law.
@Mom
So what’s next for us in the Commonwealth? Back to the drawing board or what?
GA passes bill
Governor vetoes bill
Senate says stick it and sends original map back
Governor says no, eff you and vetoes it again
Ends up in the hands of the court
We have GA elections in ’11 ’12 and ’13, costing millions in taxpayer dollars.
Tax Day? Today is Buy a Gun Day!
http://www.buyagunday.net/
@mom,,
So where does that leave us? Is that for house and senate?
atlas shrugged, now in theaters
http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/?gclid=CJr7zZLuoKgCFQnrKgod0D1OIQ
@Mom
What the governor meant to say was, “It doesn’t match up with the Republican/Teapublican idea of what the districts should look like.”
George hits the nail on the head.
I guess that’s a good reason to vote Republican. I try to vote for a Democratic president for the Supreme Court nomination. I sure don’t want any more Alitos and Roberts. (or Scalias or Thomases)
Speaking of Thomas, what is his inappropriate wife doing these days? What conflict of interest groups is she involved in?
@cargosquid
Has to be one of the more stupid ideas in history.
@e
I suppose it will be in 9 parts.
The local fishwrap buried the story of the governor’s veto on page A7:
http://newsandmessenger.va.newsmemory.com/[email protected]&utm_source=EmailMarketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EmailPush
I guess it ain’t over ’til it’s over…
Ok, back to PWC redistricting, which has plenty of it’s own issues. Here’s a video made by a county resident on the topic with the map zoomed in on the areas that citizens raised concern over. We’ve been have lots of discussion on my FB page regarding redistricting.
http://www.youtube.com/user/designermite
@George S. Harris
What is? Buy a Gun day? Why is that? Support the economy. Develop a hobby. Teach others to shoot.
The black velvet master failed to distinguish between the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce who honored Charlie Deane on Friday and illegal immigrants. Mr. L, your bias is quite apparent. Why would we assume that the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce would support illegal immigrants?
Brown factor?
tsk tsk tsk
Interesting BVR. Why was Deane being honored and where might one find out information on that event? Is Mr. “Last Name Sounds like Candidate for Chair” making all that up?
It isn’t wise to not differentiate between Hispanics and illegal immigrants. Someone is getting careless. Does Corey differentiate? Isn’t the Black Velvet Master a spokesperson for Corey?
sarah is smokin hot!
http://www.breitbart.tv/palin-wows-wisconsin-tea-partiers-with-blistering-speech-to-obama-you-ignored-us-in-2010-you-cannot-ignore-us-in-2012/
@e
Well, now I can add that Sarah Palin is an effen liar. How dare she say that Scott Walker is just trying to help the teachers. That voice, by the way, could shatter glass.
I ordinarily don’t let breitbart’s crap on here. It was worth suffering through it to learn that Palin is an outright screaming liar. I was shocked to see how explotative she is.
Well, Walker could restrict the future costs to the government by getting rid of bargaining for benefits OR he could fire teachers…….
And yes, the restrictions on the unions was ALSO to restrict their power.
That’s called multi-tasking.
Or some people would call it union busting. He is welcome to fire teachers and demand that his constituents home school their kids. How will that work out.
How quickly we forget that he admitted that the demand to give up collective bargaining did not influence the budget. Did I imagine what he said in the video where Kucinich and Gerry Connolly grilled him about intent.
Cargo, you aren’t going to convince me that this is a budget issue. It really isn’t. Remember those same teachers already accepted some of those costs being deferred to them.
And no, it isn’t about future costs. It should be about smarter collective bargaining.
What happens when there is any attempt to restrict people’s power? This is not a trick question.
Cargo, I can’t believe that if YOU were a teacher in Wisconsin that you would be there saying ” no! please don’t give me a raise! Please allow me to pay my own costs for retirement. Please take away agreements from my pension. Please don’t let me ever have power to increase my wages or working conditions.”
All along you have been so married to your own ideology that you have not put yourself in anyone else’s shoes. What is wrong with people trying to get good working conditions and to earn an adequate living?
Are you missing the empathy gene?
Rumor has it that the black velvets are all stirred up and more interested in what goes on here than what goes on with the dark screen. Rumor also has it that I said Corey believes all immigrants are the same, legal and illegal. I never said any such thing, just to clear up the record. I asked if he differentiated based on comments from a contributor. I am assuming he does for very obvious reasons. However, perhaps he needs to be careful who he lets speak for him. He doesn’t want to have to mop up over careless words.
If the rumors are correct, perhaps we can recommend a remedial reading class.
Silly velvets.
E-Trade baby goes bust: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDmJcDvaBGU
I hate those commercials. Grrrrrr
Moon,
I thought all the hysteria over illegal immigration had nothing to do with targeting Latinos? Forget they only talk about sealing the southern border, forget that Greg only posts hispanic surname crimes, forget that the only language that irritates people is spanish………………..
To suggest that Babur is an “illegal alien” sympathizer because he connected with the Hispanic business community CREATES that impression that illegal alien=hispanic. DUH!
Maybe Walker is just afraid of teachers and therefore has little confidence in his ability to properly negotiate and thus, in order to avoid such a confrontation, instead, took the wussy way out.
Negotiations require two sides!
Did anyone see this great article in the post about research on right to work states and union states. It said that states that are right to work, generally have the same benefits as union states. AND….ready for the drum roll, right to work states had the SAME pension issues as union states. So, if you want to blame unions for all the funding ills, you better try again.
We haven’t heard much from Moe Davis lately. My gosh, I hope all his people down there in North Carolina survived the storms safe and sound.
Wolverine — Thanks for asking. My folks didn’t get hit too hard by the storms. We’re in the western part of the state (west of Charlotte and east of Asheville) and the worst of the storm track went through central NC (around the Raleigh region), so we were fortunate. I’ve been occupied with work related stuff lately (if you ever have a chance to participate in redesigning a website, don’t … it’s time consuming and tedious), but I’ll be back.
Uncle Sam’s terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sp-cuts-us-ratings-outlook-to-negative-2011-04-18-91500
@Cato the Elder
This is a warning shot over the bow that the economic demise of the U.S. has started. Politicians lie to us and pretend that things are not as serious as we might think, but markets know differently. We will almost certainly recover the losses of today, and then some, but the trend over the next few years is clear. Fundamental changes are on the way whether we make them now by choice or are forced into much more serious and painful decisions later.
@Need to Know
I especially like this gem from Assistant Treasury Secretary Mary Miller in response: “S&P underestimates the ability of U.S. leaders to come together to deal with fiscal challenges.”
BAWHAHAHAHAHA Stop it Mary you’re killing me!
@Cato the Elder
I enjoy “Fringe” and the last episode had the main characters doing an LSD-based dream sequence much like the movie “Inception” joined in cartoon form by Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock). Mary Miller was not in the episode but must have found some of the LSD. The fictional TV show was more believable than her comments.
S&P goes negative on US outlook for first time
Ratings agency expresses doubts that government will get its fiscal house in order
“This is a very big deal,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at Miller Tabak. “This announcement is very much a shot across the bow that you can’t simply cut taxes and increase spending in perpetuity and expect there to be no ramifications in the bond or currency markets.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42643641/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/
No doubt about it now, folks. We have to raise taxes if we want to reduce our budget deficit. Spending cuts just won’t cut – literally.
For richest, federal taxes have gone down; for some in U.S., they’re nonexistent
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Sunday, April 17, 8:01 PM
As millions of procrastinators scramble to meet Monday’s tax-filing deadline, ponder this: The super-rich pay a lot less in taxes than they did a couple of decades ago, and nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all.
The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.
Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.
The top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so much pay so much less than that in taxes? The nation’s tax laws are packed with breaks for people at every income level. There are breaks for having children, paying a mortgage, going to college and even for paying other taxes.
The top rate on capital gains is only 15 percent.
There are so many breaks that 45 percent of U.S. households will pay no federal income tax for 2010, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-richest-federal-taxes-have-gone-down-for-some-in-us-theyre-nonexistent/2011/04/17/AFx6LCwD_story.html?wpisrc=nl_fedinsider
No wonder we have a deficit.
@Starryflights
I wonder if this will wake up that bunch of clowns on capitol hill? The “Gang of Six” has been working on a bipartisan plan for some 4+ months and it is still in the starting gate. Perhaps this downgrading will be the starting gun. Let’s hope so, but I don’t have much faith at this point.
@Starryflights
How many of that 45% don’t make enough to pay taxes? I sure as hell paid.
@Starryflights
The top quintile of household income earners (top 20% of income) already shouldered 87.2 percent of the total Federal income tax burden as of 2006, the latest year for which the CBO has compiled data. That’s up from 82.9 percent in 2000, the last year of the Clinton administration. The “Bush Tax Cuts” did not shift the burden away from the highest earners, as alledged. Tax burdens in fact went the opposite direction. The top 1% paid 57.1 percent of the income tax burden in 2006, up from 49.1 percent in 2000.
http://www.cbo.gov/publications/collections/tax/2009/tax_liability_shares.pdf
Raising marginal tax rates will slow economic growth and bring us to an “Atlas Shrugged” situation where the true producers and earners get fed up and quit producing just to have the fruits of their labor redistributed.
What do we do?
Raise the Social Security retirement age to at least 70. That keeps more income going into Social Security and Medicare longer, and delays benefits. When Social Security was enacted people collected benefits for only a few years before dying. We live much longer now.
LOWER marginal income tax rates and eliminate most deductions and preferences. Keep perhaps deductions for state and local taxes paid (it’s not fair to pay Federal tax on income earned to pay other taxes), mortgage deductions up to about $500,000 for primary residence only, charitable contributions, and child credits and deductions. Everything else goes. ESPECIALLY corporate welfare and deductions. However, we reduce the corporate tax rate to be in line with other industrial nations, or eliminate it completely.
Public employees pay a share of their retirement contributions and health care, just like everyone else, and particpate in the same Medicare health insurance as everyone else with no taxpayer-subsdized healthcare insurance supplements. If they want more, they can buy it like the rest of us.
Redefine our role in the world. We can no longer be the global policeman. We need a foreign and defense policy of minding our own business, and not trying to tell everyone else how to run their affairs. Neocons – find something else to meddle in.
There we have it. Problem solved. Budget balanced.
The public employees view that somewhat differently. Many of the ones who have been around for a while were paying their own pension share. then the state and local jurisdictions paid it for them in exchange for raises. So while private industry was out getting raises, the PE’s were getting the pension paid.
The worm has turned and now the PEs are the dirty greedy leeches.
I don’t even know what taxpayer subsidized health care insurance supplements are. This idea that public employees are leeches has to stop. I am interested to see what is going to happen when people aren’t going to go into public service any more because not only is the pay low but the benefits suck.
Oh man…..I’ve been an outspoken critic of man-made global warming, but now, after 20 years of silence, a man has finally spoken out for a cause…he believes in global warming. What wine goes best with crow?! This would be hard to refute!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378178/Charles-Manson-breaks-20-year-silence-40th-anniversary-gruesome-Sharon-Tate-murders.html
speaking of taxes and tax rates – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/18/obama-taxes-income_n_850649.html – Obama has paid 26% in federal taxes (1.7M in income), and the Bidens (379K income), 23% – the fact is that virtually no one pays the top tax rates that our elected politicians toss around left and right. It makes me cringe when Hannity says, I pay 55% taxes – it is just not true.
@Moon-howler
I don’t consider public employees leeches at all. I’ve been one as has Mrs. NTK, and my mom was a career public school teacher. However, I do think their benefits and retirement packages should be brought in line with the private sector. As a small business owner, I pay one hundred percent of my retirement and my family’s health insurance costs. I know were every dollar of our income is coming from. Moving from the public sector world to the private sector, and not just private sector but business owner, I’m much more cognizant of these things now, and don’t want to pay taxes to pay such a large part of someone else’s benefits, as well as my own.
@NTK,
Did you think the salaries and benefits should be brought in line back in the day when state and local paid far less than private industry?
I don’t fight for the federal folks. They don’t have the same deal as the state and local people.
The public people used to be far lower in Virginia. It has only been the past 20 years that there was any equalization at all.
IRS data showed that in 2008, the top 5 percent of earners — households earning more than $160,000 — accounted for about 59 percent of all federal income tax paid. The next 45 percent — solidly middle-class taxpayers earning between $33,000 and $160,000 — accounted for about 39 percent of all personal income tax paid.
The bottom 50 percent accounted for the remaining sliver of tax revenue. In fact, a Tax Policy Center study showed that 45 percent of households in the United States will pay no federal income tax for 2010.
Taxes to Balance the Budget? Not Unless Rates Go Up 150 Percent
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/18/taxes-pay-debt-unless-rates-150-percent/
The top 1% pay 38% of all income taxes
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_041811/content/01125109.member.html
use this link for those of you who forgot to renew your membership to rush 24/7
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_041811/content/01125109.guest.html
(Poll results from McClatchy-Marist national survey): On tackling the deficit, voters by a margin of 2-to-1 support raising taxes on incomes above $250,000, with 64 percent in favor and 33 percent opposed. Independents supported higher taxes on the wealthy by 63-34 percent; Democrats by 83-15 percent; and Republicans opposed by 43-54 percent. http://bit.ly/haC8dB
For union families, a loss of value beyond bank accounts
By Amy Gardner, Monday, April 18, 10:35 AM
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Judy and Jim Embree, an operating room nurse and paramedic and firefighter, were attending a rally at the state Capitol when they discovered that everything they thought to be good and right about their lives was, to an alarming number of people, completely wrong.
The people who showed up that day in support of a plan, since adopted, to cut the power and benefits of public-sector unions said that people like them were the problem. That their “high wages” and “exorbitant pensions” were crippling cities and counties across Ohio. Some, even, said their jobs were unnecessary.
It had never occurred to the Embrees that firefighters and nurses could be unnecessary. They thought of themselves as linchpins of the community — and one of the biggest rewards of their jobs was knowing that the rest of the world thought so, too.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-union-families-a-loss-of-value-beyond-bank-accounts/2011/03/25/AFfRZDzD_story.html
It is utterly appalling how public employees are being vilified today, especially hard-working folks like firefighters and nurses. These people work long, hard hours, in sometimes dangerous conditions, for not a lot of money. You should bear that in mind next time you want to bash public employees for making too much money.
I never thought I would see the day that these people were considered high wage earners. These people also must go to work regardless–rain, storms, blizzards, snow, ice storms. I bet there is one 4 wheel drive in the family.
These were people who were heroes on 9-11—the public servants: cops, firefighters, nurses. How quickly things change in just 10 short years. From hero to villan. Angel to devil.
Thanks for pointing that out Starry. Excellent link.
public employees are not being vilified today, however, comma, the gravy train has come to an end, and the benefits they were promised are no longer sustainable. a lot of people in the private sector work long, hard hours, in sometimes dangerous conditions, and sometimes for a lot less money too. ohio along with other rust belt states has seen a lot of its jobs go poof, gone. kia, hyundai, mercedes et al are churning out cars in georgia and alabama cause the business environment is more favorable down there. thats why gov. kasich was elected, and strickland got kicked out
happy passover. rebellion to tyrants is obedience to god, echoes the declaration of independence
http://www.greatseal.com/committees/firstcomm/reverse.html
e – and they earn 25% of all income – nice to see that the top 1% gets one quarter of the income earned. Over the past 20 years, the income of the upper 1% has steadily increased, while those in the lower 99% has had stagnant or reducing salaries.
What I would like to know, is how many wealthy people are our there that actually create jobs based on their income. We hear, that if someone has to pay more in taxes, then they will not create jobs – so are they trying to tell me that if the CEO of (pick a company) was given a tax increase, the company would create less jobs… seems hard to believe.
@Pat
maybe e is in that bracket and is tired of paying what he feels is more than his fair share. Other than that, I can’t imagine why he is defending them.
Well, its obvious that this is ANOTHER argument that won’t ever be settled. You continue to see an attempt to bring down state spending as an attack on teachers, etc. You see any attempt to rein in unions as an attack on public servants, yet don’t admit that those same unions are breaking the bank. And no, I’m not talking about Wisconsin. Other states, with DEMOCRAT governors are doing the same.
And the evil rich must pay more! Ever more! Because they keep on making ever more money. Well, that is never going to change. And its going to get worse as along as the government allows those politically connected to make the money vs a free market.
So, again, how much more should these evil rich pay? We could confiscate ALL the wealth and not kill THIS YEAR’S deficit. We need to totally reform the tax code, but, Congress won’t because it gives THEM so much power to interfere with business and demand bribes. The rich get richer because they have the ability to play the game. We don’t.
All men are created equal. We are all equal under the law. How is demanding more of one man’s assets than another’s demonstrating equality under the law? Why is it moral to demand, at gun point, that one man pay more than another? 50% of this country pays NO taxes. How is that fair to the rest? Corporations like GE are able to PROFIT off of the tax code. How is that fair? Poor people pay into SS. “Rich” people don’t. Social Security is nothing more than a tax.
Besides…who are these “rich” people? According to Obama, it’s those making $250,000 and up. That would include small businesses. Most “millionaires” are small businessmen that have assets worth over a million, but their income is much smaller.
Why are you falling for this class warfare? Its just another tool to divide us.
It is not a taxation problem. It is a spending problem. Americans, through their corrupt representatives, have been sold a pig in a poke. And now, Americans have to be willing to give up their free ice cream.
We are broke. We have just passed the debt ceiling again: http://dailypaul.com/160732/1431056766293123celebration-we-passed-the-debt-ceiling-just-now-you-excited.
Why is it that no one on the left wants to take this seriously. Put it all on the table. Just like the states have to do. Then get to work compromising. Like MH said, “Save NPR and Title X by not building an extra bomber.” And the other side can counter.
However, God forbid that Congress actually do their jobs. It might cut into re-election funds. Its not about “defending the rich” or attacking public workers. It’s simply math.
Public worker benefits/salaries are the biggest cost in state governments. Cowardly politicians promised the moon and kicked the finance football down the road. Cowardly politicians in Congress refused to deal with spending and the American PEOPLE refused to deal with reality and didn’t want the free ice cream to end.
We CANNOT just tax our way out of this. We don’t have enough wealth to pay the bill. We can only reduce the insane spending.
This is triage. And the first thing one must do in first aid, after making sure the patient is breathing is stop the bleeding. No matter how much blood is added, if the bleeding is not stopped, the patient WILL die.
$14,211,567,662,931.23 is a lot of blood.
Cargo said:
The tax brackets aren’t about morality. They are brackets that assume those with more income can afford to pay more. I am certainly not singing the praises of the current tax brackets but assume I will have to pay more taxes than some kid making $10k a year.
Everyone pays into social security. The ceiling is too low however. It needs to be lifted. That is an easy one. Just raise the level to $250 k. It doesnt even have to be at the same rate. or slap some flat tax sur-charges on it. There are plenty of ways to do this.
‘The left’ which is now everyone west of the John Birch Society takes this very seriously. Public worker benefits and salaries are the biggest bite..how is that different from a private company? Salaries and benefits often are the largest expenditure, even when they aren’t getting raises. Do you expect the people to work for free?
It will take a combination of budget cuts and tax increases to bring down the debt. It will also take sensible cuts….not the hysterics I have been hearing.
It is also going to take cutting out a couple of wars. Many people want to tip toe around that giant 800 pound gorilla. When did this debt start occurring at exponential rates? hmmmmm…..who was president…..hmmmmmmmm…lets blame Obama! yea thats the ticket. All his fault.
I am tired of hearing ‘we are broke.’ No, the United States isn’t broke. It has a source of income.
Oh and as for small businessmen with their million dollar assets. It isn’t that difficult to restructure the tax code so corporate assets aren’t open to that kind of taxation. I am no tax expert but I do know that is possible. Then that old excuse can’t be used any longer. I am all for making sure that everyone pays some federal income tax, even if a dollar. I am all for making sure that those in the upper stratosphere get a nudge upward.
cargo – I agree that we need tax reform – but where are the proposals? Class warfare – you bet, the truly wealthy has seen there wealth increase over the past 20 years (and taxes reduced), while the middle class wealth has eroded. We do have a progressive tax system, which means that all pay the same amount of taxes on the same income – they do not pay the higher rates on all of their income.
Gov McDonnell withheld the VRS payment last year, effectively kicking the financial football down the road – is he a cowardly politician in a non union state – what is the excuse there? He also collected July 2010 sales taxes in June 2010, effectively having retailers prepay taxes that might not materialize – those types of one offs is what has gotten many states into the situation they are in today.
Do we need tax reform – yes – is soaking the rich the way to solve the issues – no – but, for the past 25 years, we have lived off of the credit cards, and neither party wants to address the issues. They voted for Medicare Part D with no funding stream, now want to dismantle Medicare because it is not funded enough – well, I currently pay 1.45% Medicare Tax, and I would GLADLY pay 2% if it meant that Medicare was funded. But in the Paul Ryan plan, we will dismantle Medicare so that we can keep funding other wasteful spending – and in the mean time, do nothing to try and rein in the healthcare costs which are at the root of the issue.