White House Releases Tax Returns of Obama, Biden - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

White House Releases Tax Returns of Obama, Biden - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com:

Total Obama income: $2.7 million
Federal Tax: $855,323 (31.7%)
Charity: $172,050 (6.4%)

It looks like the Obamas paid normal taxes for their income and the charity donations look 3 times the average (2.2%).

Total Biden income: $269,256
Federal Tax: $46,952 (17.4%)
State (Delware): $11,164 (4.1%)
Total tax: $58,116 (21.6%)
Charity: $1,885 (0.70%)

It looks like the Biden's tax was quite low and their charity was only one third of the average.

Ron Paul's plan to fend off pirates - Erika Lovley - POLITICO.com

Ron Paul's plan to fend off pirates - Erika Lovley - POLITICO.com: "A little-known congressional power could help the federal government keep the Somali pirates in check — and possibly do it for a discount price.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and a growing number of national security experts are calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe."

"IRS: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose" by Richard W. Rahn (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"IRS: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose" by Richard W. Rahn (Cato Institute: Commentary): "Capital gains come from sales of stocks and bonds, businesses, real estate, art objects and anything else of value. The IRS capital-gains tax scam consists of two parts. First, it does not just tax real gains, but also imaginary gains resulting solely from government-caused inflation. The second part of the scam involves severely restricting the deductibility of net losses.

Most investors in the stock market or in real estate suffered major losses during the past year and are hurting. Taxpayers are allowed to deduct their losses from their gains but are restricted in deducting their net losses against ordinary income to just $3,000 per year. Yet the government taxes people on 100 percent of their gains."

"Finally, the apologists claim the tax is paid only by the rich, which is another whopper. Anyone with a farm, small business or corporate stock - which includes most Americans - almost always pays capital gains taxes at some point. A person who has spent 30 years building a small business and sells it for $300,000 in order to retire is considered "rich" that year by the political left and the IRS."

"the only way the IRS can get tax revenue from commodity trades over the long run is by taxing the inflation component and limiting loss deductions - which are both fundamentally dishonest and unjust ways to tax. In addition, the tax on commodity trading is extremely costly to administer and prevents taxpayers from protecting themselves against the government-induced inflation."

"As Bernard Madoff found out, it is a crime to tell people they have imaginary income, yet the folks at the IRS tell millions of taxpayers each year that they also have imaginary income - and worse yet, force them to pay tax on this nonexistent income. Why is Madoff in jail but the folks at the IRS and Congress who devised a similar scam still running free?"

WORLD Magazine | Iowa court ruling | Cal Thomas | Apr 07, 09

WORLD Magazine | Iowa court ruling | Cal Thomas | Apr 07, 09: "If homosexual marriage is now one of two equally valid choices, will other options be available anytime soon? On HBO, a popular series called Big Loveportrays a Mormon polygamist and his three wives (he nearly took a fourth wife this season). I wonder why this never works with a woman having three husbands? But I digress, or do I? If this man lived in Iowa and wanted three wives, how could the Iowa Supreme Court stop him?"

"o those on the political and religious right who are intent on continuing the battle to preserve “traditional marriage” in a nation that is rapidly discarding its traditions, I would ask this question: What poses a greater threat to our remaining moral underpinnings? Is it two homosexuals living together, or is it the number of heterosexuals who are divorcing and the increasing number of children born to unmarried women, now at nearly 40 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?
Most of those who are disturbed about same-sex marriage are not as exercised about preserving heterosexual marriage. That’s because it doesn’t raise money and won’t get them on TV. Some preachers would rather demonize gays than oppose heterosexuals who violate their vows by divorcing, often causing harm to their children. That’s because so many in their congregations have been divorced and preaching against divorce might cause some to leave and take their contributions with them."

Obama Vows to Reform Tax Code to Reward Working Families - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

Obama Vows to Reform Tax Code to Reward Working Families - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com: "He noted April 15 'isn't exactly everyone's favorite date on the calendar.' But Obama said the day is a reminder to leaders in Washington that they have a responsibility to the people who elected them."

Too bad it doesn't remind them to not give taxpayer's money to bailout failing corporations.

Austrian Theory for Everyone - Wladimir Kraus - Mises Institute

Austrian Theory for Everyone - Wladimir Kraus - Mises Institute: "Woods points out that to blame 'the crisis on 'greed' is like blaming plane crashes on gravity' and that ''excessive risk-taking' simply begs the question.' It is almost self-evident that both 'greed' and 'excessive risk-taking' are extremely limited in their explanatory powers, for they cannot account for the weight of specific facts and institutional circumstances that determined the unique path the housing bubble travelled. Instead, Woods chooses a far more promising avenue by asking two crucial questions:

'What institutional factors gave rise to all the foolish lending and borrowing in the first place?'

'Why did banks have so much money available to lend in the mortgage market — so much indeed that they could throw it even at applicants who lacked jobs, income, down payment money, and good credit?'"

"It Didn't Start Here" by Alan Reynolds (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"It Didn't Start Here" by Alan Reynolds (Cato Institute: Commentary): "At the recent meeting of G-20 nations in London, officials from many nations agreed on one thing -- that the United States is to blame for the world recession."

"last year's recession was much deeper in many European and Asian countries than it was in the United States."

"The dollar value of US imports didn't start to fall until August 2008, and imports of consumer goods didn't fall until September -- many months after Japan and Europe fell into recession."

"There were no bank failures last year in Japan, Sweden, Canada or any other country on this list except Britain. And US and British banks didn't fail until September-October -- at least nine months after the Japanese and European recessions began."

"But Germany's GDP and industrial production was down 19.2 percent for the year ending in January -- versus an 11.4 percent decline in Britain and a similar US drop. Are we supposed to believe that German (and Japanese) firms are more dependent on US and UK banks than American and British firms?"

"US industrial production only started to decline from its peak after January 2008 -- long after production began to slow in Canada (July 2007), Italy (August 2007), France (October 2007) and the Euro area as a whole (November 2007). Aside from a one-month uptick in February 2008, Japan's industrial production peaked in October 2007."

"In 1983, economist James Hamilton of the University of California at San Diego showed that "all but one of the US recessions since World War Two have been preceded, typically with a lag of around three-fourths of a year, by a dramatic increase in the price of crude petroleum." The years 1946 to 2007 saw 10 dramatic spikes in the price of oil -- each of which was soon followed by recession."

Bailout Bonds? - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

Bailout Bonds? - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute: "Are you all for Obama's economic plans? Do you think that bailing out failing companies and throwing trillions into the national money pit is just the ticket for stimulating the economy back to recovery?

Then you might get the chance to put your money where your ideological convictions are. The Obama administration is cajoling investment companies to create bailout bonds. These would be similar to the bonds that wartime presidents created to find sucker-investors for their wars. Americans were browbeaten into buying them as a patriotic duty. So too those who say 'yes, we can' to the bailouts will be asked to do their patriotic duty, and buy the debt of loser companies."

Mexican Envoy Defends Claim That Most Guns in Mexico Come From U.S. - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com

Mexican Envoy Defends Claim That Most Guns in Mexico Come From U.S. - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com:

Sarukhan isn't the only one to cite this myth. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, California Sen. Diane Feinstein and Willliam Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have all said that 90 percent of weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the U.S.

But in fact, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

An ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com earlier this month in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director 'that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S.'"

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News earlier this month.

Sarukhan has claimed that Mexico seizes 2,000 guns a day from the United States, or 730,000 a year. But the official statistic from the Mexico attorney general's office says Mexico seized 29,000 weapons in all of 2007 and 2008.

FOXNews.com - Contractors Cash in on HUD Program, Not Poor - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

FOXNews.com - Contractors Cash in on HUD Program, Not Poor - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News:

A Los Angeles Times investigation found that the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Dollar Homes program has rarely achieved its stated intent to help struggling families put down roots.

The program was mandated by Congress in 1998 and has little oversight, the newspaper said.

A poorly run government program? Impossible!

Another reason for limited government and local control. Programs are smaller and have better oversight.

Want Out of TARP? Just Write a 'Dear John' Letter - FOXBusiness.com

Want Out of TARP? Just Write a 'Dear John' Letter - FOXBusiness.com:

Publicly and privately, industry officials have been expressing growing concern about Washington changing TARP terms, as Congress did last month on rules for executive compensation after the controversy over bonus payments at AIG. That creates uncertainty and disincentives for companies in TARP, they said.

“You have 535 backseat drivers,” the financial industry advisor said of Congress.

Scott Talbott, senior vice president for the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington trade group that represents 100 major financial firms, said, “The government has changed the terms after the fact.” That creates “counterparty risk” in working with the government, he said.

Why is this surprising?