From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer
Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
TAX TALK
AUGUST 16, 2010
Citizens for
Change
http://www.cfc.us/
hartfordteaparty415@gmail.com
Constitution
Ride Across America
http://www.craa2010.com/index2.html
Global Economic
Trend Analysis
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
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Money is God August 6, 2010 Editorial by Keith Burris of The
Journal Inquirer Newspaper of
Manchester, and
reprinted by the Middletown
Press. Mr. Burris can be reached at 860-646-0500
So Meg Whitman has spent $99 million running for governor of
California
and it’s not even Labor Day yet. In Connecticut
Linda McMahon has spent $22 million running for U.S. senator so far, and, if she
wins the primary, probably will spend another 20 mil. McMahon has outspent her
main GOP opponent, Rob Simmons, by roughly 7 to 1, and her prospective
Democratic opponent, Dick Blumenthal, 5 to 1.
Meanwhile, Chelsea Clinton’s wedding cost ... $5 million? (Three million for
the party and two mil of your tax dollars at work for
protecting Bill, Hillary, and various foreign potentates.) And John
Kerry has a yacht worth $7 million, on which he has neglected to pay his taxes.
The numbers alone are mind-blowing. The indecency of them is mind-blowing. The
distance of the American ruling class from those struggling to make house and
car payments, or to find gainful employment, is stunning. Continued at ….
http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2010/08/07/opinion/doc4c5cccd90cb5f951910888.txt
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Trivial Pursuit
,Wall St Journal, August 12, 2010, In erroneously crediting Obama for TARP, voters show an appreciation for the big
picture. By JAMES TARANTO, So how's the Democrats' blame-Bush
campaign going? Worse than anyone could have imagined, to judge by this finding
from the Pew Research Center: In numerous polls, the public has voiced
their displeasure at the much maligned bank bailout, but most don't know which
president signed the controversial act into law. Only a third of Americans
(34%) correctly say the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was enacted by the
Bush administration. Nearly half (47%) incorrectly believe TARP was passed
under President Obama. Another 19% admit they do not
know which president signed the bank bailout into law. Notably, there is no
partisan divide on the question. Just 36% of Republicans, 35% of independents
and 34% of Democrats know that the government bailout of banks and financial
institutions was signed into law by former President Bush. And Democrats (46%)
are just as likely as Republicans (50%) to say TARP was passed under Obama. Continued
…..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704407804575425291563205442.html
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Are the Bush Tax Cuts Paid
For? In
the middle of a national debate about the Bush tax cuts that are set to expire
at the end of the year, and what it would cost to make them
permanent, NBC’s David Gregory set out to determine whether
extending the cuts would add to the deficit. On Meet the Press Sunday, Gregory
got right to the issue with House Minority Leader John Boehner. After showing a
clip in which former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan argued the U.S. couldn’t afford to extend the tax cuts,
Gregory pressed Boehner, who showed off what one might call the Washington
two-step—avoiding the question five times: http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/08/09/are-the-bush-tax-cuts-paid-for.html
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The stunning decline of Barack Obama: 10 key reasons why
the Obama presidency is in meltdown http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100050412/the-stunning-decline-of-barack-obama-10-key-reasons-why-the-obama-presidency-is-in-meltdown/
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Grim Voter Mood Turns Grimmer
- Pessimism Rises on Economy and War;
Bad Reviews for Both Democrats and GOP By PETER WALLSTEN And ELIZA GRAY Wall St Journal Aug 11, 2010
Americans are growing more pessimistic about the economy and the war in
Afghanistan, and are losing faith that Democrats have better solutions than
Republicans, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575423674269169684.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
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Rich Would Still Get Tax Cuts Even If Bush Tax Cuts Expire
08-11-10
Taxpayers with income of more than $1 million for 2011 would still receive on
average a tax cut of about $6,300 compared with what they would have paid under
rates in effect until 2001, according to the analysis, which was prepared by
the Joint Committee on Taxation at the request of the Democratic majority on
the House Ways and Means Committee. Read the whole story: THE NEW YORK TIMES
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The Bush Tax Cuts and Fiscal
Responsibility, Aug 12, 2010, NYTimes,
By SIMON JOHNSON
AND JAMES KWAK
During this hot summer of fitful economic growth, high unemployment and an oil
slick visible from space, Washington is obsessed with … deficits. The
resurgence of this periodic fascination is not entirely surprising, given our
historically large current deficits. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the 2010 deficit
will come in at $1.3 trillion, almost 10 percent of our gross domestic product
and, along with the deficit of 2009, the highest level since World War II. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/the-bush-tax-cuts-and-fiscal-responsibility/
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Study Looks at Tax Cut Lapse
for Rich By JACKIE CALMES
NYTimes,
August 10, 2010 WASHINGTON — As debate heats up over President
Obama’s proposal to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthy but
to extend them for everyone else, a nonpartisan Congressional analysis circulated
on Capitol Hill on Tuesday provides a look at the impact the plan would have on
high-income taxpayers. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/us/politics/11tax.html?_r=1
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Economists Cut U.S. Growth Forecasts as Firms Limit Hiring
A lack of jobs will shackle consumer spending and
restrain the U.S.
recovery more than previously estimated, according to economists polled by
Bloomberg News. Gross domestic product will expand at an average 2.55 percent
annual rate in the last six months of 2010, according to the median of 67
estimates in a survey taken July 31 to Aug. 9, down from the 2.8 percent pace
projected last month. Household purchases will climb at a 2.25 percent rate,
compared with a 2.6 percent gain previously forecast. “Simply put, job growth in the private sector
hasn’t improved as we would’ve expected,” said John Silvia, chief
economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North
Carolina. “The consumer continues to contribute to
growth but at a subpar pace.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/economists-cut-u-s-growth-forecasts-as-companies-limit-hiring.html
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New York
Jumps Ahead of Feds With Law Holding Mortgage Companies Accountable on Mods by Paul Kiel ProPublica, Aug. 10, 2010,
New York regulators have crafted new laws to give the state authority to punish
mortgage servicers -- something the Treasury
Department, in administering its
struggling mortgage modification program [1],
has so far failed to do. The new rules set clear standards for how servicers must handle homeowners seeking a modification. http://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-jumps-ahead-of-feds-with-law-holding-mortgage-companies-accountabl
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Better infrastructure, more
schooling trump subsidies in luring businesses, UMass
prof’s study concludes By Don Michak, Journal Inquirer, August 14, 2010
Thompson’s study, “Prioritizing Approaches to
Economic Development in New England: Skills, Infrastructure, and Tax Incentives,” is available
online at the institute’s website: www.peri.umass.edu
….. state
policymakers are increasingly turning to corporate tax breaks to attract
businesses and public subsidies for employers who pledge to hire Connecticut workers. But
he says the evidence suggests that such subsidies — which he said cost Connecticut $556 million
just in fiscal 2009 — often are ineffective and in some cases lead to net job
losses.
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Rell asks CSU to reduce raises for chancellor and top
officials By Robert
A. Frahm , CTMirror.com, July 23,
2010 Gov. M. Jodi
Rell asked Connecticut State University officials Friday to reduce
pay raises granted this month to top managers, calling the raises "excessive" and "intolerable"
in light of the state’s fiscal crisis. She also said she will order a study of
the possible elimination of the central office of the 36,500-student system. The
governor took the action a day after the Mirror disclosed that raises, some as large as 10
percent, had been granted to non-union managers, including high-ranking
officials such as Chancellor David G. Carter and the presidents of CSU's four campuses. Continued at …. http://www.ctmirror.org/story/6944/rell-asks-csu-rescind-raises
The following articles can be
found in Tax Talk August 10, 2010
Ø
Blumenthal Finds Improper Use Of Bysiewicz
Office Database; Probe Concludes With Report, Referral To Chief Prosecutor
Ø
Bysiewicz's Campaign-Funded
Parties Raise QuestionsThe University of Connecticut
will terminate its lease on the private home where President Michael Hogan
lived after spending nearly $500,000 in state money to upgrade and maintain the
Gurleyville Road house.
Ø
Citizens: Follow the money.
Ø
CSU reduces salaries for chancellor, campus presidents
Ø
Real Race To The Top Requires New Focus
Ø
Sunset in America:
an unpaved, unlit road to nowhere
Ø
Freddie Mac reports loss, seeks another $1.8 billion in
taxpayer bailout
Ø
Read: Regulators' Deepwater Drilling
Document Is "at War With Itself"
Ø
Despite Extra Help, Weakest Bailed-Out Bank Is Still Among
the Worst
Ø
Fed expected to downgrade US growth outlook
Ø
Senate’s Costs for Foreign Travel May Set Record
Ø
Arianna Huffington: Third World America:
Chronicling the Assault on America's Middle Class...and the Solutions
Ø
Hartford Council Approves
Purchase Of 'Butt Ugly' Building
Ø
Jobs Report Brings More Bad News for the Unemployed
Ø
PATCHWORK NATION
Ø
Problematic contract lurks in intelligence nominee's past