GRAB YOUR WALLET

We all know that we pay to much "total tax" each year. State Income tax, State property taxes (home, cars/trucks, boats,  camping trailers, etc.), State, County & City sales taxes, Federal income tax and perhaps more for some. Now with certain deductions going away everyone will pay more each year over the next three or four (ObamaCare taxes, penalties & fees) are creeping up fast. So if you read this blog on occasion but missed articles that are coming out because of the end of year getting closer, read below to find out what you may have missed.

Wow, thanks Fox Business:
Major Individual Income Tax Benefits Expiring 12/31/2011:
• Personal tax credits applied against income tax no longer apply
• Higher alternative minimum tax exemptions revert back to extraordinarily-low thresholds
• $250 school teacher expense deduction ends
• Mortgage insurance premium deduction expires
• State and local sales tax deductions expire
• Tuition and related fees deduction end
• IRA to charity tax-free transfers stop
• 2% Social Security tax reduction ends
Major Individual Income Tax Benefits Expiring 12/31/2012:
• Marriage penalty equalization ends
• Dividends taxed at capital gains rates removed, taxed at regular rates now
• Capital gains low tax rates expires
• Removal of itemized deduction phase out for higher income Americans
• Removal of personal exemption phase out for higher income Americans
• Child care deduction limit of $3,000 reverts to $2,400
• Child credit reduces from $1,000 per child to $500 per child
• Low 10% tax bracket for low income Americans is eliminated
• Lower income tax rates and smaller brackets expires
• Refundable adoption credit and reduced deduction
• American Opportunity college education credit expires
• Major reduction in earned income credits and refunds
• Income tax exemption for debt forgiven on home foreclosures and repossessions
• Deduction for student loan interest ends
• Education IRA limit drops from $2,000 to $500

Health Care and the courts

After reading about a "conservative appeals court" in Washington DC upholding the Affordable Health Care Reform Act or President Obama=care being constitutional I am now of the opinion that there is no thing as a "conservative" court in the US Justice system. Not only do we have a corrupt Attorney General of the United States, but courts have drifted to the left despite the appointments by both Republican and Democratic Presidents. If you look at the Supreme Court appointees by President George W Bush and their opinion on imminent domain we should all have recognized that right leaning, conservative, constitutionalists and other monikers means nothing.
Judge Laurence Silberman stated: "The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems." Sounds more like a talk show guest rather than a judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan (just an example of moving to left in the appeals court system). The problem with "national solutions" is that politics enter into the equation. When politics are involved we are all screwed. Many national solutions are created by the federal government and the congress of the United States.
A lower court's ruling found Congress did not overstep its authority in requiring people to have insurance or pay a penalty on their taxes, beginning in 2014. In the desenting opinion Judge Brett Kavanaugh stated the court had no right to review a portion of the law that is not in effect until 2014. Once the portion of the law is in effect then the court can way in.
Taxes without representation: if a divided congress passes a tax law or change does that mean the we were all represented? Or not? As it is today the phrases of the American revolt against England are just a phrase that we pass over in reading a history book. Don't Tread on Me is just a phrase. Government has imprinted semi-truck tire tread tracks on our backs and with the current people running for president nothing will change no matter who is president!

Consumer Price Index & SS & Medicare

     Let me start with the statement from the article:

"Many economists argue that the chained CPI is more accurate because it assumes that as prices increase, consumers switch to lower cost alternatives, reducing the amount of inflation they experience."
For a bunch of educated people they sure are stupid! Things that it takes for people to live and have a basic quality of life are not "lower cost alternatives". Gasoline we pay what the stations charge and there are not "lower cost alternatives". Natural Gas & heating oil we pay what the rate is for the area we live in charges there are no "lower cost alternatives". Electricity is a controlled monopoly that we pay what is charged with no "lower cost alternatives". If I buy store brands of foods, household items I usually can't find a lower priced item, I am already at the "lower cost alternatives". If i had a home and refinanced it at the under 5% mortgage rates, I am already at the "lower cost alternatives". Medical care just keeps rising and there are no other "lower cost alternatives". Same for Rx there are no "lower cost alternatives", unless you are a guy named Dr Ezekiel Emanuel who would probably just let us die after age 70, because we are a burden to society and should not consume so much natural & man made resources.

     These educated idiots have stated "For example, if the price of beef increases while the price of pork does not, people will buy more pork. Here again is the stupidity! People who do not like pork and those whose religion prohibit the eating of said meat WON'T DUMBAS*ES. As you educated idiots know the price of beef and pork and poultry are all determined by the price and  AMOUNT OF ETHANOL produced in this country, not solely on supply & demand. Many of the income disadvantaged are already wearing sweaters and have the thermostat set at 68 or lower with no "lower cost alternatives." 

"If adopted across the government, fewer people would be eligible for many anti-poverty programs because the poverty level also would increase at a lower rate each year. That would result in fewer people living below the official poverty line, despite having the same income" (no they won't have the same income because they will loose to inflation and things like "Quantitative Easing") Does that statement seem odd to anyone (anyone who reads this)? "At a lower rate each year", that speaks volumes about the true feelings and lack of concern by Washington Politicians serving in the Congress.

     In educated circles where economists get around a table for lunch, this all makes such common sense to them. But it is just that lack of common sense which makes all this wrong. Since this would be the 3rd recalculation of the measure of inflation in the last 40 years no wonder the gape between the rich (>$1 million per year) and the remaining population is ever growing.