Feds Collect Record 2015 Tax Haul: $19,346 Per Worker

by Michael Lotfi.       Gov't overspent by nearly $530 billion anyway. According to a monthly treasury statement, through the first eleven months of fiscal year 2015 (Oct. 1, 2014 – end of August), the United States federal government has collected a record-breaking haul in tax revenue. In total, the feds have collected over $2.8 trillion so far, which     ... MORE

FOX: 83% Think Government Spending Is Out Of Control

Seventeen percent are in denial.     More than eight in ten American voters (83 percent) think government spending is out of control, according to a Fox News poll released Friday.  That’s up from 78 percent who said so in 2010 and 62 percent in 2009.  Some 11 percent think spending is being managed carefully. The poll also finds almost all voters rate     ... MORE

Jerry Bowyer: Republican Cave Worse Than Fiscal Cliff

GOP jellyfish offer no protection for liberty.      The fiscal cliff debacle showed conclusively that the GOP establishment is a completely ineffective guardian of our liberties against President Obama and the Washington ruling class. Forget fantasies about reversing the growth of the state, let alone stopping such growth; Boehner’s boys can’t even  ... MORE

Tom McClusky: Fiscal Cliff Deal Penalizes Married Couples

Politicians vote incentive against marriage. When the “marriage penalty” first appeared in the tax code in 1969, most families had only one member working, and the tax provision was designed to give a tax cut to one-income families. Unfortunately, the tax failed to envision the growing number of women in the workforce. Today in most families,      ... MORE

Ralph R. Reiland: The Cliffs Of 1984

“Slavery Is Freedom” and “Tax Hikes Are Tax Relief.”  So we didn’t go over the fiscal cliff and instead got a deal that delivers no cuts in government spending, raises taxes on “the rich” (the definition of which consistently changes), expands the size and role of government, keeps the red ink flowing at record levels, and provides       ... MORE

Ira Stoll: A Tax Cuts Mystery

Evidence of out-of-control government spending. The chief of detectives shoved his hands into the pockets of his trenchcoat and tugged at the brim of his fedora. “We’ve got a murder on our hands, gentlemen.” Aw man, on New Year’s Eve? Who’s the stiff?” asked the sidekick character. (One thing about detective stories, starting  ... MORE

$1 In Spending Cuts For Every $41 In Tax Increases

Obama pushes GOP off fiscal cliff. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama cuts only $15 billion in spending while increasing tax revenues by $620 billion—a 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts. When Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W.  ... MORE

Ron Paul: "We Have Passed The Point Of No Return"

Skip to 5:45 of the video.      In a little under three minutes, Ron Paul explains to a somewhat nonplussed CNBC anchor just how ridiculous the charade that is occurring in D.C. actually is. This succinct spin-free clip should be required viewing for each and every asset-manager, talking-head, propagandist, and mom-and-pop who are viewing the last-minute    ... MORE

The Three Not So 'Wise Men Of Washington, D.C.

These politicians are cooking the books.    Washington politicians are scaremongering that if no deal is reached between President Obama and congressional Republicans, taxes will go up on all of us January 1, when Bush tax rates expire. Nonsense. Most people have their taxes withheld gradually during the year. The president has the       ... MORE

Who Will Defend Capitalism If Not The Capitalists?

Cowardly CEOs throw capitalism over fiscal cliff. The fiscal cliff is exposing some brassy hypocrisy on Wall Street. Eager to score points with the White House, one CEO after another is throwing capitalism over the edge. Remarks by leading captains of industry over the past few weeks have sounded alarmingly anti-market. Some of these         ... MORE

Obamas Cost America Far More Than Royals Cost Britain

Is it hate or envy toward the rich?   US taxpayers spent a staggering $1.4 Billion (yes, with a B) on the Obamas according to author Robert Keith Gray in his new book Presidential Perks Gone Royal! Compare that to only $57.8 million the Brits shelled out for their royals and you have to ask what is going on with President Obama. Now word comes that he and  ... MORE

Ross Kaminsky: Death By A Thousand Regulatory Cuts

Prepare for the worst.  The public debate over the “fiscal cliff,” the combination of automatic spending cuts and tax rate increases that our nation is about to careen into in 2013, started the same way Republicans always begin following an electoral setback: badly. John Boehner seemed to be negotiating with himself, and conservative pundit   ... MORE

Sheldon Richman: Romanticizing Taxation

The irresistible temptation to spend other people's money.    In the debate over avoiding the "fiscal cliff"—especially over whose taxes should and shouldn't be raised—I detect an annoying attempt to romanticize taxation. I read this as an act of desperation on the part of those who want higher taxes on the wealthy, for there is nothing romantic about   ... MORE

Defending The World, Bankrupting Ourselves

by Steve Chapman.     The argument for leaving 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014 is more or less reasonable on its face. The Kabul government is fragile; our gains might be reversed; the Afghan military is not ready to stand on its own. Here's the unreasonable, unavoidable part: If we don't leave then, we probably never will. The lesson of the past ... MORE

Thomas Sowell - Fiscal Cliff Notes - Part II

Anything to expand the size and scope of government. One of the big advantages that President Obama has, as he plays "chicken" with the Congressional Republicans along the "fiscal cliff," is that Obama is a master of the plausible lie, which will never be exposed by the mainstream media-- nor, apparently, by the Republicans. A key lie that      ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Fiscal Cliff Notes

Like a laser cutting through fog.     Amid all the political and media hoopla about the “fiscal cliff” crisis, there are a few facts that are worth noting. First of all, despite all the melodrama about raising taxes on “the rich,” even if that is done, it will scarcely make a dent in the government’s financial problems. Raising the tax rates on everybody in the    ... MORE

Katie Kieffer: Push The Fed Over The Cliff

Stop worrying about the ‘fiscal cliff.’    Spending cuts would feel therapeutic after watching Standard & Poor's and Egan-Jones downgrade our credit rating and seeing President Obama add $6 trillion to the national debt. The way to avert another recession and massive inflation is to eliminate the unconstitutional Federal Reserve. There are   ... MORE

Matt Welch: Means-Testing Everything But Government

Washington's phantom austerity.   Here's just how stubborn the growth of government is: Even after a Democratic president wins office by campaigning until Election Eve on a "net spending cut," even after he gives his first proposed budget the humblebragging title of "A New Era of Responsibility," even after both Barack Obama and Federal      ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Fiscal Cliff

Donald Lambro: Obama's War On Wealth

Higher taxes mean slower growth.    A big issue is missing in the debate over the “fiscal cliff”: how to get the Obama economy growing again, fueling capital investment, jobs and higher incomes. In all the fire and fury over whether we should raise or cut taxes, or how we can pound the deficits and a monster national debt into submission,       ... MORE