Big screen jumbotron, NBC sports announcers, Goodyear blimp all secretly brought in for a little league game. Pretty cool experience for the kids. Nobody but the league commissioner knew this was going to happen.
http://improveverywhere.com/2008/04/07/best-game-ever/
13 Democrats withheld support for the health insurance reform until they were assured that no abortions would be paid for with taxpayer money. To appease these concerns, the president signed an executive order prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortions. Throughout the process the president called skeptics and doubters of these assurances demagogues and fear mongers. Yet, as many suspected, there was a high probability that abortions would be covered all along:
“The Pennsylvania Insurance Department announced at the end of June that the federal government had approved $160 million to set up a high-risk insurance plan for thousands of Pennsylvania residents with pre-existing conditions. Though the announcement made no reference to abortion and the policy itself says "elective abortions" are not covered, the National Right to Life Committee claimed it would cover abortions in almost every circumstance.
"What their plan actually does is say if it's legal, it's covered," said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. "Abortion ends up being covered if it's not explicitly excluded."
Where are you Stupak? Calling Senator Nelson. Are you prepared to speak up now that you have been double crossed. If this PA situation isn’t rectified immediately the American people will see that you sold out the country for an empty promise.
This issue transcends abortion. This issue shows that laws have been passed on false pretenses. That our president is willing to stab members of his own party in the back. That he is perfectly content to demonize his opponents with legitimate concerns.
Abortion is not popular. Tax-payer funded abortion is despised, as many who personally do not object to abortion understand that forcing everyone to pay for them is wrong. I wonder what the reaction will be when people realize they were lied to about such an unpopular issue?
Barack Obama 9/9/9 to joint session of Congress: “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.”
I hope he meant it.
I think people will be disturbed when they come to see Eric Holder’s blatant racial bias. Our justice department is not supposed to be partisan or racist.
Eric Holder’s withdrawal of convictions against the New Black Panthers who intimidated voters in the 2008 election is an affront to justice and to the civil rights leaders that fought for equal rights. Martin Luther King’s dream was not a nation where armed black militants stood by the voting booths intimidating whites. It wasn’t right when blacks were intimidated in the past, but the solution is not to turn the tables. People who are aware of what Eric Holder and his Justice Department are doing on this case are disgusted. An Attorney within the DOJ has resigned in protest. Here is a video of the crime. The video also includes the gentleman’s call for racial genocide. Nice guy. Glad to know the Justice Department is protecting him.
Now there is talk of a Federal investigation into the shooting of Oscar Grant. Yesterday a BART police officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting. He will spend years in jail as a result of being convicted by a jury of his peers, but that evidently is not enough. I am waiting to see what happens here. If Holder attacks this officer with another charge, then I believe it is a racially based prosecution. The state criminal justice system has functioned properly. From my perspective, we should not second guess our law enforcement officers. The video in this case to me demonstrates that the officer was not enraged or out of control. The calm manner in which he discharged his weapon makes me believe he made a serious mistake about the weapon in his hand. While my opinion is irrelevant, the officer was judged by a jury and found to have been guilty of manslaughter. We don’t need the Fed’s to come in an deliver justice. This isn’t Mississippi in 1965. The officer wasn’t acquitted by a rigged jury. It was a close case even though it was documented on video. The jury verdict should stand and the Fed’s should stay out of it.
Soon, the pattern will become clear. Eric Holder is not about equal application of the law to all people. I am starting to fear that “social justice” is a code word for something other than equality for all.
Joe Wilson is right. Barack Obama lied.
I saw on RedState a diary from Veronica, who blogged about a report done by Americans For Tax Reform who culled the governments “List of Expiring Federal Tax Provisions 2009-2020”. These taxes will hit my family hard. Read the list of taxes that Barack Obama is going to let expire. I see no wiggle room for him to parse his words. These taxes will kill our economic recovery.
“In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:
First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:
Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:
- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%
Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.
The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.
Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.
Second Wave: Obamacare
There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:
The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).
The “Special Needs Kids Tax” This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education.
The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.
Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes
When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. The major items include:
The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.
Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”
Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.
Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.
Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there
