This article will provide some insight to The State of the Union address. President Obama is correct. The country needs tax reform, but, there is no room to cut taxes. The Middle Class is the economy in the USA and needs a benevolent measure of taxes, not the primary taxpayer that compromises their children's future without the hope of an education. That is the reality of the current Middle Class. The focus on strengthening the Middle Class is not politics. They need better wages.
June 18, 2015
By Neil Irwin
Here are three facts (click here) that are a useful starting point for understanding the tax proposal that President Obama will pitch in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, about which the White House released details Saturday.
June 18, 2015
By Neil Irwin
Here are three facts (click here) that are a useful starting point for understanding the tax proposal that President Obama will pitch in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, about which the White House released details Saturday.
1.
The proposal would increase the capital gains tax rate both by raising
the rate and by making it harder for families to avoid the tax entirely
by passing on assets in an inheritance.
2.
A central organizing philosophy of the Republican Party over the last
generation has been that keeping the capital gains tax and other taxes
on investment as low as possible is a key to unlocking rapid economic
growth.
3. The Republican Party will control both houses of Congress for the remainder of Mr. Obama’s presidency.
It
takes no masterstroke of political prognostication to conclude that
this proposal is very unlikely to make its way back to Mr. Obama’s desk.
But in some ways, that fact makes the president’s game here that much
more interesting....
I suppose Grover Norquist instead of Miss Piggy, should be giving the reply to the President's State of the Union address.
..."What (click here) we have already begun doing at our committee level is putting together opportunities to talk about a portfolio of funding sources."...
I am worried about the power brokers in the USA. They are finding more and more devious methods to effect the outcomes of average citizens. They are causing hardship they should never have the power to cause. There is political overreach because of vast vault of monies within their reach. They can buy and sell their influence with ease.
What really astounded me was the leverage there can be within our states to attempt to create an illusion of a wayward President. It is an illusion, nothing more. The Republicans have nothing else and they will stop at nothing to bring about suspicion of President Obama. It is not right and now there are approaches to power I have never seen before. The idea Hispanics are carrying such a burden in their lives because the Republicans are fearful for their power within the electorate.
I am concerned for the future of the USA because it's right wing politics have become so intractable. The rhetoric is a danger to the country. The dialogue is all wrong. The Paris attacks were not in the USA. It was an ally, not us. Europe is a very short distance from Syria. The Mediterranean Sea shares a border with Syria. Europe is far more susceptible to home grown terrorists than the USA.
There is also the right wing propaganda wagon. Fareed Zakaria spent a good amount of his Sunday hour dispelling the lies of Hannity.
January 17, 2015
By Randy Krehbiel
Of all the things Americans (click here) are likely to die of, terrorism is pretty far down the list, CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria said Friday.
“The chances of an American dying from an international terrorist attack are lower than the chances you will drown in your bathtub,” Zakaria told a group of high school students prior to a Tulsa Town Hall lecture at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.
At least folks will have an idea of why the President is asking for the changes in the USA tax structure.
One other thing. All this war mongering and idea the USA can simply send in the troops or what is the expression? Oh, yeah, can send in boots on the ground is completely nonsense. To begin we are still in Afghanistan.
January 19, 2015
The pilot who met Britney Spears (click here) at Alcoholics Anonymous and helped her recover from a very public breakdown has been killed by a Taliban missile in Afghanistan.
John Sundahl, 44, was working as a private pilot for visiting dignitaries in Afghanistan when a missile struck his helicopter near Kabul last week.
Sundahl met Spears in 2007 and the pair briefly dated. After splitting, they remained friends and reportedly rekindled their romance briefly last year....
There is also the sequestration. Preparedness is down. That can't be good. I think the military needs to be given freedom to restructure their priorities. The sequestration was arbitrary, but, the USA has to replace jets and not with F-35 Strike Fighters. They have to be replaced with reliable aircraft.
May 6, 2015
By Claudette Roulo, American Forces Press Service
...Airmen have performed spectacularly (click here) well over a period that included numerous routine deployments and contingency responses, Welsh said.
“I believe they've earned every penny they've made,” the general added. But per-capita costs for Airmen have grown more than 40 percent since 2000, he noted.
“Last year, our readiness levels reached an all-time low,” Welsh said. “As we struggle to recover, we don't have enough units ready to respond immediately to a major contingency, and we're not always able to provide fully mission-ready units to meet our combatant commanders' routine rotational requirements.”
The Air Force’s modernization forecasts also are bleak, the general said. About 20 percent of its aircraft flying today were built in the 1950s and 1960s, he noted, and more than half of the rest are 25 years old or older.
“And now, due to sequestration, we've cut about 50 percent of our currently planned modernization programs,” Welsh said.
The fiscal situation has forced the Air Force into some very difficult decisions, the general said, particularly in the area of pay and compensation reform....
So, the idea the USA military can simply set up a No Fly Zone in a moment's notice isn't exactly realistic. The USA military needs to look at what is important and what works and what is adequate to protect the USA plus room for error or better said, room for the unexpected.
I hope the President once again addresses the cost of college. It isn't as though most American students have stock dividends to rely on.
Ann Romney in 1994: (click here) When Mitt Romney was running for Senate in 1994, his wife gave a candid interview with Jack Thomas of The Boston Globe, published October 20, 1994. She told Thomas that after their Hawaii honeymoon, Mitt transferred to Brigham Young University. Back then, she still thought of that time as tough. But she wasn't as good at describing it, suggesting that it was rough living off stock options:
January 16, 2015
By John Bacon
A deadly "flash freeze" (click here) swept through much of the Northeast on Sunday, causing crashes that killed at least five people and forcing flight delays and closure of all bridges linking Philadelphia and New Jersey.
Parts of the Northwest suffered a similar fate: Twelve people were injured in a massive wreck involving more than a dozen tractor-trailers on icy Interstate 84 near Baker City, Ore.
But the most pervasive problems were in the East. In Connecticut, Hartford's Bradley International Airport closed temporarily due to ice on the runways. Morning flight delays averaged almost an hour at Philadelphia International Airport; John F. Kennedy International delays were almost 40 minutes.
A crash involving 30 to 50 vehicles on Interstate 76 outside Philadelphia killed one person, and two others died in a crash involving multiple vehicles on nearby Interstate 476, police said. In northeastern Pennsylvania, a man was killed after his car overturned on an icy road and he was thrown from it and hit by a commercial vehicle. In Connecticut, police cited slippery conditions in a crash that killed an 88-year-old woman who struck a utility pole in New Haven....
So, with all the problems facing the USA, both domestically and internationally, the political lies continue. The power playing is unbelievable. And this is the USA. It doesn't look like it to me anymore.
Oh, yeah. And I almost forgot, Europe has to worry about the war between Russia and Ukraine, too.
I suppose Grover Norquist instead of Miss Piggy, should be giving the reply to the President's State of the Union address.
"What
we've also already begun doing at our committee level is putting
together opportunities to talk about a porfolio of funding sources. The
fact of the matter is the gas tax and relying upon the gas tax is going
to be a dwindling source of revenue"
The value of the gas tax has been eaten away by inflation and by decreases in gasoline use caused by more fuel efficient and electric vehicles. Davis says successful efforts to pass a farm bill and a water resources development act last year have given lawmakers a road map on how to approach a deal on transportation. - See more at: http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2015/01/05527_davis_transportationWEB_083701.shtml#sthash.S90gZDr0.dpuf
The USA's reality is changing. It is significant. It's income from taxes in fuel such as gasoline or items such as cigarettes is becoming less and less with each passing year. The value of the gas tax has been eaten away by inflation and by decreases in gasoline use caused by more fuel efficient and electric vehicles. Davis says successful efforts to pass a farm bill and a water resources development act last year have given lawmakers a road map on how to approach a deal on transportation. - See more at: http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2015/01/05527_davis_transportationWEB_083701.shtml#sthash.S90gZDr0.dpuf
I am worried about the power brokers in the USA. They are finding more and more devious methods to effect the outcomes of average citizens. They are causing hardship they should never have the power to cause. There is political overreach because of vast vault of monies within their reach. They can buy and sell their influence with ease.
What really astounded me was the leverage there can be within our states to attempt to create an illusion of a wayward President. It is an illusion, nothing more. The Republicans have nothing else and they will stop at nothing to bring about suspicion of President Obama. It is not right and now there are approaches to power I have never seen before. The idea Hispanics are carrying such a burden in their lives because the Republicans are fearful for their power within the electorate.
I am concerned for the future of the USA because it's right wing politics have become so intractable. The rhetoric is a danger to the country. The dialogue is all wrong. The Paris attacks were not in the USA. It was an ally, not us. Europe is a very short distance from Syria. The Mediterranean Sea shares a border with Syria. Europe is far more susceptible to home grown terrorists than the USA.
There is also the right wing propaganda wagon. Fareed Zakaria spent a good amount of his Sunday hour dispelling the lies of Hannity.
January 17, 2015
By Randy Krehbiel
Of all the things Americans (click here) are likely to die of, terrorism is pretty far down the list, CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria said Friday.
“The chances of an American dying from an international terrorist attack are lower than the chances you will drown in your bathtub,” Zakaria told a group of high school students prior to a Tulsa Town Hall lecture at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.
“The
number of people who die from terrorism in the United States this year
is probably under 25,” he said. “The number who will die because of guns
is 30,000. The number who will die because of fatalities on highways is
40,000.”
Zakaria’s point, also made during his Town Hall lecture, was that reactions to terrorism largely determine whether it continues....
This is an article that will challenge thinking. It is accurate for as much as it is, there are also other factors in spending that benefit the average citizen but it's as tangible as the teachers in the classroom or the traffic light at the dangerous corner. There are government employees and independent contractors that receive government spending which ultimately effect the average American. The National Parks are open because we spend money on the treasures of our country. That sort of thing.
This is an article that will challenge thinking. It is accurate for as much as it is, there are also other factors in spending that benefit the average citizen but it's as tangible as the teachers in the classroom or the traffic light at the dangerous corner. There are government employees and independent contractors that receive government spending which ultimately effect the average American. The National Parks are open because we spend money on the treasures of our country. That sort of thing.
"What
we've also already begun doing at our committee level is putting
together opportunities to talk about a porfolio of funding sources. The
fact of the matter is the gas tax and relying upon the gas tax is going
to be a dwindling source of revenue"
The value of the gas tax has been eaten away by inflation and by decreases in gasoline use caused by more fuel efficient and electric vehicles. Davis says successful efforts to pass a farm bill and a water resources development act last year have given lawmakers a road map on how to approach a deal on transportation. - See more at: http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2015/01/05527_davis_transportationWEB_083701.shtml#sthash.S90gZDr0.dpuf
...Governments (click here) at all levels throughout the United States impose taxes in
order to finance spending programs intended to benefit their citizens. A
common question posed about these fiscal policies is how their costs
and benefits are distributed across different subgroups of the
population, most notably by income group. In other words, how much do
people pay in taxes versus how much do they receive in government
spending?...The value of the gas tax has been eaten away by inflation and by decreases in gasoline use caused by more fuel efficient and electric vehicles. Davis says successful efforts to pass a farm bill and a water resources development act last year have given lawmakers a road map on how to approach a deal on transportation. - See more at: http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2015/01/05527_davis_transportationWEB_083701.shtml#sthash.S90gZDr0.dpuf
At least folks will have an idea of why the President is asking for the changes in the USA tax structure.
One other thing. All this war mongering and idea the USA can simply send in the troops or what is the expression? Oh, yeah, can send in boots on the ground is completely nonsense. To begin we are still in Afghanistan.
January 19, 2015
The pilot who met Britney Spears (click here) at Alcoholics Anonymous and helped her recover from a very public breakdown has been killed by a Taliban missile in Afghanistan.
John Sundahl, 44, was working as a private pilot for visiting dignitaries in Afghanistan when a missile struck his helicopter near Kabul last week.
Sundahl met Spears in 2007 and the pair briefly dated. After splitting, they remained friends and reportedly rekindled their romance briefly last year....
There is also the sequestration. Preparedness is down. That can't be good. I think the military needs to be given freedom to restructure their priorities. The sequestration was arbitrary, but, the USA has to replace jets and not with F-35 Strike Fighters. They have to be replaced with reliable aircraft.
May 6, 2015
By Claudette Roulo, American Forces Press Service
...Airmen have performed spectacularly (click here) well over a period that included numerous routine deployments and contingency responses, Welsh said.
“I believe they've earned every penny they've made,” the general added. But per-capita costs for Airmen have grown more than 40 percent since 2000, he noted.
“Last year, our readiness levels reached an all-time low,” Welsh said. “As we struggle to recover, we don't have enough units ready to respond immediately to a major contingency, and we're not always able to provide fully mission-ready units to meet our combatant commanders' routine rotational requirements.”
The Air Force’s modernization forecasts also are bleak, the general said. About 20 percent of its aircraft flying today were built in the 1950s and 1960s, he noted, and more than half of the rest are 25 years old or older.
“And now, due to sequestration, we've cut about 50 percent of our currently planned modernization programs,” Welsh said.
The fiscal situation has forced the Air Force into some very difficult decisions, the general said, particularly in the area of pay and compensation reform....
So, the idea the USA military can simply set up a No Fly Zone in a moment's notice isn't exactly realistic. The USA military needs to look at what is important and what works and what is adequate to protect the USA plus room for error or better said, room for the unexpected.
I hope the President once again addresses the cost of college. It isn't as though most American students have stock dividends to rely on.
Ann Romney in 1994: (click here) When Mitt Romney was running for Senate in 1994, his wife gave a candid interview with Jack Thomas of The Boston Globe, published October 20, 1994. She told Thomas that after their Hawaii honeymoon, Mitt transferred to Brigham Young University. Back then, she still thought of that time as tough. But she wasn't as good at describing it, suggesting that it was rough living off stock options:
"They were not easy years. You have to understand, I was raised in a lovely neighborhood, as was Mitt, and at BYU, we moved into a $62-a-month basement apartment with a cement floor and lived there two years as students with no income... Neither one of us had a job, because Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time."And I have yet to hear the words Climate Crisis spoken by any Republican. The video to this article is brutal. The cars slid under a tractor trailer.
January 16, 2015
By John Bacon
A deadly "flash freeze" (click here) swept through much of the Northeast on Sunday, causing crashes that killed at least five people and forcing flight delays and closure of all bridges linking Philadelphia and New Jersey.
Parts of the Northwest suffered a similar fate: Twelve people were injured in a massive wreck involving more than a dozen tractor-trailers on icy Interstate 84 near Baker City, Ore.
But the most pervasive problems were in the East. In Connecticut, Hartford's Bradley International Airport closed temporarily due to ice on the runways. Morning flight delays averaged almost an hour at Philadelphia International Airport; John F. Kennedy International delays were almost 40 minutes.
A crash involving 30 to 50 vehicles on Interstate 76 outside Philadelphia killed one person, and two others died in a crash involving multiple vehicles on nearby Interstate 476, police said. In northeastern Pennsylvania, a man was killed after his car overturned on an icy road and he was thrown from it and hit by a commercial vehicle. In Connecticut, police cited slippery conditions in a crash that killed an 88-year-old woman who struck a utility pole in New Haven....
So, with all the problems facing the USA, both domestically and internationally, the political lies continue. The power playing is unbelievable. And this is the USA. It doesn't look like it to me anymore.
Oh, yeah. And I almost forgot, Europe has to worry about the war between Russia and Ukraine, too.
"What
we've also already begun doing at our committee level is putting
together opportunities to talk about a porfolio of funding sources. The
fact of the matter is the gas tax and relying upon the gas tax is going
to be a dwindling source of revenue"
The value of the gas tax has been eaten away by inflation and by decreases in gasoline use caused by more fuel efficient and electric vehicles. Davis says successful efforts to pass a farm bill and a water resources development act last year have given lawmakers a road map on how to approach a deal on transportation. - See more at: http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2015/01/05527_davis_transportationWEB_083701.shtml#sthash.S90gZDr0.dpuf
The value of the gas tax has been eaten away by inflation and by decreases in gasoline use caused by more fuel efficient and electric vehicles. Davis says successful efforts to pass a farm bill and a water resources development act last year have given lawmakers a road map on how to approach a deal on transportation. - See more at: http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2015/01/05527_davis_transportationWEB_083701.shtml#sthash.S90gZDr0.dpuf
