Tax Day Tea Party

Got this email forwarded to me today. I'll remind everyone when it gets closer to the 15th.

You can visit their website here.

Please Join us at a peaceful rally on Wednesday, April 15th from 4 to 6 PM.

The time for "typing and griping" has ended. It is time for each of us to take two hours of our time and make this rally as large as we can.

All YOU have to do is make your sign (please no vulgarities) and show up at Park Square.

Let's send a message that the taxpayers in Berkshire County support the national effort to stop our Washington politicians -- NOW.

Thanks

PS: this is the first time I will have demonstrated in my life! You can do it too. It doesn't matter which political party you support. If you pay taxes and want to stop the madness in Washington, you need to be there......

Please forward this to all your email contacts in Western Massachusetts and let's get a huge crowd to send a message to Boston & Washington on tax day 2009.

More socialism...

When asked if he'd like to replace more CEO's Geithner said of course.

Days after GM's CEO Rick Wagoner was forced out by the Obama administration, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner left open the possibility that such moves could happen again.

In an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, Geithner acknowledged the government has had to do "exceptional things" – citing AIG as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"We have changed management aboard," he said. "And where we've done that, we've done it because we thought that was necessary to make sure these institutions emerge stronger in the future."

When asked if he would leave open the option to pressure a bank CEO to resign, Geithner replied: "Of course."

It shouldn't be the governments responsibility to run banks. And definitely not their job to fire CEO's. This is socialism and plain and simple.

This will never pass

But this is exactly what the Republicans in the House should be doing.

Republicans in the House Wednesday pressed a budget plan that would cut taxes and radically overhaul Medicare, offering a stark alternative to blueprints offered by President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies.

The plan, drafted by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, also freezes overall spending on domestic programs passed by Congress each year and repeals most of the spending in Obama's recently passed economic stimulus bill.

Despite spending reductions, the plan projects permanent deficits exceeding $500 billion into the future, fueled largely by big tax cuts.

The GOP plan would offer a dramatically simplified tax code in which couples would have the option of a 10 percent rate on the first $100,000 of income, with a 25 percent rate thereafter, with the first $25,000 of income exempt from taxation. Single could get a $12,500 exemption and a 10 percent rate on income up to $50,000.

Taxpayers could also opt to remain in the current system.

On Medicare, workers under the age of 55 would enroll in private plans and receive premium subsidies equal to the average Medicare benefit when they retire. Benefits would not be changed for people in the program or people 55 or older.

Democrats warned that the GOP plan would force draconian cuts to the program.

The plan has no chance of becoming law, but offers voters a contrast between the rival parties. Republicans have been on the attack, saying Obama's $3.6 trillion budget for next year taxes, borrows and spends way too much. And Republicans have seemed sensitive to criticisms by Obama and Democrats that they are the "party of 'no,' " rushing out a detail-free version of the plan last week.

It is good for the voters to see and hear the difference between the Republican and Democratic plans. There hasn't been much a difference the last few years which is why the Republicans have lost the last few elections. This is why I say Conservatism wins. And this is what the American people need to hear.

Obama breaks another promise

I wouldn't expect anything less from Obama. I'm surprised people actually believed him when he told us he wouldn't raise taxes on anyone earning under $250,000/year. This is exactly what liberals do. They say one thing and govern another way. But you'll never hear this from the main stream media. They are too concerned with protecting their Messiah rather than reporting the news.

One of President Barack Obama's campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday.

The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama's promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.

This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.

To be sure, Obama's tax promises in last year's campaign were most often made in the context of income taxes. Not always.

"I can make a firm pledge," he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. "Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

He repeatedly vowed "you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime."

Now in office, Obama, who stopped smoking but has admitted he slips now and then, signed a law raising the tobacco tax nearly 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes, to $1.01. Other tobacco products saw similarly steep increases.

Instead of raising revenue like I'm sure he thinks this will do. This will actually decrease revenue to the government. People will find ways to get around paying the extra taxes by either buying them illegally or just stopping to smoke altogether.

6th Obama nominee with tax problems

Maybe this is why the liberals are always bitching about the rich not paying their fair share because they don't pay their taxes.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who testified before Congress on Tuesday on her nomination for Health secretary, has paid nearly $8,000 in back taxes after discovering "unintentional errors" in her tax returns. Sebelius is the second nominee for the Cabinet post; former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle previously withdrew from consideration due to tax issues.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that Sebelius had informed him in a letter the same day that "minor, unintentional errors" were discovered by an accountant reviewing her 2005, 2006 and 2007 returns. These errors were "immediately corrected through amended returns."

Baucus, whose committee has jurisdiction over Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and other health entitlement programs, did not reveal details of the letter. According to Bloomberg, the governor paid $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest for errors that included the absence of acknowledgment letters for three of the 49 charitable donations she made.

The letter was sent the same day Sebelius testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in her first confirmation hearing. She testifies in a second hearing on Thursday, before Baucus' panel.

The 60-year-old Sebelius was nominated by President Barack Obama early March, a month after Daschle pulled out for failing to pay $128,000 in taxes.

Like I've said before. Rules don't apply to the elite liberals. They want everyone else to pay a higher share of the taxes but they don't want to pay any themselves.

The people wanted change...this is what they wanted.

The US shouldn't let Iran develope nukes

At least if Obama doesn't do anything Israel will.

The primary imperative for the United States and President Barack Obama is to put an end to Iran's nuclear race, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said before his swearing-in Tuesday, adding that if the US failed to do so Israel might be forced to resort to a military strike on the Islamic Republic's nuclear installations.

"The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons," Netanyahu told The Atlantic. The Iranian drive for a nuclear weapon was a "hinge of history," he said, emphasizing that all of "Western civilization" was responsible for preventing an Iranian bomb.

"You don't want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs," Netanyahu said of the Iranian regime. "When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran."

Netanyahu suggested that Israeli preemptive strikes against perceived threats were the result of the Jewish people learning from a long history of grappling against those who threatened their collective existence. He cited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls to "wipe Israel off the map," as well as a recent remark by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to the effect that Israel was a "cancerous tumor."

At least Netanyahu gets it. He gets national security and security to the world. He won't let the terrorist nation states that are Hell bent on destroying the democracies of the world get nukes. Obama should get that too. But sadly I think he would rather talk to Iran and make idle threats. While Netanyahu will take action and destroy the nukes like we should be doing.

Close race in New York

After all the votes were counted in the special election last night in New York Democratic candidate Scott Murphy was leading Jim Tedisco by 65 votes.

After a frenzied, bruising special election, a New York congressional race that became linked to President Barack Obama's economic recovery efforts won't be decided for at least two more weeks.

Democrat Scott Murphy led Republican Jim Tedisco by a scant 65 votes out of more than 154,000 cast Tuesday.

After the count of machine votes in 610 voting precincts spread over the mostly rural, 10-county district, the unofficial count was 77,344 for Murphy to 77,279 for Tedisco. That puts the focus on the more than 10,000 absentee ballots mailed to voters who are registered in the district but were unable to vote in person on Tuesday.

It can be a laborious process to count all the paper ballots and those being mailed from overseas aren't due in New York until April 13. A lawsuit filed by state Republicans Tuesday night required all ballots to be impounded to ensure accuracy. It's not an unusual step in close elections.

Of the ballots mailed out, nearly 6,000 were returned by Tuesday but most had not yet been counted.

I would think most absentee ballots would lean conservative. So hopefully Tedisco can pull this one out after all of the absentee ballots are paid. Hopefully this doesn't turn into another Coleman v. Franken race that drags out for months.