July 5, 2012

 

From Susan Kniep President

The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc. 

Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com

Telephone: 860-841-8032

 

 

State Ends Year In The Red

by Christine Stuart, CTNewsJunkie.com

Just one year after the second largest tax increase in the state’s history, state Comptroller Kevin Lembo certified that the state will end the year with a $192.3 million deficit.

 

 

Connecticut's a pension basket case - Hartford Courant

 

Third Worst-Funded: If Connecticut were a company, it would be thinking of terminating its pension plan

 

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Attorney Finds Donovan Did Not Engage In Quid Pro Quo

by Christine Stuart | Jul 5, 2012 11:29am
Posted to: Congress | Election 2012

 

Watch the Press Conference  

http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/attorney_finds_donovan_did_not_engage_in_quid_pro_quo/

 

 

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IMF WARNS ON U.S. ECONOMY

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Boost the U.S. economy now and worry about cutting deficits later, the International Monetary Fund recommended Tuesday. The U.S. recovery remains "tepid" and according to the IMF, is expected to grow only 2% this year. Meanwhile, the fiscal cliff looms in 2013, threatening to reduce the economy's growth to only 1% next year. Meanwhile, the IMF predicts the job market will improve only at a snail's pace. It expects the unemployment rate to average 8.2% this year and 7.9% in 2013.   Continued at ….. http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/03/news/economy/imf-recovery/index.htm?iid=Lead

 

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Supreme Court leaks have D.C. buzzing: Who is the culprit?

 

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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!  Maybe You Keep Yours Under the Mattress, Buried in the Backyard, In Speculative Stocks, Secure Investments, or Have Found Other Innovative Places to Stash Your Cash like the Virgin Islands, or Investing in  Candidates for Public Office as the Supreme Court reaffirms Citizens United ruling - Boston.com.  Tracy Jan of the Boston Globe on June 26, 2012 reported that “The Supreme Court reversed a Montana ruling on Monday that blocked corporations from spending unlimited amounts of money to influence state and municipal elections there, disappointing Massachusetts officials and watchdog groups who fear the decision would lead to local corruption across the country. “Massachusetts was one of 22 states that supported Montana’s challenge to the court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, which unleashed independent political spending by corporations. “More than $158 million has been spent by super PACs and other independent groups on this year’s elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and analysts say $1 billion could be used — much of it from a few wealthy, and at times undisclosed, backers.”

 

And ,as the Atlantic Reported on July 3, 2012 in their article  Obama's Awkward Dance on Campaign Fundraising  ……

“The president is caught between his disdain for Citizens United and his need for cash, between populism and the importance of big donors…. “Last Friday, the president called some of his wealthiest 2008 donors and begged them to open their wallets. I'm asking you to meet or exceed what you did in 2008, Obama said, according to The Daily Beast, because we're going to have to deal with these super PACs in a serious way. “An Obama campaign official said the president routinely makes fundraising calls from Air Force One, but not how many or how often. “The phone was put in during Obama's term and is paid for by the campaign. “Officials with George W. Bush's White House remember a similar phone aboard the plane but weren't sure Bush used it. “In Bill Clinton's terms, which came under congressional and political scrutiny for awarding donors with overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom, no phone, officials said.’

 

 

And then there is The British Virgin Islands' Box 438: The Best-Connected, Tax ... -Friendliest Address in the World?  as reported by Rita Healy  of Vanity Fair on July 3 2012 where she notes “Box 438, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands. “The name conjures a sleepy mail drop. “It’s actually an office in a stuccoed building in Tortola’s banking district where agents assist companies hoping to incorporate or set up trusts in a tax-friendly jurisdiction. “Box 438 is just one of 100 such providers in the B.V.I., but it has a pedigree sure to stimulate conspiracy theorists.”   

 

 

And while voters are always looking for transparency from all candidates seeking public office on the local, state and federal levels of government, Nicholas Shaxson of Vanity Affair reported in his article captioned  Investigation: Mitt Romney’s Offshore Accounts, Tax Loopholes, and Mysterious I.R.A.  that “ it was Mitt’s father, George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns, in November 1967, just ahead of his presidential campaign, thereby setting a precedent that nearly every presidential candidate since has either willingly or unwillingly been subject to. “George, then the governor of Michigan, explained why he was releasing so many years’ worth, saying, “One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show.” 

 

And many Americans are very generous in their charitable gifts which makes the following article so very disturbing IRS forms show charity's money isn't going to disabled vets - CNN.com.

 

As the Tax Debate continues, Bloomberg News is reporting in their article Chesapeake's 1% Tax Rate Shows Cost of Drilling Subsidy ...that “Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) made $5.5 billion in pretax profits since its founding more than two decades ago. So far, the second-largest U.S. natural-gas producer has paid income taxes on almost none of it. “Chesapeake paid $53 million over its 23-year history, or about 1 percent of the cumulative pretax profits during that period, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s less than half of Chief Executive Officer Aubrey McClendon’s compensation, for example, in 2008 alone.”  Read more on this issue at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/cheaspeake-s-1-tax-rate-shows-cost-of-drilling-subsidy.html

 

 

Taxes, or the lack of them, are not the only factor affecting government budgets on a local, state and federal level.  Fines, Fees, and more are also factored in as ProPublic just reported on Big Pharma's Big Fines and the a $3 billion fine which drug company GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay, representing the largest health care fraud fine in the history of the United States as reported by the Department of Justice. “This fine is just the latest in a string of drug company penalties for improper promotion of drugs for “off-label,” or unapproved, uses.”  Click   http://www.propublica.org/special/big-pharmas-big-fines to read ProPublica’s report on “six recent multi-million dollar fines that drug companies have agreed to pay for inappropriately, and in some cases illegally, promoting prescription drugs”.

 

 

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States To Decide Fate of Uninsured Under Supreme Court Decision on Healthcare

 

From the Federation:    The Supreme Courts 5 to 4 decision in support of the  Affordable Care Act did not quell the national healthcare debate as the public remains equally divided and the two major political parties - polarized on the issue - continue their campaigns for voter support in November.  Republicans pledge to repeal the law.  Democrats pledge to work for its success.     

 

But that success - if measured by the number of uninsured Americans gaining access to healthcare - may ultimately be determined by individual states as the Supreme Court - in ruling the expansion of Medicaid to be unconstitutional - allowed the states to opt out of the expansion without penalty.  

 

This week it was reported that Florida is  Turning Down Millions in Federal Money, Rick Scott Will Not Expand Medicaid.

 

And other States may follow as recently noted by CBS news in their article captioned States opting out of Medicaid expansion could leave many uninsured    Therein, it is noted that “Currently, Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that provides health care to certain poor Americans, such as children and the elderly. “In 2014, President Obama's health care law would open up Medicaid to anyone with an income under 138 percent of the federal poverty line -- so long as their states have agreed to the new plan. “The expansion of Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office, was expected to make available health care coverage to 16 million new people. “That accounts for half of the 31 million expected to get coverage from the Affordable Care Act.”

 

With nearly 16 million Americans anticipated to be added to the Medicaid rolls by 2019, ProPublica has provided within their article captioned Which States Will Refuse Medicaid Expansion? an interactive map of how health reform could expand Medicaid in each state.  They anticipate that Connecticut will have an additional 114,083 New Enrollees.

 

In 2009, the following information was obtained by The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayers from the State of Connecticut’s Comptroller’s Office.  We have made at least three requests from the State to update this information and will make it available upon our receipt.  

 

 

CONNECTICUT STATE TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING OVER $5 BILLION FOR HEALTHCARE IN 2009.

 

 

 

Healthcare options for State employees and more….. http://www.osc.state.ct.us/empret/indxhlth.htm

 

 

Christine Stuart of CTNewsJunkie.com wrote on  July 2, 2012  that Health Care Advocates Take Complaint Directly To Feds.  Therein, she notes the following:  A coalition of 16 health care advocacy organizations aren’t going to wait for the two legislative committees to decide the fate of more than 77,000 low-income adults using the state’s Medicaid program. Instead, they’re petitioning the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services themselves to halt a implementation of the waiver that could potentially kick about 20,000 low-income adults out of the program. Letters went out on June 8 which warned those receiving the benefits that they may be kicked off if they don’t fit the new guidelines the state wants the federal government to approve. Advocates argue the state’s actions are premature, since the waiver has yet to be granted.  The Department of Social Services is seeking the waiver because the population receiving state assistance through the program was about 45,000 just two years ago and has increased to more than 77,000. It argues many of those receiving assistance through the program are between the ages of 19 and 26 years old who live at home with their parents. Continue  reading the article at http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/health_care_advocates_take_complaint_directly_to_feds/

 

Health care: What the Supreme Court's ruling means for US ... Consumers

 

By Mark Trumbull, Staff writer / June 29, 2012

 

The US Supreme Court ruling to uphold Obama's health-care reform law affects households across America. Millions without insurance are on track to get it. But costs are an unresolved issue.  Read complete article at

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2012/0629/Health-care-What-the-Supreme-Court-s-ruling-means-for-US-consumers

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Opinion: A Vast New Taxing Power

The Chief Justice's ObamaCare ruling is far from the check on Congress of right-left myth. 

Wall St Journal  July 2, 2012

 

Consider reading this article at the following web link:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303561504577496603068605864.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

 

The following are some EXCERPTS:  But if not a direct tax, then what kind of tax is it? It is not an indirect tax because it applies to a failure to purchase something, what the Chief Justice calls "an omission," not an optional transaction. It is not a tax on income because that merely hits "accessions to wealth," not what people choose or choose not to do with those accessions.

 

The result is that Chief Justice Roberts has created the only tax in U.S. history that exceeds its own constitutional limits and is meant to execute powers that the Court otherwise ruled were invalid. His discovery erases the limiting principle—apportionment—that constrains the taxing power for everything besides income and excises.

In the process, Chief Justice Roberts has hollowed out dual federal-state sovereignty and eviscerated the very limit on the Commerce Clause that he posits elsewhere in his opinion and that has some conservatives singing his praises. From now on, Congress can simply regulate interstate commerce by imposing "taxes" whenever someone does or does not do something contrary to its desires.

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Chief Justice Roberts's ruling is careless about these bedrock tax questions, and they are barely addressed by either the Court's liberal or conservative wings. His ruling, with its multiple contradictions and inconsistencies, reads as if it were written by someone affronted by the government's core constitutional claims but who wanted to uphold the law anyway to avoid political blowback and thus found a pretext for doing so in the taxing power.

If this understanding is correct, then Chief Justice Roberts behaved like a politician, which is more corrosive to the rule of law and the Court's legitimacy than any abuse it would have taken from a ruling that President Obama disliked. The irony is that the Chief Justice's cheering section is praising his political skills, not his reasoning. Judges are not supposed to invent political compromises.

 

"It is not our job," the Chief Justice writes, "to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices." But the Court's most important role is to protect liberty when the political branches exceed the Constitution's bounds, not to bless their excesses in the interests of political or personal expediency or both. On one of the most consequential cases he will ever hear, Chief Justice Roberts failed this most basic responsibility.

 

 

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