New Taxes

Obama’s new budget is pretty impressive – especially the $1,000,000,000,000 in new taxes.

Yes, that’s trillion – not a typo.

Thank your new Tax and Spend president for your lost savings. Don’t think it will affect you? Ask your employer…

Individuals:

• $338 billion – Bush tax cuts expire
• $179 billlion – eliminate itemized deduction
• $118 billion – capital gains tax hike

Businesses:

• $17 billion – Reinstate Superfund taxes
• $24 billion – tax carried-interest as income
• $5 billion – codify “economic substance doctrine”
• $61 billion – repeal LIFO
• $210 billion – international enforcement, reform deferral, other tax reform
• $4 billion – information reporting for rental payments
• $5.3 billion – excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
• $3.4 billion – repeal expensing of tangible drilling costs
• $62 million – repeal deduction for tertiary injectants
• $49 million – repeal passive loss exception for working interests in oil and natural gas properties
• $13 billion – repeal manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies
• $1 billion – increase to 7 years geological and geophysical amortization period for independent producers
• $882 million – eliminate advanced earned income tax credit

Obama Delivers

Woohoo!!!! It’s time to celebrate!

Obama has delivered on the promise of “tax cuts”.

Yep, along with the new $789,000,000,000 spending bill, all of us hard working, tax-paying citizens will soon be able to enjoy a extra $13 per week.

Officials estimated it would mean about $13 a week more in people’s paychecks when withholding tables are adjusted in late spring. Critics say that’s unlikely to do much to boost consumption.

Oh my God – I have no idea where I’ll be able to spend this new windfall. I guess I could go to McDonald’s once a week, or buy two Starbucks coffees. Or, sadly, buy two shares of Bank of America stock.

Thanks Obama and Dems! When my children and grandchildren are paying the price for this ridiculous spending package, at least they can look back to the Golden Era of the $13 tax break.

On the bright side, only two more years of this crap…

I Don’t Find This Stimulating

More details of the “stimulus bill” proposed by Obama and House Democrats are being leaked to the public – and it’s not pretty.

There are some items in the bill that actually look pretty good, but they’re surrounded by pork. A LOT of pork. The Democrats just don’t get it. They’re looking at this huge spending bill as some type of free-for-all, and each of them have added their own little special interest spending items.

People, the is TAXPAYER money. Do you find that stimulating?

This $900,000,000,000 is a loan – A loan that your children and grandchildren will be paying back.

Where’s the job creation?

How will any of these sustain themselves once the initial funding has run dry?

Creating false jobs that only last for the duration of the government handout is not going to set our economy on the right course.

Some of the questionable items:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.
• $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.
• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.
• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).
• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.
• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s.
• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.
• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.
• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.
• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities.”
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.
• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.
• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings.
• $500 million for state and local fire stations.
• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.
• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs.
• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.
• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.
• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.
• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.
• $850 million for Amtrak.
• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.
• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.
• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.
• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.

You decide…