Archive for the ‘Taxes’ Category
Monday, November 2nd, 2020
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Trump’s Already Won
A consequential presidency has enabled peace and prosperity.
By Maria Bartiromo and James Freeman October 31, 2020
Win or lose, America’s 45th president deserves credit for a more competitive economy, a nation at peace and a secure rule of law. Donald Trump doesn’t trample Americans’ rights. He doesn’t start wars; he ends them. And he makes comments that offend people. The cost of supporting Mr. Trump is enduring awkward moments when he says things that presidents shouldn’t say. The benefit is that he champions U.S. liberty and prosperity, and a thriving America is a benefit to the world.
It may seem obvious that a president should prioritize the interests of his country. But when Mr. Trump arrived in Washington, too many politicians seemed to view America as one of the world’s problems. Barack Obama began his presidency with a series of overseas speeches in which he described American flaws. In 2016 he visited communist Cuba where he noted that the U.S. had once sought to “exert control” over the country. Many suffering Cubans wish that we’d succeeded.
Mr. Trump doesn’t apologize for America. When it comes to foreign relations, he thinks that in many ways the U.S. has been too nice. But he also brought the nicest news to the Middle East in decades, a series of historic peace agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In contrast with the expansive ambitions of the Bush era and the apologetic retreats of Obama days, Mr. Trump leads an America that is ready but not eager for war and that encourages former foes to engage in peaceful commerce.
The pursuit of commercial vitality at home has defined his presidency, as it defined his unconventional candidacy. “Is Donald Trump Serious?” asked a New York Times headline in September 2015. A columnist mocked him for seeking to sharply reduce the tax on corporate profits. The real mockery was the damage the levy inflicted. When combined with state and local taxes, the tax rate on corporate income amounted to nearly 40%, the highest in the industrialized world. U.S. companies were fleeing for business-friendly countries.
In 2017 Mr. Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which reduced the top federal corporate tax to 21% from 35%. The law triggered an increase in business investment and a surge of optimism among employers, which turned out well for employees. The Trump economy was characterized by historically low unemployment rates, massive job openings, and rising wages for low- and middle-income workers. The Covid pandemic and shutdowns wrought historic economic destruction, but it’s now being followed by a historic rebound.
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Posted in Big Business, Big Government, China, Congress, Conservatism, Cuba, Deep State, Democrats, Donald Trump, Economy, Election 2016, Election 2020, Foreign Policy, Free Trade, Globalists, Government Regulation, Israel, Judges, Legal Issues, Liberalism, Melania Trump, Middle East, National Defense, Nationalism, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Radical Islam, Radical Left, Taxation, Taxes, Trade Agreements | No Comments »
Sunday, November 1st, 2020
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Biden Contradiction
He’s running on Covid and character, but his policies are the most left-wing in decades.
The Editorial Board October 30, 2020
The Wall Street Journal hasn’t endorsed a presidential candidate since 1928—Hoover—and we aren’t about to change this year. But we do try to sum up the risks and promise of the candidates every four years, and we’ll start today with the contradictory candidacy of Joe Biden.
The former Vice President is running as a reassuring moderate, a man of good character who can reunite the country and crush Covid-19 after the disruptive Trump Presidency. Yet he also is running on the most left-wing policy program in decades.
Voters have little idea about these policies because Mr. Biden mentions them only in the most vague, general terms. The press barely reports them. Americans may think they’re voting for Joe’s persona, but they will get the platform of Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
In Mr. Biden’s sunny telling, he will be the anti-Donald Trump. He won’t kick down, won’t trash norms and won’t alienate allies. He’ll work with Republicans to forge bipartisan policies, restraining the passions of his party’s left. In that sense he has been the perfect Democratic nominee to appeal to women and suburban Republicans tired of polarized politics. He has run a disciplined campaign on character and Covid that has made the election a referendum on Mr. Trump.
We too would like to believe Mr. Biden could govern in a less divisive way because it would be better for the country. Left to his own instincts, and if he were a decade younger, he might pull it off. Every Republican who negotiated with the White House over a budget compromise in 2011 told us they made progress when Mr. Biden was in the room, only to have Barack Obama take it all back when he joined the talks.
But what evidence is there today that Mr. Biden will restrain his increasingly radical party? Across his long career he has been the consummate party man, floating right or left with the political tides. As a presidential candidate this year he has put no particular policy imprint on the Democratic Party—not one. The party has put its stamp on him.
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Posted in Abortion, Antifa, Big Government, Black Lives Matter, China, Congress, Corporate Cronyism, Corruption/Crime, Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Foreign Policy, Free Trade, Global Warming, Globalists, Green New Deal, Iran Nuclear Deal, Iraq - Surge, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Liberalism, Military, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Osama Bin Laden, Planned Parenthood, Political Correctness, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Ronald Reagan, Social Justice, Socialism, Taxation, Taxes, Terrorism, Transparency, Unions, USMCA, Violent Protestors | No Comments »
Thursday, October 29th, 2020
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Biden ‘Family Legacy’
What we learned from the text messages of Hunter’s partner Tony Bobulinski.
By Kimberley A. Strassel October 23, 2020
Joe Biden has a problem, and his name is Hunter. Because the former vice president hasn’t had to answer any questions on this topic—and continued to refuse to do so in Thursday’s debate—that problem could soon become America’s.
That’s the reality now that a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s has come forward to provide the ugly details of the “family brand.” Tony Bobulinski, a Navy veteran and institutional investor, has provided the Journal emails and text messages associated with his time as CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, a venture between the Bidens and CEFC China Energy, a Shanghai-based conglomerate. That correspondence corroborates and expands on emails recently published by the New York Post, which says they come from a Hunter laptop.
In a statement, Mr. Bobulinski said he went public because he wants to clear his name, which was contained in those published emails, and because accusations that the information is fake or “Russian disinformation” are “offensive.” He attests that all the correspondence he provided is genuine, including documents that suggest Hunter was cashing in on the Biden name and that Joe Biden was involved. Mr. Bobulinski says he was also alarmed by a September report from Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley that “connected some dots” on the CEFC deal, causing him now to believe the Bidens sold out their U.S. partners.
Mr. Bobulinski’s text messages show he was recruited for the project by James Gilliar, a Hunter associate. Mr. Gilliar explains in a December 2015 text that there will be a deal between the Chinese and “one of the most prominent families from the U.S.” A month later he introduces Rob Walker, also “a partner of Biden.” In March 2016, Mr. Gilliar tells Mr. Bobulinski the Chinese entity is CEFC, which is shaping up to be “the Goldmans of China.” Mr. Gilliar promises that same month to “develop” the terms of a deal “with hunter.” Note that in 2015-16, Joe Biden was still vice president.
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Posted in Big Business, Big Government, China, Corruption/Crime, Deep State, Democrats, Election 2020, FBI, Foreign Policy, Globalists, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Justice Department, Lobbyists, Political Corruption, Taxation, Taxes, Transparency | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2020
BOSTON HERALD
No, Joe, there was no economic boom under Obama
By Stephen Moore Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. October 17, 2020
The great Jackie Gleason once said, “The past remembers better than it lived.” And so it is, apparently, with the Obama years.
There was no economic “boom” as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are misremembering. This was an economy that skidded into a financial ditch and seemingly never pulled out of it and got back on the prosperity hot lanes until Donald Trump won the election in November 2016.
You can mark the real recovery — an economic inflection point almost the day after that surprise election outcome.
Every liberal forecaster and most academic economists had guaranteed America that, if Trump were elected, the stock market would crash; workers would be flattened; and, as New York Times economist Paul Krugman famously predicted, the economy would “never” recover.
Instead, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared by 257 points the morning after the election (that’s some crash), and it rose for the next three years, as it has again over the last several months. A few days after that election, small-business optimism surged by its most considerable amount ever measured, going back many decades. Family incomes surged to record-high levels in 2017, 2018 and 2019 as deregulation and tax cuts fueled a powerful engine. In three years, ordinary people had made more income gains than in eight years under the Obama-Biden administration.
But now we are being told a fairy tale that the Obama economy was booming and Biden miraculously fixed it and Trump “blew it.”
Here’s the reality check. Under Barack Obama, the economy barely grew 2% — rather pathetic for a “recovery.” The people who made the preposterous bullish claims that Obama saved the economy are the ones who now say the Biden economic plan will gain millions of jobs.
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Posted in Big Government, Democrats, Donald Trump, Economy, Election 2020, Joe Biden, Liberalism, National Debt, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Progressive Movement, Redistribution of Wealth, Socialism, Taxation, Taxes, Transparency | No Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2020
Please scroll down to find a sampling of the issues that are addressed in the website saveourburbs.com/
Please click on the link to view the entire information that the website provides
Who are we?
We are concerned members of your community; we are America’s Suburbia.
We put together this
SaveOurBurbs.com Website and its companion Handout to educate and form.
We hope that it is shared with friends, family and neighbors.
Voting for President Trump & Republicans ensures the best outcome for the issues that directly affect your family:
Posted in Big Government, Conservatism, Department of Education, Donald Trump, Economy, Education, Election 2020, GOP, Legal Issues, Liberalism, Medical/Drugs, Police/law enforcement, Political Correctness, Politics, Social Issues, Taxation, Taxes, Women's Issues | No Comments »
Sunday, October 4th, 2020
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS LIST:
GOVERNMENT ECONOMY NATIONAL SECURITY
Posted in Big Business, Big Government, Border Security, China, Conservatism, Democracy, Department of Education, Dept of Defense, Donald Trump, Economy, Education, Election 2020, Energy, Environmental Issues, Environmental Protection Agency-, Europe, Foreign Policy, Free Enterprise, Global Warming, Globalists, Government Regulation, Government Waste and Fraud, Illegal Immigration, Industry, Iran, Iran Nuclear Deal, ISIS Terror Group, Legal Issues, Marxism, Medical/Drugs, Middle East, Military, National Defense, Nationalism, NATO, North Korea, Nuclear Energy/Weapons, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Open Borders, Palestine, Patriotic, Police/law enforcement, Political Corruption, Radical Islam, Radical Left, Regulations, Religion, Religious Freedom, Russia, Sovereignty, Space Exploration, Taxation, Taxes, Terrorism, Trade Agreements, Transparency, U.N., Ukraine | No Comments »
Monday, July 27th, 2020
This is the powerful subject from yesterday’s Life, Liberty and Levin show of July 26, 2020. This needs to be one of top subjects during the election. Americans living in the suburbs need to be made aware of this threat of losing their local control over their suburbs. Please share with your email lists. Nancy
VIDEO TARGETING THE SUBURBS – Federal control over the suburbs MARK LEVIN AND STANLEY KURTZ – LIFE, LIBERTY AND LEVIN
Posted in Administrative State, Agenda 21, Big Government, Constitution, Democracy, Democrats, Demographics, Diversity, Donald Trump, Election 2020, Elitism, Globalists, Joe Biden, Legal Issues, Liberalism, Mark Levin, Multiculturalism, Nationalism, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Political Correctness, Political Corruption, Progressive Movement, Racism, Radical Left, Social Justice, Sovereignty, State Governments / Deficits, Taxation, Taxes, Transparency, Tyranny, Videos | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020
The Biden Tax Hike Would Be Severe
If the Democrats sweep in November, make sure your lawyer and financial advisers are standing by.
By Philip DeMuth Mr. DeMuth is author of “The Overtaxed Investor: Slash You Tax Bill and Be a Tax Alpha Dog”
July 14, 2020
Complain if you must, but we live in a Golden Age of Taxes—the lowest rates we may see for decades. President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered rates, widened brackets and simplified preparation. Gazing toward the heavens, one can almost see the smiling face of Ronald Reagan beaming down. Yet like all Golden Ages, this one will end, and we already know the date: Dec. 31, 2025. Barring a miracle, that is when the tax cuts expire and President Obama’s American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 becomes the law of the land once more.
To see what a good deal we have now, let’s look at the numbers. A married couple filing jointly shows $78,000 of ordinary income, their current marginal rate is 12%. When the Trump tax cuts expire, their marginal rate will more than double, to 25%.
If you receive $30,000 from Social Security and have $36,000 of other income, you will be taxed at a marginal rate of 46%, even while supposedly being in the 25% tax bracket (because of the nutty way Social Security is taxed). In some cases, your tax rate can go as high as 56%. More people will experience rising tax rates throughout retirement—first gradually, following the accelerated required minimum distributions from their retirement accounts, and then suddenly, when the first spouse dies and the survivor has to file as a single taxpayer.
The Trump tax reform doubled standard deductions, such that far fewer taxpayers still bother to itemize. It also protects estates, with an $11.58 million exclusion from taxes. People can plan to give money to whomever they want when they die, instead of playing accounting games to confound the taxman. These deductions and exemptions will be cut in half when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expires.
Remember the Alternative Minimum Tax, which made you do your taxes twice, under two completely different tax regimes, and then pay whichever was greater? That annual ritual has all but disappeared. Better sharpen your pencils, though, because it’s coming back in 2026 for seven million filers. Meantime, the qualified business income deduction, which lets eligible small-business owners deduct up to 20% of their income, is going away.
All this may seem a long way off. But if Joe Biden is elected and the Democrats take three more seats in the Senate, some of these changes could happen as soon as next year.
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Posted in Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2020, Inflation, IRS, Joe Biden, Liberalism, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Socialism, Taxation, Taxes, Transparency | No Comments »
Monday, March 16th, 2020
This is an incredibly shocking video of a talk that Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of openthebooks.com gave regarding waste, fraud, corruption and abuse in all levels of our government at a Hillsdale College event . He names all those that are involved in the abuse of our taxpayer money. This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue as the corruption is widely spread throughout our government. If this level of corruption is allowed to continue, our country will be greatly damaged. Please share with all your contacts. Nancy
VIDEO – CULTURE OF CORRUPTION IN THE DEPTH OF THE SWAMP
Adam Andrzejewski | The Depth of the Swamp
Posted in Administrative State, Bernie Sanders, Big Business, Big Government, California, Congress, Conservatism, Constitution, Corporate Cronyism, Corruption/Crime, Culture Rot, Deep State, Defense Budget, Democrats, Dept of Defense, Donald Trump, Economy, Election 2020, Elitism, Entitlements, GOP, Government Regulation, Government Waste and Fraud, Healthcare, IRS, Joe Biden, Liberalism, Lobbyists, Medical/Drugs, Military, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Pensions, Political Corruption, Politics, Social Security, Spending, State Department, State Governments / Deficits, Taxation, Taxes, Transparency, Videos, Wall Street | No Comments »
Monday, February 17th, 2020
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Incompetence Party
The Democrats’ biggest problem isn’t Bernie Sanders. It’s that many voters doubt the party’s ability to govern anymore.
By Daniel Henninger February 12, 2020
Now that Bernie Sanders—once an obscure socialist senator from Vermont—is officially the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, it is time to confront what that means.
It does not mean the U.S. is flirting with socialism. That’s not going to happen. The meaning of Bernie’s ascent is that the Democratic Party, older even than he is, has simply run out of gas.
The Democrats resemble Europe’s aging political parties—Britain’s Labour, France’s Socialists, Germany’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. All have simply deflated with voters.
Signs of public fatigue with the Democrats could be seen in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Besides incompetence, the big story out of Iowa was low turnout. In New Hampshire the story was voter indecision. Once past Bernie’s 25% cement-block base, many voters were flipping a coin in the voting booth to pick from the other candidates.
What does it mean that Elizabeth Warren, by now a household name, got dropped to fourth place? Joe Biden’s humiliating fifth is a personal disaster, but what does that say about the party itself?
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Posted in American History, Bernie Sanders, Big Government, Bloomberg, Congress, Corruption/Crime, Deep State, Democrats, Department of Education, Donald Trump, Election 2020, Elizabeth Warren, Government Regulation, Government Waste and Fraud, Identity Politics, Joe Biden, Liberalism, Medicare/Medicaid, Obamacare, Political Correctness, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Redistribution of Wealth, Regulations, Social Justice, Spending, Taxation, Taxes, Welfare, Women's Issues | No Comments »