April 18, 2011 · 9:03 pm

Half of households pay no income taxes, super rich see taxes fall | The Raw Story

More interesting information for Tax Day:

The Internal Revenue Service and the Tax Policy Center in Washington have some statistics that will likely make last-minute filers extra-irate today: The super-rich are paying less in income tax than they used to, and nearly half of all U.S. households don’t pay any income taxes at all.

The IRS tracks the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes, and how much they pay in income taxes, each year, reports the Associated Press. In 2007, the last available year for IRS data, the average income in that set was around $345 million, and they paid about 17 percent in federal income taxes. In 1992, the average income tax rate for the same set was 26 percent.

Think tank Tax Policy Center also has data that show that about 45 percent of households receive so many tax breaks that they won’t pay federal income tax at all for 2010. The tax code contains $1.1 trillion in credits, deductions and exemptions, around $8,000 per taxpayer.

“It’s the fact that we are using the tax code both to collect revenue, which is its primary purpose, and to deliver these spending benefits that we run into the situation where so many people are paying no taxes,” Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, told the AP.

via Half of households pay no income taxes, super rich see taxes fall | The Raw Story.

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April 18, 2011 · 12:28 am

Simpson Says Tax Increases are Necessary

And a little more on taxes…

At a panel discussion in Denver on reducing the nation’s debt, former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY) said tax increases were needed to help balance the budget, according to the Colorado Statesman.

Said Simpson: “We’ve never had a war with no tax to support it, including the Revolution. People are told in Congress if they raise taxes by a nickel, they’ll be strung up by their heels in the town square.”

Simpson also recounted how he confronted anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and they exchanged words over the legacy of Ronald Reagan, claimed by both as their personal hero. When Reagan was president, he raised taxes 11 times, Simpson said, a bit of history that made Norquist squirm.

via Simpson Says Tax Increases are Necessary.

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April 18, 2011 · 12:26 am

Taxes reach historic low

Something to ponder at Tax Time….

From the Orange County Register:

For the past two years, a family of four earning the median income has paid less in federal income taxes than at any time since at least 1955, according to the Tax Policy Center. All federal, state and local taxes combined are a lower percentage of per-capita income than at any time since the 1960s, according to the Tax Foundation. The highest income-tax bracket is its lowest since 1992. At 35 percent, it’s well below the 50 percent mark of much of the 1980s and the 70 percent bracket of the 1970

via Taxes reach historic low – News – The Orange County Register.

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April 17, 2011 · 8:36 pm

Chapter 53: By the Time I Get To Phoenix | My Southern Gothic Life

New Post up on my other blog:

I just don’t get Phoenix, Arizona.  There is something about this place that just isn’t natural.

I think the main reasons I don’t get it are that I’m both Southern and from the East Coast.  It’s just too different.  It doesn’t seem natural…

You will never convince me that nature meant for 4 million people to live in the middle of a desert so they could play golf all year. In no way, does that make any sense to me.

To me, the only people who seem to live in Phoenix are people with enough money to pay for a lot of air conditioning and pools or people too poor to leave.

No matter how hard they try, there is no cultural life here.  It’s all about golf and sports.  In a place where it gets to be 120 degrees in the summer, that’s just not sane…to be out playing sports in that kind of weather.  And I hate to think how much money it costs to keep all these golf courses green in the middle of a desert….

Like I said, it’s just not natural….

MORE:    Chapter 53: By the Time I Get To Phoenix | My Southern Gothic Life.

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April 17, 2011 · 5:40 pm

Legionnaires’ Disease Bug Found in Playboy Mansion Hot Tub After 123 Fall Ill

God knows, what else they found there….

Oh, and this is considered “world news” about the USA in the UK.

At least The Guardian thinks so…..

Health inspectors have found a possible source of illness among guests at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion in Los Angeles: bacteria in the hot tub.

More than a 100 people fell ill after the fundraising party in February, reporting pneumonia and flu-like symptoms. Officials contacted 439 people who attended the event and found 123 had fallen sick with symptoms including fever, headache, cough, shortness of breath and aches. Sixty-nine people fell sick on the day of the party. Three tested positive for H1N1 flu.

The Los Angeles health department took samples from the water in the hot tub and identified the legionella bacterium which can cause the potentially fatal legionnaires’ disease.

via Legionnaires’ bug found in Playboy mansion hot tub after 123 fall ill | World news | The Guardian.

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April 16, 2011 · 9:47 pm

Big Mike Explains the Deficit…And How to Fix It

And he does it much more clearly than the traditional media or anyone in Washington does…

This is definitely worth watching.

It’s amazing how clear he makes things in only three minutes:

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April 16, 2011 · 10:50 am

Public Policy Polling: Trump takes the lead

The GOP Primary is going to be so much fun to watch!

This is going to be better than a three ring circus…

I’ve never seen such a bunch of ignoramuses, panderers  and publicity whores in one place.  Non of these people are really serious candidates….

President Obama can laugh all the way to his second inauguration…

He’s definitely the only grown up in the room with this crowd…

Only 38% of Republican primary voters say they’re willing to support a candidate for President next year who firmly rejects the birther theory and those folks want Mitt Romney to be their nominee for President next year. With the other 62% of Republicans- 23% of whom say they are only willing to vote for a birther and 39% of whom are not sure- Donald Trump is cleaning up. And as a result Trump’s ridden the controversy about Barack Obama’s place of birth to the highest level of support we’ve found for anyone in our national GOP polling so far in 2011.

Trump’s broken the perpetual gridlock we’ve found at the top of the Republican field, getting 26% to 17% for Mike Huckabee, 15% for Romney, 11% for Newt Gingrich, 8% for Sarah Palin, 5% for Ron Paul, and 4% for Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty.

Among that 23% only willing to vote for a birther Trump is cleaning up even more, getting 37% to 13% for Huckabee and Palin, and 10% for Romney and Gingrich. He’s a lot weaker with the 38% who say they’re perfectly happy to vote for someone who’s dismissed the birther theory- with them Romney leads at 23%, with Huckabee at 18%, Trump at 17%, Gingrich at 10%, and Palin at only 7%.

I’m still pretty skeptical that Trump’s going to run but if he doesn’t someone who taps into the same sort of hard, hard right sentiment he’s appealing to right now will get their votes- it’s hard to imagine these folks voting for a more centrist candidate like Romney or Pawlenty. And that means there’s a very serious contingent within the Republican Party that’s less concerned with beating Barack Obama than having a nominee who gets them fired up. That suggests many GOP voters have not learned the lessons of Nevada and Delaware and that Obama may survive despite his weak approval numbers because the Republicans end up defeating themselves.

via Public Policy Polling: Trump takes the lead.

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April 16, 2011 · 10:43 am

GOP Budget Plan Very Unpopular

The Republican War on Medicare just might be their Waterloo….

A new Democracy Corps poll finds the Republican deficit reduction plan gets only 48% support, “but when voters learn almost anything about it, they turn sharply and intensely against it.”

Key findings: “When the budget is described — using as much of Paul Ryan’s description as possible — support collapses to 36% with just 19% strongly supporting the plan. The facts in the budget lose people almost immediately — dropping 12 points. Putting the spotlight on this budget is damning. A large majority of 56% oppose it, 42% strongly. The impact is much stronger with seniors where support erodes from 48% to just 32%, with 57% opposed. Support with independents drops from 55% to 43%.”

via GOP Budget Plan Very Unpopular.

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April 15, 2011 · 11:24 pm

If You’re Looking For A Little Diversity On Television, Try HGTV: NPR

Very interesting story that I heard on NPR on Wednesday.

You can click through the link below to another link to hear the whole story…

Neda Ulaby reports on Wednesday’s Morning Edition that there’s a surprising channel where you can see Latino, Asian, or African-American people, as well as gays and lesbians, in significantly larger numbers than in much of the rest of broadcast and cable television.

That channel is HGTV — from Home And Garden Television — which features people of color as hosts and homeowners, as well as designers and retailers. Neda considers an episode of House Hunters, for instance, that featured a black couple where one was a tech consultant and one was a government nuclear inspector. The president of HGTV makes clear that the diversity of participants — not only the homeowners, but the design professionals and other consultants — is entirely intentional, and has resulted in an overall increase in its audience and an even bigger increase in its minority audiences.

via If You’re Looking For A Little Diversity On Television, Try HGTV : Monkey See : NPR.

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April 15, 2011 · 10:50 pm

BBC News – Postal Service in Statue of Liberty stamp photo mix-up

What the hell???

Don’t they get it?

They are honoring a casino version instead of the real thing….

What has happened to the sense of perspective?

The US Postal Service regrets issuing a stamp featuring a photo of a Las Vegas casino’s replica Statue of Liberty rather than the original in New York harbour, a spokesman has said.

But the postal service printed three billion of the first-class stamps and will continue to sell them, he said.

And the agency would have selected the photograph anyway, he said.

via BBC News – Postal Service in Statue of Liberty stamp photo mix-up.

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